Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the EARC and the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.
‘What Remains of Teague House’ is a dysfunctional family thriller that combines mystery with generational trauma. When three siblings discover that their mother has died, they all descend upon their childhood home which happens to be an old house out in the middle of the woods. When they find a fresh grave with a thumb sticking out right next to what they’d grown up thinking was a pet cemetery, their entire family become suspects in multiple murders.
This was a fun read. I enjoyed the perspective switches and the overarching mystery. The dual timeline chapters between Phil and Val as young adults helped to give some context to Val and Phil’s contentious relationship. I thought that was one of the stronger points of the book and that Phil’s perspective was fascinating from a psychological standpoint. At points, you begin to question who among these characters is a reliable narrator because almost everyone has something to hide.
I thought the twist was good if a bit predictable. The ending felt a bit rushed after all the buildup of the story. Much like the hiding places all around Teague House, I would’ve loved for the information to come to light more slowly than it did in the final few scenes. I did appreciate the ‘why’ but I wish we’d gotten just a bit more of it. I wanted to know more about the group and how they came to be connected to the Rawlins family.
This was a fun read that had some pacing issues. Overall, I would recommend it to anyone looking for a thriller about a layered and very dysfunctional family with some bodies in the backyard.

This was a dark, spooky, and twisty read that was perfect to curl up with on such a cold, dreary day. Johns does an excellent job creating such an unnerving and mysterious atmosphere that you couldn't help but want to learn more about! The beginning was a bit slow and I was kind of confused about why such a big character showed up so late in the game, but if you can stick it out there are plenty of other great twists and shocks that make the rest of the story fly by! I figured out the ending pretty early on, but I really enjoyed the characters and plot development of this one and look forward to more from Johns! Thanks so much for the ARC!

What Remains of Teague House is a HAUNTING mystery that will keep you hooked from start to finish!

Perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects or Stacy Willingham’s Only If You’re Lucky, this story is brimming with intrigue, secrets, and shadowy characters. The tale begins with a family tragedy—the passing of the family’s matriarch—which forces the family to gather and make difficult decisions. But the drama doesn’t stop there. The discovery of bones on the family’s land adds a chilling layer of mystery that spirals into an ambitious and captivating narrative. Stacy Johns masterfully ties together every loose end, delivering a conclusion that is both satisfying and thought-provoking.

Teague House itself feels like a character, steeped in secrets and haunting memories. From Sandy’s unsettling and terrifying dreams to Maddie’s relentless investigation into a missing person, the story pulls readers into a web of lies, red herrings, and startling revelations. Switching perspectives throughout the book adds an extra layer of depth, allowing readers to piece together clues while pondering the implications of each twist. The shifting viewpoints, combined with well-placed flashbacks from Aunt Phil’s perspective, create a dynamic and engaging narrative structure. Every discovery builds toward a shocking and exhilarating climax that will leave readers breathless.

The characters are a standout feature of this novel, each with unique and compelling personalities that enhance the story’s many mysteries. Stacy Johns’ skillful writing breathes life into these characters, making their struggles and secrets feel vivid and real. The interplay between past and present is seamlessly woven, adding richness to the narrative and keeping readers guessing until the very end.

What Remains of Teague House is a must-read for mystery lovers. With its expertly crafted plot, multidimensional characters, and spine-tingling atmosphere, this book firmly establishes Stacy Johns as a rising star in the genre. Don’t miss out on this thrilling tale!

Thank you, Net Galley and Poisoned Pen, for the advance read copy!!

I am a sucker for dual timeline books, and for books with multiple POVs, and WHAT REMAINS OF TEAGUE HOUSE had both. So of course we started on the right foot, and we proceeded with a deliciously confusing plot that I really really enjoyed. It is a sad story, at times, but that's okay. Just check your trigger warnings! Especially suicide and long term illness.

I really liked the writing style, jumping from one character’s thoughts to the other without really ever being in a neutral area. I loved trying to sort out what was ‘the truth’ and what was ‘the truth that characters were telling themselves’. And the epilogue just blew my mind. Of everything in the story, it absolutely was the last thing I was expecting. And it was GREAT. I literally shouted “WHAAAT?!” in the car with my parents.

A couple of things that I didn’t like / that didn’t make much sense to me were: (1) how much the plot is based on a coincidence that I find to be not too credible (the first victim found); (2) how late in the book one of the key characters shows up. Given how the story opens (the first chapter is from the mother’s point of view), among all the characters you are the person with most information at hand. Which is normally a great position to be in, because you can then try and guess who among the characters will solve it first. In this case, this very very important piece of the puzzle arrives extremely late, and I found it to be a bit unfair.

A very nice reading experience, nonetheless.

