I really enjoyed this book. First, I feel that the main character, Mara, is relatable to many people given that she is a bit lost in life and is not sure what path she should pursue. She gets chided by family about her not finishing college. Even though this may not be my exact situation, I understand questioning if what you are doing is the thing you should be putting your energy into. When Mara accepts a low tier job on a show called Haunt Sweet Home thanks to her cousin, she may have bitten off more than she could chew. I absolutely loved how Mara handled what was thrown her way, and I loved the ending of this book!

It was a bit predictable for me but I loved it! I watch Ghost Adventures and shows like it and this gives off those vibes. I highly recommend this if you want a quick read especially an easier horror/paranormal for spooky season. Thanks to Netgalley the audiobook was fantastic but the main female narrator was a bit gruff for me.

This had a fun premise and good audiobook narration, but it just ended up going a certain way that wasn’t my jam. I will say that this was a shorter read and it still accomplished a decent amount of back story/character exploration and current happenings. This was a good soft launch for fall reads though!

A super short and fun read!

Our MC, Mara is kind of at a tough place in her life. She’s tried the college thing a few times and can’t seem to find her “thing”. Her cousin, a hotshot tv show presenter a la Ghost Files mixed with House Flippers, offers her a job as a PA. Mara accepts and things are going well! They pretend to haunt houses and scare the home owners and it makes for great tv.
But then other things start happening. Other hauntings that Mara isn’t doing….

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Thank you to Macmillan’s ALC program for the copy of this title!

Haunt Sweet Home is cute and quirky, which I realize is a strange way to describe a horror novella, but I think it fits in this case.

Mara is feeling adrift and aimless in her life when her cousin offers her a position as a production assistant on the set of his haunted house renovation reality TV show. Mara’s job will be to work the night shift, orchestrating elaborate haunts to frighten the homeowners. But after a series of unnerving events on set, Mara begins to wonder if maybe the haunts aren’t so fabricated after all.

Haunt Sweet Home is light on the scares, instead focusing on Mara’s apathy and ennui as she approaches her mid-20s with no ambitions for her life. Sarah Pinsker really zeroes in on the uncertainty and anxiety of early adulthood, especially when you have a family who isn’t entirely present or supportive, like Mara’s. This story is mostly about Mara attempting to cope with all of that, doing some self-reflection and trying to motivate herself to make some big decisions about her life. The way Pinsker gets Mara to her self-revelations is so clever, but I don’t want to get specific for spoiler-y reasons.

The reality TV show aspect is well-done and entertaining. Audio is definitely the way to go with this one, because not only does Jess Nahikian provide the perfect bored, nonchalant voice for Mara – there are also excerpts from the reality show itself, read by other narrators, which makes for an immersive experience. Creative and weirdly endearing, Haunt Sweet Home is the perfect not-so-scary horror novella to add to your Spooky Season reading list. Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the early listening opportunity.

This was fun! A light and quick read with all the ghostly elements. It's a bit cozy and a bit chilling. The audiobook was great! I listened to it in only a few hours and the narrator was a perfect fit for the plot.

I definitely recommend this if you're just dipping your toe into spooky season. It was the best way to start the "bring on the fall" season!

Haunt Sweet Home is a horror novella that combines the behind-the-scenes workings of a ghost hunting/home makeover reality television show and a young woman’s brief journey towards understanding herself. With a slightly spooky touch.

When Mara is offered a job as a night shift production assistant on the set of her cousin Jeremy’s reality television show, she spends much of her nights trying to scare the residents in their new homes.

Mara is very relatable as a twenty-something who is unsure of her future, has difficulty committing to long-term goals and also struggles with finding her role in a family that isn’t the most supportive or understanding of her decisions.

While Mara’s lack of enthusiasm and ambition isn’t necessarily something to be enabled, the way that some of her more-accomplished family members behave-while at times sitting on actual thrones while she is left on a stool-would undoubtedly give most people an inferiority complex.

Haunt Sweet Home isn’t scary in the traditional sense-although one scene had me wondering if the story would proceed in a darker direction-the uncertainties surrounding adulthood, the nature of existence and the decisions we make can be quite intimidating.

When unusual things begin to happen, Mara is a bit slow on the uptake and I wish the novella was longer to both build up on the growing intimidation, as well as the consequences of Mara’s eventual resolution of the issue. The novella ends fairly nearly, yet I found myself wanting more.

