Beneath the Poet’s House by Christa Carmen is a psychological thriller that had me feeling nervous at times and really creeped out. But those feelings were all due to the authors great writing ability. The story starts out with Saoirse White, a novelist who has recently lost her husband and is living in a huge sterile home that is of her husbands choosing and is nothing like she would have chosen if she had had any say. But her husband was a very controlling man and everything had to go his way. Under her sisters gentle persuasion, she packs up and moves to Providence, Rhode Island where she rents a historic home once owned by Sarah Helen Whitman, a poet who at one time was involved with Edgar Allan Poe. There she soon meets 3 very odd individuals while they are holding a seance in her basement. The 4 of them soon become the best of friends. She also meets Emmit Powell, another author, and that’s where the psychological part of the story comes into play. This was a story that had me feeling nervous like I was on the edge of my seat just waiting to see how it was going to play out. The way the author wrote the scenes made them seem so realistic as if I was right there feeling the terror and experiencing everything Saoirse went through. I loved that the story included connecting with the afterlife, and how she could still hear input from her dead husband. The spiritual side of the story was fun and interesting but it was the crazy side involving Emmit that took center stage. This was a really good story and I’d like to thank NetGalley for the arc that I obtained off the Read Now section. It’s a book I’d recommend to all readers of psychological thrillers and I’m rating this story with 4 stars.

This one is full of gothic vibe as a woman tries to make a new start in a house once owned by poet Sarah Helen Whitman.

It has seances, Edgar Allen Poe references, a main character with a secret, and a newly adopted black cat.

It’s creepy, twisty, has academia, and the action kept my heart racing.

There was a lot going on in this book, and while a lot was happening it also felt like nothing was happening. I didn't connect with the characters. The writing was beautiful, but I don't think this book was for me and that's okay. I will still be looking at other books by this author.

3.5 stars

This was an interesting slow burn gothic thriller. Major haunted house vibes, supernatural elements, buried secrets. I wish I had read this during Halloween, it would be a great atmospheric read for that season. It was interesting learning more about Edgar Allan Poe & Sarah Whitman. The last 25% of the story was pretty fast paced.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me this book in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this gothic thriller. I did not know much about Edgar Allen Poe so I liked the ways the reader was introduced to his and Sarah’s history. The house and the parallels to the past gave great eerie vibes and I loved Saoirse internal monologue throughout. I enjoyed the friendships she made with other writers and the seances were interesting. I liked the direction the plot took and it had just enough suspense to keep me guessing and really engaged.

Thank you @christaqua @otrpr @amazonpublishing for the gifted copy.

Beneath the Poet’s House by Christa Carmen is a haunting and atmospheric novel that blends elements of literary fiction with mystery and psychological depth. Set in a remote, crumbling house once inhabited by a famous poet, the story follows a young woman, Mae, who is drawn to the house after the poet’s death. She uncovers not only the poet’s secrets but also strange, almost supernatural occurrences that seem to echo the dark past of the house and its former occupants.

The novel is full of lush, evocative descriptions, and Carmen has a talent for creating an immersive, almost eerie atmosphere. The house itself feels like a character, with its creaky floors, hidden rooms, and secrets buried in its foundation. The sense of isolation adds a layer of tension as Mae begins to uncover strange connections between the poet’s work, his life, and the people who lived there before her.

Mae’s journey is just as much about uncovering the mysteries of the house as it is about her own personal journey. She’s a character with depth and emotional complexity, and I really appreciated the way Carmen developed her. The blend of psychological tension and mysterious happenings kept me on edge, and the book never felt predictable. The slow reveal of secrets—both about the poet and about Mae’s own past—was expertly done, and I found myself constantly questioning what was real and what was imagined.

The pacing is deliberate, which works well for the eerie and atmospheric tone the book sets. It’s not a fast-paced thriller but rather a slow-burning mystery that builds in intensity as more is revealed about the poet’s life, the house’s history, and Mae’s own emotional landscape. The tension between what Mae wants to believe and what she begins to uncover kept me turning pages, even as I wondered whether Mae was being drawn into something beyond her control.

What I appreciated most about Beneath the Poet’s House was its blending of genres. It’s part literary fiction, part psychological thriller, and part ghost story. It explores themes of memory, identity, obsession, and the power of art, all while maintaining an air of mystery and suspense.

In conclusion, Beneath the Poet’s House is a beautifully written, atmospheric novel that fans of psychological thrillers and literary fiction alike will enjoy. It’s a slow burn with richly developed characters and a deeply eerie setting that will stay with you long after you finish it. If you love books that explore the darker corners of the human psyche, this one is definitely worth picking up.

