This short horror novel had me absolutely enraged at times. Miles is a clueless husband who buys a dilapidated old house after seeing his wife's many sketches of it. He thinks she's in love with the property, while in reality she's been comissioned to paint a cover for a horror novel. I couldn't stand Miles and over the course of the book began to realize that he's a very realistic description of a personality type I wouldn't get along with. The childless couple unexpectedly find themselves with a baby on the way. They're absolutely horrible at communicating with each other, which makes every situation worse than it has to be.


What's really going on in the old house surpasses anything that Emily dreamed up while she was painting it. There are graves in the swamp at the edge of the property, a horrific family history, and creepy old toys that keep turning up in the worst places. It's standard haunted house stuff...until it's not. Every plot element I hated while I was reading the book actually had a reason for being there and comes together in a very effective ending. I'm honestly not sure if I likes this one or not.

The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel
by EV Knight #seventysixthbookof2024 #arc #hauntedhousenovel #savannahbook

This contains *****SPOILERS****

CW: difficult pregnancy, kidnapping, psychics, exorcism, death, murder, child death.

This was a wild one. Emily is commissioned to create the cover of the newest horror novel by renowned author Cooper Yancey. She starts painting a house in town and when she’s sidelined by a difficult pregnancy, husband Miles buys the house and it all goes wrong from there.

Miles is an idiot from the word go. Just a moronic husband and person who refuses to call the baby by his name because he doesn’t like the name Emily picked out in a fair and square deal. The obviously haunted house starts making trouble and Miles, bless his heart, thinks nothing of it. Assumed Emily is just scatterbrained and won’t listen to her. Emily knows that the house is deranged and out to get their family. This plot is bonkers and kind of fun if you can overlook a missing baby. The ending wraps up neatly in a bow but is kind of batshit. I enjoyed it wholeheartedly.

Thank you to @rdspress and @netgalley for the advance copy. (pub date 9/12/24)

I definitely enjoyed this book which deals with a haunted house and some postpartum depression. I really enjoyed Emily, the FMC, and wasn't happy at times with her husband because he had some misogynistic tendencies. However, I know this was purposeful and I love to hate a character. The pace of the book was good, but I wish the end was pulled out a little more for a dramatic effect. I absolutely recommend this book to horror lovers of a good, haunted house story.

I love a haunted house story! The concept for this book was really intriguing however the execution did not do it for me. There wasn't enough focus on the paranormal activity and the house as there was the conflict between the husband and wife. I felt like there was more pregnancy body horror than haunted house horror. I usually like multiple POVS to get a better understanding of the characters but these characters fell flat and seemed one dimensional to me. The story just wasn't cohesive for me and I struggled to understand the intentions of the authour. Loved the cover and the title.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

A haunted house is a delicate balance to manage when you’re writing a story. You want people to believe it could happen to you, but at the same time, you want it to be just beyond the realm of possibility. The ghosts need to be realised and, to an extent, human, or at least show in pure form their inhumanity.

Unfortunately, this book failed past the post. I loved some of the descriptions, and the start of this novel was nice and creepy. A couple dealing with infertility and a miracle baby threatened with the idea of the one thing they have wished for more than anything else being ripped away from them? A fascinating premise.

I just found the concept a little tired. The ghost was, as expected, a vengeful parent spirit that ended up destroying everything it touched. I was left feeling disappointed by the potential of this novel to be a savage portrait of grief, but unfortunately I just felt a little more substance was needed.

In a way too, I feel like this novel is better conceptualised as a paranormal thriller than a horror novel. I wasn’t left scared or hiding under the covers- which was a shame, because I really was hoping to be.

Emily is a book cover illustrator and receives the offer of a lifetime - a famous bestselling horror novelist has offered her a deal, find a nearby house that gives her the creeps and illustrate it for him. If it inspires his next horror novel, she receives half the revenue! It's the deal of lifetime, and with no shortage of creepy houses in the Savannah area, it should be a slam dunk. But after months of artist's block, she's driving through an affluent neighborhood that dead ends in a copse of creepy trees and an abandoned house from her nightmares! It's perfect, but before she can act on it, she's traumatized by a medical emergency, making her a slave and prisoner to her own body and mind.
True horror comes when you can't escape from your own nightmares. In this haunted house horror, the characters make bad decision after bad decision, and become trapped in a nightmare of their own making. Filled with disturbing images, creepy atmosphere, and lots of dread, this creepy supernatural thriller will definitely have you rethinking that beautiful, old fixer upper you've had your eye on.

This book was such a trip, every page was more chaotic than the last and that title is just everything!

