I really enjoyed this crazy journey with Cassie, who leaves the city when her life becomes overwhelming and ends up embedded in the life of her adolescent best friend. I particularly enjoyed the way Cassie's point of view is written so that we get to see her intrusive thoughts due to OCD and how hard her mental health makes interacting with others. I liked the mystery of Beth and getting to know more about her life, but I felt like some of the characters could have been fleshed out better (we didn't really get to know Eli and Joan as much as I would have liked).

I liked the ending, but felt like it could have been more impactful if there was a bit more to the story. The build-up was there, but the actual reveal and climax was a bit of a let down. Regardless, I did really like the author's voice and would love to read more from her in the future!

Thanks to NetGalley for access to this ARC!

This book was brilliant. I had no idea where it was going and had such an amazing time that I finished it in two sittings. The OCD representation was also deeply appreciated.

a queer, gothic (very) literary horror with a sprinkling of romance.

this is one of those weird experiences where I have quite a lot I would have liked this book to have done differently, yet I still enjoyed it for what is was.

I wish I had leant more into the horror. it’s verrrry light on that front. I could see people arguing that this shouldn’t even class as horror & I wouldn’t fight them. I also wish it had got weird. with the main character and the journey the story takes, it feels like it had a really easy opportunity to get a little weird and it frustrated me that it chose not to do that. with that being said, I can also completely understand why it didn’t do either of those things and so I don’t resent it for that.

judging this book by what it actually is, I had a good time with it. definitely has that relatability aspect when it comes to those mid-to-late twenties years where you sit back and look at your life and think - could I have done more? I liked how it explored loneliness and living authentically. I did find the pacing a little wonky at times, I couldn’t always work out how long had passed, not just from chapter to chapter but also sometimes paragraph to paragraph.

despite my gripes, overall this was a good one. I’ve never read an Isabel Cañas but this feel like it would probably be a good recommendation for readers who like her books!

An extraordinary tale of two women, one alive, one dead, who both married the same man. Cassie, who suffers from terrifyinglyy vivid intrusive thoughts, runs home when both her career and her love life fall apart. There, she reconnects with her closest childhood friend, a recent widower. Within weeks, she is swept into his world, moving into his house, and caring for his children, trying her best to measure up to the memory of her new husband's dead wife, Beth, all uner the watchful eye of the icy neighbor, Joan. Although everything seems fine, Cassie's thoughts turn darker and bloodier. And, as she discovers, Beth may have died but she isn't entirely gone. This is a wonderful read, a page turner with a dark twist. I was captivated by the relationship between Beth and Cassie, rendered with such sensitivity and sweetness. I loved the unconventional story, the juxtaposition of gore and beauty, and the elegant prose. Highly recommended.

"House of Beth" is an eerie and spellbinding novel. I believe this is a debut novel if I'm not mistaken, and boy I will definitely read from this author in the future. Kerry Cullen's writing style is so visceral and captivating. I really liked her metaphors. She perfectly captures Cassie, a young, unhinged woman living with harm OCD. I was immediately taken with this novel by the end of chapter 1. I liked the alternating chapters between Cassie and Beth. I was so invested in Cassie's friendship/budding relationship with her high school best friend, Eli, whom she reconnects with a decade later. I liked their backstory, and as they grow closer as Cassie's returns home to New Jersey after she abruptly quits her publishing job in New York. Cassie felt like a real, raw person, she's complex, off-kilter, and has reoccurring thoughts of blood, gore, and violence. Beth is the deceased wife of Eli, and Beth's chapters reflect her religious upbringing, and how she inhabits Cassie's mind and body as a ghost later in the story. I usually don't like ghost stories, but this one was very subtle and not overdone. I liked Beth and Cassie equally, and I thought the ending was satisfactory and poignant. I will be thinking about this book for quite some time. It totally took me by surprise and got me out of a reading slump.

Thank you, Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the digital ARC.

This is a pretty fantastic debut. We get a woman running from a queer relationship in the city that is in the process of failing, and her trying to lean into the Christian tradwife homeschooler for a widower and his two kids, and the ghost of the dead wife who watches this woman step into her life, and both of them starting to unravel the mystery of her death. Honestly, it doesn't wrap as clearly as I would have liked it to, and it feels like there was almost too much happening towards the end. Still a pretty great debut and one I'll be interested to see what the author does next.

We are haunted by a lot of things, and this is particularly true of Cassie, who is haunted constantly by a previous relationship with her ex-girlfriend and vicious, graphic images curated by her OCD. But she is also haunted by Beth both physically and figuratively.

I loved the concept of this book, the way it handled mental health like depression and OCD, its casual inclusion of queer relationships, coming out and discovering your own sexuality and the plot itself. I just wish the pacing had been a bit different. I felt like the best of the book was the last twenty percent and I wish the substance of that portion had started much earlier, which would have made the book more powerful and turned it into a can’t put down read. Even still, I loved the writing and both Beth and Cassie and seeing how differently their minds and beliefs work. This was a haunting but beautiful read.

If a book is compared to Bunny by Mona Awad, you can bet I’m in bc I know it’s going to be unhinged, wild, and a fever dream—and House of Beth by Kerry Cullen did not disappoint - thank you netgalley for the advanced copy!