This one had a little bit of everything for me. The beginning/middle was a blend of slow-burn gothic horror and historical fiction. The last 25% was an edge of your seat thriller where things took a QUICK, sinister turn. As unpredictable as it was unsettling, this was a work of art. With the way the story began, I would have never been able to see it ending the way it did. Major haunted house vibes with a main character on the brink of madness and supporting characters who are just as unhinged as she is. SOOOOOO GOOD.

An interesting gothic mystery with some comedic twists and romance. The recently widowed and grieving Saoirse moves into a historic house connected to the late poet Sophie White (Edgar Allan Poe’s fiancé). She discovers a cult of poets in her basement conducting a séance, which develops into some odd friendships. Saoirse finds her mind increasingly enraptured by poetry and she also meets a mysterious man, who may not be what he seems. Overall, a okay slow-burn mystery, crowded by excessive introspection and a lack of suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for this advanced readers copy. Opinions are my own.

3.5 Stars — As a Poe fan, I couldn't resist the premise of BENEATH THE POET'S HOUSE. After her husband dies, Saoirse, a struggling writer, moves to Providence and into the former home of poet Sarah Helen Whitman, who was once the fiancée of Edgar Allan Poe. Saoirse begins a passionate affair with an unusual author who has a mad obsession with Poe and Whitman's relationship.

There's not much else I can say about the plot without risking spoilers. A lot is going on here — supernatural elements, transcendentalism, buried secrets from the past — it often feels like a fever dream. I enjoyed the gothic atmosphere and the nods to Poe and his life.

Two things I struggled with were the slow, drawn out pacing and bland characters. I wasn't as invested in them as I'd hoped. There was something missing that kept me from really loving the book, though the ending was both exciting and fitting. It did make me interested in learning more about Sarah Helen Whitman and her beliefs.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a digital copy of this book. Opinions are my own.

Christa Carmen is grabbing hold of the gothic genre and creating a style all her own. She's quickly becoming such a gifted new england gothic writer that future writers will hold a seance under her house, summoning her soul for inspiration. It's clear she loves New England and Providence lore — if you drink from one of her novels, you'll always come back. I think what fascinates me most, beyond the main character's journey (who doesn't love a dark novel about a writer?) is the level of research it took to write this work. It clearly was a work of passion, and that love shows on the page.

After the death of her husband Saorise White moves to Providence, Rhode Island, for a fresh start. Once an author she’s been suffering from writers block, and she believes it from her grief. She rents the historic home of Sarah Helen Whitman — a 19th-century spiritualist, essayist, poet, transcendentalist, and former fiancée of Edgar Allan Poe. Upon her arrival, Saoirse discovers a a small group in her basement summoning Whitmans spirit asking for her help with their own writing problems. She soon becomes friends with them. While around town she keeps seeing this handsome man, when she meets him after accusing him of stalking, he’s introduces himself as Emmet Powell, a globally acclaimed author and professor at Brown University. They start a romance finally seeing some brightness in the all darkness . Inspired for the first time in as long as she can remember, she begins to write again, to feel like herself, that is until she can’t seem to shake the feeling that the house is hiding secrets. The past and present begin to blur, and she wonders is she unraveling, or is someone deliberately trying to harm her? Beneath the Poet’s House spins a gripping, suspenseful and mysterious story that mixes Poes darkness into now!

Saoirse White, still reeling from the loss of her husband 10 months prior, moves to Providence RIto start over. She moves into the historic home of Sarah Helen Whitman, a poet with ties to Edgar Allan Poe. She immediately meets a motley group of three people trying to commune with Whitman’s ghost in her basement. Upon getting settled in Providence, Saoirse meets Emmit, an award-winning novelist and they begin a whirlwind romance. Is Emmit too good to be true? Will Saoirse’s secrets catch up with her?

This book was barely a three star read for me. It only got raised to that because of the last 40 pages or so of the book. Saoirse ignored tons of red flags with Emmit so I wasn’t really rooting for them or her, honestly.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for access to this title.

Christa Carmen's prose shines as she pulls us into the heavy atmosphere of a woman who would just like to be left alone. Tons of goodies in this for Poe fans and rich gothic elements abound!

Listen, I love Edgar Allan Poe as much as the next guy, but let Beneath the Poet’s House by Christa Carmen be a lesson to you: dating a man unhealthily obsessed with E.A.P. is not just a red flag, but a deep, dark crimson billboard the size of Rhode Island. Or, Providence, Rhode Island, at least, which is where the story in this gothic thriller drops us after cozy mystery novelist Saoirse White moves there to escape bad memories back home in New Jersey following the shocking, sudden death of her husband.