The audiobook is a wonderful performance, with Mara’s voice sounding wry and slightly detached and certain chapters with multiple narrators brining short parts of Haunt Sweet Home to life in a wonderfully immersive fashion.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, TorDotCom Publishing and NetGalley for access to this audiobook. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

I thought this was an interesting concept but it fell flat for me. I guess I was hoping for more paranormal that was legitimate not a completely fabricated ghost show.

This was an interesting listen for me. I am glad I did not have an e-book because I don't think I would have gotten through it. It is a short book, I would consider this a palate cleanser.

It reads like the script of a paranormal TV show Haunt Sweet Home. Mara, a night-shift production assistant on the show, adds the spook to the haunt. In a twist of fate, she ends up running into a ghost named Jo who has attached to her and a piece of wood that Mara finds out later is from the tree Jo died at. The addition of Jo into Mara's life has caused her to take a look at her life and take inventory of how she is living and how she views her position in the world.

Again, not my jam, but a sweet story once you get around the setup of the story.

Thank you Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and Sarah Pinsker for the ALC of this book and for allowing me to voluntarily give my opinion.

Ahoy there me mateys!  This book what not exactly what I expected based on the blurb.  There wasn't enough actual ghost on the reality film set.  It was not as suspenseful as I wanted.  Also, I believe this would have been stronger either as a longer novella or as a short novel.  Also the ending left something lacking.  

Mara is in her late twenties and rather aimless.  So when her famous cousin offers her a job as a Production Assistant on his ghostly reality TV show, she accepts.  Filming the show is nothing like she imagined.  She didn't expect working the night shift.  Or her roommate.  Or the other PA that comes to help her on set.  Mara has to face her her beliefs about herself and decide what she really wants out of life.

I did, in general, like Mara as a character.  I also loved how the novella portrayed that "reality" tv is staged.  From my practical experience, this was very true to how those shows get made.  And some of the elements of the hauntings were funny.  However, there was too much time spent hearing about Mara's downtime on set.  It needed more ghost and better hauntings.  It needed a better answer to the mystery.  I would have like a bit more horror elements overall.

In terms of the ending, it didn't 100% make sense.  I wanted to know what Mara was going to do next and what her new life was going to look like.  There are hints about what her path is going to be but I wanted payoff for her choices.  This is where I think a longer book or maybe an epilogue would help.  Having answers to these questions would have been nice.

I did enjoy the multicast narration but wasn't sure it was necessary for such a short book.  In the end this is just an okay story that didn't progress as I would have liked.  It was a fast read so no regrets.  Arrrr!

The concept of this novella was so good - the ‘behind the scenes’ of a haunted house reality TV show and a ‘real’ haunting. The writing style was great but I was left with way more questions than answers.

Mara was unlikeable & frustrating. I’m sure the audiobook narrator is a wonderful person, but it sounded like she was being forced to read this story. Her voice was SO monotone and hard to listen to. What I think was meant to be the introspective *wow* moment fell flat because of the narration IMO.

Maybe if I’d read the physical book I’d feel differently, but here we are 🤷‍♀️.

ARC received in exchange for an honest review.

This book just didn’t do it for me. The description sounded great but it didn’t come together. I love the mixed media approach with the TV transcript mixed in the narrative of the story. However, the story did not make sense to me. It was repetitive and the “haunting” was strange. How wouldn’t they know the TV show was filming or see those doing the “haunting” in their house. Glad it was short.

Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker what such a letdown. To start off with the beginning began in a very interesting way but I listen to the audiobook and the narrator reads each sentence as if she is reading a list of sentences as opposed to a paragraph that forms a story. The story was also baffling to me because was it a remodeling show that they purposely caused the new home to be haunted… I mean that seems like a one trick pony in my opinion not to mention the whole screaming cow situation I couldn’t even wrap my head around that. Also I don’t believe there’s enough paranormal activity in the book to consider it a haunted house story. Also for such a short read I got tired of listening to how she didn’t have a chair why she didn’t have a chair I do think the author is a very talented writer I just found Marnie unlikable the story unbelievable and repetitive and also the narrator to be almost a punishment to listen to. She did have a talent for doing the different voices the only problem with that is every voice she did was read robotically and made it hard to listen to.#NetGalley,

Haunt Sweet Home is a short, quick read combining reality TV and ghost stories. The behind the scenes look at reality TV was probably the most entertaining part for me. Unfortunately, the “twist” was very predictable, and it was just a matter of when it would be figured out. I do think the character set up and development was well done for Mara making her relatable to anyone who’s struggled to find their place. The plot felt repetitive, so I really appreciate that it was a short quick read. I did finish this in one sitting, so I enjoyed it enough to keep reading. I read this via audiobook which utilized multiple narrators. This really sold the story especially in terms of the reality TV aspect. I believe this is one of those books that would be best consumed via audiobook to get the full experience.