“House of Beth” follows Cassie as she battles with her mental health and tries to identify where she fits in life. Following a breakup, Cassie moves back to her hometown on a whim and reconnects with her childhood best friend, Eli. The town is haunted by not only ghosts of her past, but also the ghosts that fill Eli’s life and home following the 10 years since Cassie and Eli have spoken. Cassie has to learn how to make herself fit in a life that was not carved out for her.

I loved this book! It was a little slow at first, but once I was hooked, I finished the rest of the book quickly! Eerie and mysterious, the story develops in ways that were unpredictable and imaginative. I will definitely be on the lookout for Kerry Cullen’s next work.

In the aftermath of a regrettable breakup and a startling discovery, Cassie flees her job at a New York literary agency to seek comfort in the familiar home of her youth in New Jersey. There, she reconnects with her childhood best friend, Eli, and shortly after, they marry and Cassie is left in a role she never expected to find herself, as step-mother to Eli's two young children. She’s having a difficult time with the transition though; still missing her ex-girlfriend, grappling with her harm OCD, and living with the shadow of Eli’s late wife, Beth. Soon Cassie, willingly or unwillingly, becomes enveloped in the story of Beth—the house of Beth—leading her down an unexpected path.

Coming in at 240 pages, House of Beth is a quick and utterly propulsive read. Tense and lush prose; hauntingly beautiful and melancholic in its story-telling; lines between life and afterlife blurring the further you read.

Strong Rebecca vibes (which I loved) with its atmosphere and the whole “new wife slowly becoming obsessed with the late wife” thing. It’s a ghost story; a love story; a story about coming home to oneself; about coming in to your queerness; a story of belief, life, love, death, grief, and belonging all rolled in to one. I was absolutely taken with this novel. I wouldn’t describe it as horrific by any means but rather a beautifully written piece of literary fiction with dark, gothic undertones.

Thank you Simon & Schuster for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. Available Jul. 15 2025

This book was so spooky and fresh - I loved the characters of Cassie and Beth and relished getting to know them in their alternating chapters. The prose was excellent; I especially loved reading about Cassie's life and her struggles - she's one of the more fascinating characters I've read about recently.

Although this is a horror/ghost story, it's not creepy - I'd recommend to any readers who are interested in a lit fic ghost story.

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

House of Beth brings horror, suspense, and… romance? The perfect WLW read for people who love a good “weird girl” book (plus, it is so Good Luck Babe).
Cassie, burnt out from her city life and dealing with mental health struggles, breaks up with her girlfriend and moves home where of course – she falls in love with her high school best friend [a man!]. Little does she know that he comes with some extra baggage – a dead wife who is haunting their house.
This book was such an enjoyable read! It really combined all the things I love in one novel: a woman just trying to live her life, bisexuality representation, a bit of horror, and a ‘good for her’ ending. I loved the deeper exploration of mental health, sexuality, and religion found within, especially in Beth’s chapters. The book moved quickly and held my attention the whole time. I wouldn’t say the book is perfect; I think the end wraps up super fast and I wonder about Beth’s relationship with her kids in the last few chapters. Regardless, I am so pleased by this book and would recommend!

This was one of the most unique and intriguing books i’ve read in a long while. the characters, the plot and the writing were all magnificent.

Cassie breaks up with her girlfriend and leaves a dead-end job in New York City and returns to her New Jersey hometown, striking up a relationship again with her childhood best friend, Eli. Eli's recently lost his wife and has two children, and Cassie, Rebecca-like, slips into a wife-slot in his life, finding provisional stability as a small-town homemaker. Also Rebecca-like, some secrets from the past intrude. 

Eli and Cassie's rekindled relationship was engaging and fresh, and I liked some of the more surreal paranormal details, but a lot of Cassie's life changes and decisions struck me as a little unbelievable and like a fairytale. The book switches between more poetically gothic passages and the normal register of contemporary literary fiction, whose blend, especially in the denouement, rings a little hollow or becomes melodramatic.

Not my favorite, but I know a lot of other people will love it!

3.75
Thank you so much to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Kerry Cullen for sending me this arc.
I loved the beginning and end of this book but somewhere in the middle it lost me for a bit.
Cassie’s character got lost for me towards the middle when she decides to marry Eli, and I didn’t quite follow the thread of why she wanted to have a family all of a sudden. it was like a strange interlude of straight-ness between two bookends of queerness and I was just waiting for the queer narrative to pick back up again.
As someone with OCD, I really enjoyed the representation of intrusive thoughts and how real they can feel.
I loved Beth’s secret queerness slowing coming to light, and the connected she and Cassie develop as a result of her possession of Cassie’s body.
The Joan/Eli characters felt a bit underdeveloped but Cassie and Beth were well done.
Overall, some excellent moments but some lackluster ones as well.

interesting in itself, but coupled with the kind of rebecca style book and the look on mental illness this book becomes a stand out.