Unfortunately her new rental’s historic connection to nineteenth-century poet Sarah Helen Whitman (who broke off her own real-life engagement to Poe after their brief, passionate affair flamed out) leads to ever more (or should I say ‘nevermore,’ ha ha ha) complications in her life: trippy séances, home invasions, diabetic cats, blowhard literature f*ckbois . . . the usual New England nonsense.

This is a weird book. From the subject matter to the tone and pacing, everything about it is a little . . . off, shall we say. A little odd, a little eerie. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing — a lot of the time the nagging feeling I got that I couldn’t quite see the whole picture Carmen was setting up, that something was lurking just out frame, helped to heighten the more unnerving elements of the story. Then again, it also muddled the hell out of this already painfully slow, slow-burn.

What consistently cuts through the noise is Carmen’s talent for visual imagery, especially when turning something seemingly normal into something far creepier. Long branches become clawed, reaching fingers, and cemetery headstones pop up through fog like fangs. Bulbous black flies follow Saoirse wherever she goes, crawling up her neck or flitting across her sweaty hairline, a creative manifestation of her abusive late husband’s hold on her. At points she “wants to stitch up her lips with a darning needle and heavy thread” to avoid confessing to something, or feels like she’s coming apart during a stressful moment, “unravel[ing] arteries and ventricles, severed like thread against teeth.”

Her gory, gothic visuals aren’t the only things that captured me, though — she’s an ace at setting a scene in general. Beneath the Poet’s House has an Ivy League campus novel vibe thanks to being set so close to Brown, Saoirse’s old stomping grounds. There are scenes in the stacks of the school’s grand, historic library, The Providence Athenaeum; strolls to cozy coffee houses; and sprawling gardens swathed in the warm, golden palette of early fall. You really have a sense of what these characters are seeing and experiencing on a day-to-day basis.

And speaking of characters, that’s where this book lost me. Coupled with the aforementioned pacing and tone issues, Saoirse and her quirky new Providence friends, as well as her English professor fling, Emmit Powell, never come across as even remotely grounded. Each of them can be summed up with two-word descriptors/archetypes — the Broken Woman, the Wise Hard-Ass, the Bubbly BFF, the Tortured Genius, the Gay Sidekick, etc. — and oftentimes their unrealistic dialogue jarred me out of a scene. I mean, not even the most emo literature snob I know speaks the way Emmit and Saoirse do with each other. Not even the most fictional, emo literature snob I know. Perhaps that was a purposeful, stylistic choice to represent Emmit and Saoirse’s old-timey connections to Edgar Allan Poe and Sarah Helen Whitman? I don’t know. Regardless, it didn’t work for me.

(Example: “Why do we write? To push past death. Why do we live? To push past death. I just want you to open up to me. To talk to me more deeply than—” Oh shut the f*ck up, Emmit. Please.)

Those issues are exacerbated by a slow, slow start after a promising, menacing opening scene at a funeral. The plot meanders for a good, long while after that in various directions, none of which seem to point to how this book ended up labeled as a ‘thriller’ — is it about a haunting? A stalker from Saoirse’s past? A nefarious group of cell phone-hating transcendentalists? It’s almost as if the author can’t decide which direction to take, so she skates around any real answer rather than committing to one. Until the last third, of course, when things get wild out of f*cking nowhere. So much so that I kept waiting for the main character to wake up and reveal it had all been a grief or stress-induced dream. (The signs of a Saoirse falling under the thumb of yet another toxic man are there, but none of them hint at the situation she eventually finds herself in, imho.)

Fortunately the superb gothic imagery and nods to Edgar Allan Poe in this one were more than enough to keep me reading, even when the story gets away from itself. Having said that, I do desperately wish Christa Carmen had made the entire book as creepy and intense as the last few chapters. Those scenes are like seeing the ghost of what this book could’ve been. So much potential! Alas.

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There is no “sophomore slump” for Christa Carmen. Beneath the Poet’s House, the standalone follow-up to 2023’s The Daughters of Block Island, is another engrossing New England Gothic tale featuring a strong female protagonist contending with secretive, sketchy men who may or may not have her best interests at heart, friends with mysterious pasts and motives, and a lingering sense that something supernatural may be going on.

Saoirse White has moved to Providence to start over after the unexpected death of her controlling husband. The house she rents turns out to be the historic home of poet and spiritualist Sarah Helen Whitman, who was once engaged to Edgar Allan Poe, frequented by a trio of local writers who invite her to join their occasional seances calling upon Whitman’s spirit for guidance and inspiration. She also meets Emmit Powell, a prize-winning author with a Poe fixation. New friends and new romance seem to respark her lost creativity … but are the odd things happening around her the work of Whitman and Poe’s spirits, or something more mundane and sinister?