Note: I would rate the book 3.5 stars, if there was an option.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press, NetGalley, and Stacy Johns for giving me the opportunity to receive an ARC of What Remains of Teague House, for simply an honest review.

In the beginning of the book, I was not able to get through it. I decided to push through and I am glad I did. The story began to get interesting, mysterious, suspenseful, entertaining with family secrets, and dramatic.

I did like the multiple POV, the family secrets was interesting, and I did not see that coming at all. The twist caught me off guard!

I would’ve wanted more as I felt like it was missing something but it’s a book I’ll recommend.

#netgalley #poisonedpenpress #stacyjohns #arc #whatremainsofteaguehouse

Tragedy occurs: mother dies, and all three of her children return home. The children, now adults, have their own trials and harsh memories to work their way through. When the daughter, Sandra, attempts to face her memories of her father by returning to where she last saw him, she discovers something else on the family property - a freshly buried body. Police investigating continues to discover other bodies, older, buried beneath it. What exactly has happened at Teague House, and who is responsible?

This is a pretty straightforward who-done-it type of mystery. I pretty much solved it about 1/3 of the way through, and continued to be vindicated as I continued reading. I thought the lives of the siblings that was revealed was interesting and wish we had more of it, but I understand the author’s decision to focus the way she did. I do, however feel like the book was rushed a bit from the last 1/3 going towards the end, as the novel was trying to wrap up.

Recommended if you like: multiple timelines, mysteries

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

3.5 stars.
What Remains of Teague House is a mystery thriller with multiple POV.
The Rawlins siblings (Jon, Sandy, and Rob) have regrouped at their childhood home, Teague House, after the passing of their mother. Each sibling has troubles and wants to bury their mother and move on with their lives. When Sandy and Jon stumble across a recently dug mound of earth with part of a body sticking out whilst out for a walk on their family's vast plot of land, which then uncovers a burial site of multiple bodies, this makes their time back at the house even more conflicted. As each sibling tries to connect the dots and uncover what and who has murdered and buried these bodies on their land and if their parents were a part of something sinister, the house is broken into making them realise someone is looking for something they don't want to be found. Along side this we follow Maddie who's a private investigator searching for her missing friends remains and when similarities are found with one of the bodies that coinside with her friends disappearance, body type etc, she's hot on the heels to discover if this is the breakthrough she's been chasing for years so she can finally put her friend to rest.
This was an interesting and twisty read that took some time to get into, but I felt the ending was very rushed together and was missing something for me.

this was a great book! It was scary, creepy, and the uncovering of past secret were great. I think the writing was done well, and the tense feelings were definitely evoked and palpable!! I liked it!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

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

What Remains of Teague House was a very interesting and multifaceted family mystery. I really enjoyed this novel, it’s a great multi-pov story that kept me guessing the whole way through. To be honest, I didn’t care much for any of the Rawlins siblings and I do feel like the ending was a bit rushed, but it was still a great book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this free eARC!

The Rawlins family has owned a large piece of land in the Pacific Northwest for decades. Russ built a large house from the ground up, with his wife Val, and their 3 children Sandra, Robby, and Jon. Russ died by suicide when the kids were relatively young, and when that happened Val stopped communicating with everyone, and her sister Phil moved into Teague house to take on responsibilities of raising the kids and tending to the house.

Fast forward about 30 years, and Val passes away and the three Rawlins children come back to Teague house for the funeral. While exploring the property, Sandra finds a body in the woods. The dead woman is Gayle, a local school teacher and political candidate whom has ties to the Rawlins family. The present starts to turn up a deadly past on the Rawlins’ land. And there’s so many twists and turns!

This was a real tight read. Fantastic characters. No one in this book is perfect, but all of the main characters are extremely relatable. I enjoyed this a lot, and I look forward to more from Stacy Johns in the future!

4 stars--I really liked it. This is a cut above most domestic suspense/crime novels. I especially enjoyed the characterization and the house itself, with its mysterious hidey-holes and vast woodland. And what a great cover!

I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!

I loved the setting and atmosphere. There's something both cozy and mysterious about a big family home in the middle of the woods. I also liked the multiple POVs. I love it when I learn things that other characters don't know yet.

The book was enjoyable enough, but I wanted more from it. I never felt like I was on the edge of my seat, itching to know what happened next. I was just waiting and I never felt excited by the reveals. The build-up to the ending felt slow, but the big reveal and action sequence at the end felt too rushed. I feel like because there were too many threads, not everything was fully fleshed out.

The premise of a sudden death becoming the catalyst of the Rawlins kids finding out family secrets that have literally been buried for decades initially got me interested, but unfortunately, the execution fell short of my expectations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
What Remains of Teague House by Stacy Johns comes out on April 8, 2025.