Cassie is a queer woman without direction who flees to her home town after several things go wrong in her life in New York. Back in her home town she runs into her former best friend, Eli, who she finds out is a widowed father of two. As they start to rekindle their bond, Eli rushes her into not only a relationship but marriage which makes her the step mother to two children. As Cassie struggles to adjust to her new life she is also inundated with intrusive thoughts due to harm OCD and eventually starts to suspect another ghostly presence in the house.

For some reason I thought this was a horror novel, but honestly it’s more like literary romance. I really enjoyed the premise of this book, felt like the OCD was well represented and dealt with sympathetically, and once I figured out what it was I was reading I enjoyed it overall. I felt like it was thoughtful, philosophical, and unlike anything I’d ever read.

My biggest gripe with this was the pacing. I just felt like I could never get a handle on how quickly or slowly things were happening. The ending felt rushed and I think this book could have benefited from more exposition. The big reveal towards the end felt abrupt and likewise the resolution didn’t feel earned or rewarding.

Overall I did enjoy this book but I felt at times like I’d been caught in a whirlwind and didn’t understand what had happened because it had happened so quickly.

Okay, this book lit me up from the inside. It had everything I could’ve ever wanted.
Cassie is the exact kind of protagonist that I love. Her OCD is debilitating as she keeps seeing gore and violence everywhere she looks. After an incident at work and a break-up with her girlfriend, she escapes New York City to head back to her hometown of Elwood to stay in her father’s empty house.
While she’s in Elwood, she runs into her childhood best friend, Eli, who is now a widower and a father of two. During their whirlwind relationship, Cassie finds herself more and more curious about Eli’s dead wife, Beth, and what their life together was like.
With delicious hints of ‘Rebecca’ and ‘Jane Eyre’, this book delivers on VIBES. The microcosm that Cassie creates for herself within Eli’s world is a mesmerizing whirlpool of inadequacy, adventures in becoming a stepparent to children who seem to have raised themselves, self-discovery, and betrayal. The raw emotions that Cassie felt, and ultimately Beth as well, were so viscerally described that I felt them too. This book made me run through an entire spectrum of emotions.
The longing, the nostalgic romance with her old best friend, the constant comparisons to Beth and wondering how she could ever live up to the standard that this saintly woman had set all drive Cassie to an interesting breaking point. It’s not a mystery book necessarily, but the more Cassie learns about her new life, the more she wonders how Beth actually died.
‘House of Beth’ also delves into the importance of being your authentic self and the perils of living a life that others have set out for you. The queer aspects of this book were beautifully written and heartbreaking. Beth’s struggle with wasting her life and realizing too late that the principals she followed, the ones that defined her every move, were not only for nothing but denied her any pleasure during her short life was absolutely devastating. Hearing about her relationship with the woman at church and seeing how curtly it ended was brutal.
Also, f*ck Eli and Joan. All my homies hate Joan and Eli.
What a beautiful meditation on belonging, identity, capability, sexuality, and mental health. I highly highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a peek inside someone else’s brain.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for giving me an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was able to read this thru NetGalley and didn’t know anything about it. Guess it’s just not my style …gothic…but it’s well written and I did finish it because I wanted to know the ending, it’s quite a mix of a ghost story along with a mystery and a relationship arc (would not call it a love story).

There are secrets in the woods and in the walls of this home, if you listen closely enough. How close is too close, is the question.

After a painful breakup and a shocking incident at work, Cassie leaves her hectic life in New York and returns to her hometown in New Jersey. There, she reconnects with childhood best friend Eli, who is now a widowed father of two, and quickly marries him. As she settles into life in the woods, homeschooling the children and getting to know her reclusive neighbor Joan, Cassie continues to struggle with her OCD and the shadow of Eli’s late wife, Beth. Despite her efforts, Cassie feels inadequate compared to Beth’s legacy as a perfect homemaker. When Cassie begins hearing a voice that reveals the house’s hidden secrets, she is drawn into unraveling the mystery of Beth’s untimely death.

I wanted to love this fast-paced and unexpectedly dark at times novel, I really did. The first 2/3 of the book had me gripped, easily convinced by and even routing for our queer, struggling main character. It’s tragic and romantic — two childhood best friends finding their way back together; finding present comfort from a tumultuous past. Cassie is a mess, but one of the most intriguing kind. Despite her OCD making gruesome appearances, some days worse than others, Cassie is, at her core, good. She doesn’t overstep her boundaries, she helps where she can, she doesn’t ask for anything in return. Not to mention she’s a book lover, too.

Then came chapters from a different perspective, first reading in a descriptive way that reminded me of the whimsical stylings of Max Porter, but this slowly turned into backstory and deeper character development. Suddenly, I blinked and realized we flew off the rails. Without any spoilers, I can say, I was willing to suspend belief, go along for the uncharted trek, but the closer the ending got the more I just couldn’t take it. I was frustrated, unbelieving, and confused to as why we were throwing in these last minute plot points. In hindsight, I couldn't understand why certain parts of the story were even told to us -- what was their purpose? Overall, it felt half baked when the potential for a delicious treat was just looming there, begging for more time to cook.

I don’t feel as though I wasted my time, this is a quick read, but I am ultimately left unsatisfied despite the author’s best effort to tie up loose ends.