Saoirse is a woman fighting the demons of her past, hoping for a fresh start. Carmen doles out Saoirse’s secrets (not all of which have to do with her troubled marriage and her husband’s death) in tantalizing little moments that sometimes go unnoticed until you realize later how well the author seeded them. As someone who has struggled with writer’s block resulting in part from depression after a major life-changing event, I connected with Saoirse’s struggles – and I both reveled in and felt concern for how her creativity comes rushing back to her, wondering if, again, there was something supernaturally malevolent happening.

Carmen is a master at surrounding her protagonists with characters whose motives and intentions are not always clear, keeping the reader wondering which characters will turn out to be truly on her side and which will not. Saoirse’s new friends, new love interest, late husband’s best friend, and parents all contribute to the general sense of unease that permeates the book, and all have moments where I questioned what their true motives were – without ever feeling like any of them were acting “out of character.” (Well, except for Saoirse’s father. He’s in like one scene, and sorry, he’s just an unrepentant asshole.)

The city of Providence is also a character – or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that the city of Providence’s literary history is. Whitman is a strong presence throughout the book because Saoirse lives in the poet’s house, which means of course Whitman’s one-time fiancée, Poe, is a strong presence as well. But so is H.P. Lovecraft. And Emmit Powell calls to might a plethora of “charismatic and charming” New England award-winning authors who moonlight as college professors. I’ve read my fair share of Poe, Lovecraft, and contemporary award-winning auteurs. This book has inspired in me some about curiosity about Sarah Helen Whitman, though, which I think may have been Carmen’s intention.

The general Gothic sensibility of the book (houses with a dark history, characters with secrets and questionable motives, a female main character in danger) really worked for me. Carmen’s atmospherics are on point and kept me in a state of building dread that pushed me to keep reading even when I knew I should be going to sleep, all leading to a satisfactory set of reveals (secrets must be revealed in such a book) and conclusion. I hope the book will have the same effect on you.


I received an electronic advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Beneath the Poet’s House was released on December 10, 2024, so this review is a bit late.

The very frustrating main character made me DNF this after 60%. I was just mad at her for being so unrealistic in her decisions and thoughts. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the chance to read this book.

Saoirse has zero survival instincts. I'm frustrated at the predictability of the dangers in this book, of course not the height the plot goes to but the essence that Emmit is a bright red flag.
It was very clear from the very beginning what her big secret was. I couldn't understand why dhe just wouldn't hear Aiden out and just up and left.
It's great to make friends at a new place but don't strike up a friendship with people who have been holding séances in your basement, Saoirse.
Loved all the literary references and was appropriately grossed out by their forced imitation in this romance. Loved the gothic vibes and the university town setting.
Read this as a cautionary tale if you feel like dating an award-winning writer facing a block. Spoiler, he might bury you alive.

Beneath the Poet’s House is my first time reading a book by Christa Carmen. I was intrigued by the story and setting, a modern novel with gothic elements, set in Providence, Rhode Island, where a widowed young woman retreats to restart her life. Saoirse, formerly a cozy mystery writer who has been away from writing for several years, returns to the city where she attended college at Brown hoping for inspiration, to find a good job perhaps and/or begin writing again. She begins with renting a house that was occupied by Sarah Helen Whitman in the 19th century, a woman who would briefly be engaged to Edgar Allan Poe. Whitman was also a poet in her own right.

And the ground is set for what will be an almost implausible sudden passionate affair with highly Gothic aspects which highlighted my major problem with this story: the character of Saoirse herself. I didn’t believe in her behavior, reactions, everything much of the time and that undercut much of the plot of the story. Too many inconsistencies in her narratives, both what she tells others and what she tells herself and us, the readers. This may be just one individual reaction and I’m simply not part of the true audience for this book, but I can’t recommend it. Otherwise, there were moments of high tension and scares in well written fright segments. And the sections on Poe and Whitman were also interesting background which was new to me.

2.5 rounded to 3*

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an eARC of this book. This review is my own.

Enjoyed this book filled with interesting characters each holding onto secrets while they are development throughout the story

“Beneath the Poet’s House” starts off decently enough, with an intriguing premise and some promise in the first 10-20%. However, the rest of the book is a slog. The story drags on endlessly without much payoff, and I found myself losing interest quickly. It feels like it could have been much shorter and more impactful. Disappointing overall.