Every possible emotion, I felt it. Told in 2 different POVs this story had me in a chokehold, most of the characters were unbearable (specially Miles and Cooper) but the story felt unique to me and it kept me guessing throughout.
Was definitely not expecting that ending but it felt fitting.
I just wish that the history of the house would’ve been explored a little bit more.

🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸/5

Thank you so much to the author, @rdspress and @netgalley for the ARC, opinion is my own.

I really, really wanted to like this book. Everything about it - from the cover to the plot to the setting - spoke to me. But the parts somehow didn't come together in a nice, cohesive whole. Knight's writing style seems rushed and slightly frenetic at points, which might appeal to some readers, but didn't to me. The horror in the book was at an appropriate level and the detail of describing the setting was also welcome. Overall, it just felt like it needed a little more work and thought from the author.

This is one of those books that was a fun story premise but shoddy execution. I knew that is a personal beef but miscommunication is just not it. No two people have failed to communicate harder than Emily and Miles Lawrence. Between not talking about epic life altering things and the anxiety of a missing baby storyline, I just did not have a great time with this.

This book had an interesting premise…Emily, an artist, is hired by a famous horror author to paint a book cover that will inspire his next novel, a Southern Gothic, but doesn’t tell her husband about the deal. She finds a house that she finds both compelling and unsettling that she thinks will be a perfect fit. The husband, seeing her paint this house over and over again, thinks she loves it and purchases it for their growing family. And, naturally, a haunting ensues. Maybe not the most original premise, but an interesting one.

Unfortunately the execution did not follow through for me on this one. The characters are all pretty one-dimensional, and the husband, Miles, is downright despicable (fat-shaming his pregnant wife, gaslighting her regularly throughout the entire book, being homophobic toward a gay realtor, I could go on and on). The majority of the conflict in this novel was due to a husband and wife who just wouldn’t communicate with each other, and that was very frustrating as a reader. There was also way too much emphasis on graphic depictions of pregnancy, labor, and childbirth and not enough emphasis on the actual haunting; I’m still confused about some aspects of the story. While this did have some slightly creepy haunted house-type moments, I was expecting a southern gothic and instead got a pregnancy body horror with unlikable characters and an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

while i love a good haunted house story, this one didn't quite live up to expectations. i did enjoy the different points of view in each chapter between the husband and wife, along with the being dropped into the ending at the beginning, however, i wish there was more explanation of the house and the ghosts because nothing seemed to ever get confirmed or explored thoroughly. while that can be a really good mystery sell for a book, in this one it only left me with zero answers and explanations and therefore made the read seem a little empty in my opinion.

overall this book was a fun read but ultimately a little disappointing.

Subversive, chilling, and a lot of fun. really enjoyable as someone who reads a LOT of horror, enjoy the voice and the way tropes are explored

Emily is looking at a house as inspiration for a commission for book cover art. However, when she has a medical emergency there, her husband thinks she was trying to buy the house. She felt creeped out by the house in reality but can’t really tell him that. Things continue to go wrong though especially after their baby is born.

I don’t know what it was about this one, but it just wasn’t for me. I thought the premise seemed spooky and interesting, but the writing didn’t give me the creepy vibes I wanted.

What do you do when your husband buys a potentially haunted house for you and your unborn child because you’ve been painting pictures of it non-stop? If you're Emily Lawrence, you go ahead and move in because you cannot tell him the real reason you've been painting the house. Of course, if you’re Miles Lawrence, you hadn’t even consulted your wife before making the down payment so I support everyone is at fault. Miscommunication runs deep in this household.

Houses are often the subject of horror stories, our author E.V. Knight even mentions that in the novel. Of course, that means if you're going to write another one, you have to make sure you're bringing something fresh to the table. Unfortunately, Knight has not done that.

I won’t spoil the “twist” for anyone who does end up picking up this novel, but I will say that Knight’s head was in the right place. They have chosen a plot that could work with some workshopping. The real fault of the novel lies in the characters and the prose.

Miles is completely oblivious to the feelings of those around him, and also oddly homophobic? (For anyone who HAS read this, I’m still trying to figure out why that scene is necessary.) Emily is your classic postpartum, potentially unreliable, narrator. Monica is nothing but a foil, and Coop is beyond annoying. Rhett/Remi might be the only character I felt any compassion for, but I still didn’t understand why the dual name thing was added.
On top of the two-dimensional characters, Knight’s prose is underdeveloped. Much of the dialogue is incredibly cliché and juvenile. It is not that it is bad, per se, it just does not feel professional.

Overall, the book is gratuitous with elements that have little bearing on the plot, and scant with the things that matter. However, I did read it in only a couple hours, so maybe there is something there, even if it’s not that Knight intended.