A perfect synthesis of theme and plot, Haunt Sweet Home is a surprisingly hopeful and cozy horror novella that I will be recommending to fellow scaredy-cats! The audiobook adds so much with the full cast of narrators, and I was especially impressed by the narrator for Jeremy who made me feel like I really was listening to an HGTV show.

Home Haunt
By Sarah Pinsker
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Mara is just kind of existing, not sure what to do with her life, when at a family get-together she runs into a cousin named Jeremy. Jeremy starts in a home remodeling/ghost hunting show and says he can hook her up with a job on set. Mara is hesitant at first, but ultimately desires she has nothing to lose. The job, however, is not optimal but not terrible: her cousin won’t talk to her, she has to share her small motel room, and she has to create the sense of a ghost. What happens next is super or supernatural, either way there are surprises in store for the reader.

This audiobook was great. The narrator voices the character perfectly. There was variation in the format - interspersed throughout were scripts/scenes from the finished show. Each scene was voiced by a variety of actors, either not the narrator or maybe the narrator was just that good and it really was all her.

I zipped through this book, starting it in the evening, and finishing up the last bit the following morning. I usually listen on 2x the speed, so I can get through books pretty quickly but with this book I just did not even want to stop listening. I thought Mara’s character was simple yet complex, and relatable. The plot wove in her memories of childhood, which gave perspective to her actions and attitudes. It was engaging and flowed well. Overall, I really enjoyed this audiobook and would definitely recommend it. It’s classified as sci-fi and fantasy, but it’s grounded in themes typically explored by general fiction I am usually not into the supernatural it this audiobook was perfectly plotted, fabulously narrated, and just plain fun. It doesn’t matter what genre it was classified as , it was good.

Haunt Sweet Home was a satisfying novella. It had multiple styles-script, review, narrative, etc. and it all flowed without feeling awkward. My only complaint would be that it was too short. Instead of hearing that they did a lot more haunts, I’d have enjoyed going along with for the fun. I loved the honesty of the production crew and the humor.

This was a decent horror especially for being so short. The concept was solid and the follow through was great. It definitely felt like an episode of an old horror show. Overall this book was short but quite good.

This quirky little cozy-horror (is that a thing?!) was such a fun read. For people who love putting their toe into the genre, without the gore or too much intensity. It’s also just a quick easy way to ease into the fall spooky season! We follow Mara, who is kinda just over it. All of it. She’s feeling lost with what life has to offer and she’s floundering. Thankfully, her cousin offers her a job working on the night production crew for a hit tv show about haunted houses. (But with a fixer-upper home makeovery vibe. I would legit watch the heck out of this show!) Soon Mara finds herself tromping through freezing apple fields, hiding in sheds, groaning in her best ghostly voice- all for the show. Turns out haunting can be kinda fun. Just maybe not when you’re not the only thing doing the haunting?!

In the end, it’s more speculative fiction and Mara’s character arc feels really satisfying. 3.75 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this advanced audiobook, in exchange for my unbiased review.

Check out my full thoughts on this book and more here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh_0TdEd1i8G4HOCgnl0FvA">booktube reviews :)</a>

Title: Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker
Publication Date- 09/03/24
Publisher- MacMillan
Overall Rating- 5 out of 5 stars

Review copy given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Audio Review: The audio is fantastic, highly, highly recommend. It is a full cast and this is the kind of story that really benefits from that. Plz check out the audio.

Review: Wow, wow, wow. I loved this book. This is a great one to get you started on spooky season. I just did a video talking about my “light horror” recommendations for spooky season. Had I read this before posting that video I would have put this on the list.

The first thing I want to mention is, in my opinion, it is not scary. If you go into it expecting a lot of jump scares, you will be let down. However, there is some really strong character development. I would consider this literary horror because we really take time to get to know the main character, her thoughts, feelings and emotions. It’s more of a character story than a plot driven experience.

That being said, my next favorite thing was the plot and atmosphere. The whole concept of the TV show and how it works and why it works I found so fascinating. I won’t go into too much detail, read the book.

Very rarely do novella’s work out for me and this one really hit the spot. Last month was not a great reading month for me, September is starting out on the right, spooky, ghostly, foot.