I was intrigued by the premise of this book. Siblings reunite at their childhood home after the death of their mother. A body is found on their property and secrets from long ago start to unravel. By the halfway point it just felt like nothing was happening. This person doesn’t feel like confronting this person and this person finds a teeny tiny clue, possibly? None of the characters are likable and I felt like Maddie’s (the detective) entire storyline was unnecessary. It would have been more interesting with flashbacks to Val’s earlier life and how they even met Nate Belter. The setting was spooky and seemed like it wanted to be horror like Pet Sematary for a minute and then turned into some political suspense.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

This murder mystery was very entertaining and kept me invested from the beginning.

Family secrets and suspenseful plot, this book was well written, I was also surprised by the unexpected twists.

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press, Stacy John’s and NetGalley for the eARC. Opinions are my own.

Coming out 04/08/2025

This book will really appeal to fans of "Home is Where the Bodies Are" as it's a very similar concept. Told in dual timelines and through multiple POVs it's a decent enough story but nothing spectacular. It's obvious from the beginning who the killer is and by the time they get around to revealing the why you're not told a whole lot or at least nothing that makes it make enough sense.

What Remains of Teague House
Stacy Johns
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ / 5

Three siblings reckon with the darkness hidden within their family after multiple graves are discovered behind their childhood home.

I loved the dual timeline / multiple POV.
It is not always done correctly in my opinion, but it definitely works here.

This read kept me entertained the whole time. The first couple chapters had me hooked & is well written.

If you are into thrillers and family secrets, this should be your next read!

Thank you to @poisonpenpress, @netgalley & @authorstacyj for the digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

#review #bookreview #netgalley #kindle #arc #reader #bookish #readmore #suspense #thriller #bookrec

A slow burn that packs a punch. I throughly enjoyed What Remains of Teague House. It was a fascinating journey and loved reading different perspectives from different characters and experiencing the mysteries of the Rawlins family.

For a mystery thriller, this book was neither thrilling nor mysterious. The killer was easy to pick out. The characters were flat, boring and incapable of making a decent decision. It was irritating watching them struggle with simple tasks.

Okay, so mommy dearest dies and leaves clues for her three children. Clues regarding a missing child from their youth, their missing father, etc. Mommy is disturbed and it all seems pointless until they find the bodies in the back yard and video of daddy coming home bloody.

So my first point here, you burry a dead child, watch your friend struggle, grieving a missing child he isn't sure is dead or alive, and just basically destroy several lives all for the purpose of covering up a crime committed by your son. Then, you do nothing to get him any sort of help, therapy, or counseling? Not only that but continue to enable and shelter him.. THEN, despite all that, you leave clues so that after you're dead, your kids can figure out the truth? Doesn't that defeat the point?!!! Why would you not just tell them!! I get she didnt talk but come on! Leave a note to be delivered once you kick the bucket, something that makes sense. And why would you do all this in such a way as to endanger your two other children? Absolutely stupid.

I fid not like this book, at all, and I do not recommend it to anyone. It didn't have a single redeeming quality.

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙍𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙏𝙚𝙖𝙜𝙪𝙚 𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚
4 ⭐️

| Thank you @poisonedpen for the gifted early e-copy! |

📖(𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥):
𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙭 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙙𝙮𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙘𝙨 • 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙨 • 𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙬𝙞𝙨𝙩! • 𝙙𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙖 • 𝙢𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙞𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙨 • 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 • 𝙢𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙞𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙋𝙤𝙑 • 𝙙𝙪𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚 • 𝙙𝙮𝙨𝙛𝙪𝙣𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 • 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙮 • 𝙚𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘 𝘼𝙪𝙣𝙩 • 𝙪𝙣𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙜𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙛

🦴:
“𝚃𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚜𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚔𝚘𝚗 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚑𝚒𝚍𝚍𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚏𝚊𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚊𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚖𝚞𝚕𝚝𝚒𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚎.”

💭:
I’m having a hard time finding words for this one. 🫤😐🥸🙃😅

There was a lot to unpack in this book, but keeping track wasn’t hard to do.

The writing was good and the premise of the story was interesting, so I was invested.

❗️𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙪𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙞𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙖 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪.

The mystery surrounding this, as well as the bones found on the land of Teague House, was compelling.

I enjoyed the dual timelines giving us some backstory to the family’s lives. There wasn’t a whole lot of character development, so that helped!

The richness of the plot, combined with a few twists I didn’t see coming, made up for the lack of depth to the story.

#️⃣: #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookishfeature

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC!!

This is my first book by this author, and I doubt will be my last. I absolutely loved the hidden family secrets embedded in the storyline. I wish there was more explanation to the how and why between the parents and the community, but overall a crazy end.