Thank you to NetGalley and RDS Publishing for the ARC. The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel is out 9/12/24.

"There's something off about the house...as if it's hiding a dark secret. That's why artist, Emily Lawrence thinks it's the perfect subject for a cover commissioned by a famous horror author. But that's her little secret. Her husband, Miles, can only assume the house she is constantly sketching is her dream home. So, when Emily is sidelined by an unexpected, high-risk pregnancy, he buys it thinking it'll be perfect for their growing family.

Immediately, Emily begins to hear voices and senses a child's presence. Is the house haunted or is it stress getting to Emily? Her husband certainly thinks it's all in her head. A traumatic delivery leaves Emily convinced something is terribly wrong. Miles must navigate his wife's delicate state, and care for their newborn son, while returning to work. It's a tenuous situation - then the baby disappears."

I love the concept, it reminds me of a story my Dad used to tell me when he was publishing Mike Norman and Beth Scott's Haunted Heartland.

Horror is one of my most favorite genres but it's also the genre I struggle with the most. The quality of most horror novels is sorely lacking. It's like anyone thinks they can sit down to do it. You can't.

This book, sadly, falls into that category. 😞

Pros: Great cover and title. Cons: Everything else.

Thank you to NetGalley and RDS Publishing for my complimentary copy.

The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel has a lot of promise. I love a good haunted house, and the bleak vibe of the book is perfect as we enter spooky season. The setting was eerie and unsettling in the best way.
I think a lot of the potential of this book ended up being overshadowed by the fact that the two main characters are really unlikeable and seemingly unable to have a simple conversation with each other. Miles is a gaslighting chauvinist that made me roll my eyes and want to put down the book at times, while Emily is seriously lacking a spine.
Despite not liking the characters, this was a great book to start off the Halloween Horror season.
This may not be the best book for those who have a history of traumatic pregnancies or PPD/PPA.

Thank you to NetGalley and RDS Publishing for the ARC!

I received an ecopy of this novel for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I tore through this book so fast! While the main characters were fairly unlikeable, I found myself unable to turn away from the storyline. Miles' chapters were a little slower for me, mostly because I simply did not like him. He had no redeeming qualities to me, except that he loved his baby. Rating 3.5 stars, rounded up.

TW: traumatic birth, surprise pregnancy, miscarriage scare, death of a child, gaslighting, emergency hysterectomy, postpartum depression.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and author for an eARC of this book!

I had seen this pop up in a suggested ad for me and was immediately interested. I was so excited to get to get the ARC. It did not disappoint!! This book had me hooked from beginning to end. It reminded me of a 80’s-90’s Stephen King movie. I could see everything in my head so vividly as I read. I truly don’t remember if there were trigger warnings at the beginning of the book, but if there isn’t there should be as there’s child abuse and death of an infant.

Such a spooky and haunting book without gore or anything over the top! Truly chilling!

I'll start with what I liked about this novel. The premise was interesting; I love a good Southern Gothic. My absolute dream is to live in a 200 year old house with its own cemetery, preferably nowhere near a swamp. At times, the story provided an atmospheric feeling of oppression, but mostly barely made it to midly uncomfortable. I love creepy toys, and the toys that play a recurring role in this story do manage to be unsettling (even if they are a cliche).
However, I'm afraid there were a lot more things I didn't like. I realize there's nothing new under the sun, and haunted house stories tend to be rather formulaic. That being said, every character situation, plot progressing event, felt plucked straight out of the Stereotype Handbook for Authors (tm). Miles is the typical "smart guy": excruciating logical, boring, condescending, and emotionally stunted. He weirds rationality like a club to the point that his rationalization is completely illogical. His constant waffling from "my wife is crazy" to " I'll be more supportive" is horribly repetitive and frankly, boring. Not to mention his homophobia. Emily, likewise, is a caricature artist. Self-absorbed, flighty, and very easily influenced. She absolutely let's her husband treat her poorly, infantilizing her and patronizing her throughout the story. Her arc is absolutely predictable, including her postpartum depression and initial difficulties bonding with the baby. Monica, Miles' twin sister, is basically there to tell Miles how to adult and act as the middle ground between the two. Cooper Yancy is unbearable. Cam is just a cardboard cutout of a non binary individual. And the house is every house, in every story, ever written. This entire story hinges on a married couple never telling each other anything for any reason, at any point, even when it is blindingly obvious that it would resolve the problem. Knight took my least favorite trope, miscommunication, and made it the pivotal plot point of this entire story. I definitely feel that with further refinement and character building, this would be a pretty good story. It's definitely entertaining if you can shut off your mind and go with the flow. This is perfect for those who don't actually like to be scared , they can be comforted by the predictability.