Leila Taylor's "Sick Houses: Haunted Homes and the Architecture of Dread" is an excellent overview of the different aspects of homes through a horror lens, what makes them that way, and what that means for the people inhabiting them. By providing examples of both fictional and non-fictional houses, Taylor turned her literary criticism into a cabinet of curiosities. Each chapter leads us to a new sub-section of the topic, pulling examples from pop culture, history, and true crime; Taylor's strength as a descriptive author made it unnecessary to Google every house she mentions and continue to read on (though the added photographs of certain houses were tasteful and well placed). The tone is conversational yet professional, with her insights and wrap-up adding strength to her analysis.

As a slight critique, a heads-up for spoilers about some movies and books would have been nice. I quickly caught on that any time Taylor mentioned a film or book, the entire plot would be revealed, but I imagine it would be offputting to some readers. Additionally, There was no way she could feasibly address every example for each chapter, either; but I believe she could have gone more in-depth at some points or made the connections between her examples stronger.

The final chapter of "Sick Houses," "My House," feels like an extended metaphor for this text. She brings us a pile of information, debris of terrifying instances both real and fictional, and wants us to make something of it. She never draws our conclusions but makes her thesis for each chapter clear. If the reader is here for the actual gritty details of architecture itself, they may be disappointed, but "Sick Houses" is perfect for anyone interested in the subject of pop culture horror and how it intersects with our lives.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced reader's copy.

Taylor does an amazing overview and interrogation of haunted houses across American and British popular culture, and even digs up a few movies that I thought would never be interrogated in this kind of context (Dogtooth!!). Great read, great analysis, pick it up when it comes out this Feb.

Even though she defines “house” vs “home” in chapter 1 and opines that a home can’t be haunted, Taylor keeps coming back to talk about the concept of home which, for me, takes away from the interesting history and descriptions of the sick “houses”. Overall, as a fan of haunted and “sick” houses, it was an enjoyable reminder of the houses I’ve read about and seen in film and was fun to learn a little more about those and others I wasn’t aware of. It’s also an interesting combination of having all the appearances of an academic text but punctuated with strong, occasionally expletive-filled opinions about the houses or their inhabitants, especially the non-fictional ones.
While I appreciated the opportunity to read the ebook, I look forward to seeing the physical book as there were many photos of the houses she mentions that were not done justice in ebook form.

"The pall of terror or despair from a violent or unexpected demise lingers so heavily over a house that it permanently stains the very structure of the building."

Leila Taylor's book is a deep dive into the architecture of haunted houses, uncanny domestic spaces, and how the horror genre subverts and corrupts the sanctity of home. It explores how the horror genre in film, television, and literature uses architecture and the ideology of the home against us.

This has been my first non-fiction read in absolute ages. The idea of the lasting impact haunted spaces have and the way in which they have been perceived was interesting to me.

I like the way in which this felt like a well researched piece. It does not feel heavy to read. There are so many references I was quite familiar with. This new insight gave me another avenue with which to think about the affect these spaces have had over the decades.

If anything this has made me want to revisit the many horror films mentioned along with looking further into several locations.

This was in the Horror category so I was surprised to find a nonfiction book. The title is so misleading, it’s not about sick houses or haunted houses or even murder houses. This is about movies with houses in them. A very deep dive into movies. Very disappointed.

Sick Houses is a fascinating work of horror literary criticism that takes the reader on a tour of haunted houses, ranging from the fiction to non-fiction. Leila Taylor is a knowledgeable, engaging and insightful narrator: I found her writing style completely absorbing.

The definition of what makes a haunted house is wide ranging, including not only supernatural hauntings but more abstract ones, such as attempts to design architecture to influence human behaviour (High Rise), humans held in captivity (Room), and the way houses and inhabitants influence each other (the Unabomber cabin). It's a mark of how much I enjoyed this book that I didn't want it to end: there are plenty of haunted houses which didn't make the cut which I would love to hear Leila Taylor's take on. The haunted house is such a widespread and well established trope that it would be impossible to catalogue every one. Instead, the examples act as prompts to explore our expectations around houses and how we react when people fail to meet them.

Sick Houses focuses mainly on the American haunted house, with a few exceptions such as High Rise, The Others and His House. At times, I felt like the book would have benefitted by narrowing its focus to specifically American haunted houses, at others I would have liked to broaden it to include more international examples. However, the non-American examples were well chosen and added something interesting to the discussion that I would have been sorry to lose.

Thank you to NetGalley, Leila Taylor and Repeater books for an ARC in return for my honest review.

This book was a surprise for me. I was really drawn in by the description but still a bit apprehensive because I'm not a big reader of non-fiction. My love for haunted houses is bigger though... This was a very good book about the architecture of haunted houses. I learned so much and the research from the author really shines through. The writing style is not tedious and it's nothing like a textbook from school.

This book can reel you in and keep you close through the entire book.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the chance to read this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This is a fantastic concept, and I really found this kind of editorial essay approach to a fascinating non-fiction subject a good one for the topic. This book covers the idea of houses and homes and the in-between that gives us such a distinct sense of dread when dealing with the supernatural in them. I know this feeling well - we live in an incredibly old house, and have just as many cats as necessary to compensate for (presumably) all the ghosts that probably live here with us.

This book starts off with the concept of homes and then the concept of hauntings, and then further dives into interesting sub-genres of the haunted and bizarre in houses. There are segments dedicated to different forms of houses, often pulling on the strings of pop culture to bolster points and the concept of the weird. I found that there were some bits that were a bit too short, and drew on movies that I maybe would not have put into those precise contexts or segments, but they were still solid.

This is a really interesting read as a whole, and while I would have liked for it to be a bit longer, it is definitely an interesting book, and well worth the time!

Sick Houses explores the architecture of the quintessential domestic space: the home. What makes our refuge, that place of protection, become unsettling? What haunts these spaces? Leila Taylor masterfully dissects what happens when a disruptive element intrudes upon our sanctuary, transforming it into a hostile setting, even a trap.

The connection with Taylor is almost immediate: she seems to share with me a series of neuroses and obsessions that are utterly fascinating. Her concern with understanding how a home can be desecrated to the point of becoming merely “a house” resonates deeply.
Through real-life examples intertwined with references to horror literature and cinema, Taylor attempts to explain the cases where the house becomes a character. Sometimes, it takes on an overwhelming prominence, with malevolent intentions that even overshadow its inhabitants, that fall victims to the building's perverse will.

The author dedicates each chapter to a specific type of house: the haunted house, the dollhouse, the witch’s house, and so on, interweaving themes and political analyses. For instance, she explores how capitalism and certain policies have created a culture that idealizes homeownership, making us vulnerable to its eventual perversion. The homeowner, having invested time, money, and hopes in their home, has no choice but to become a victim of the house.

Taylor’s analysis goes beyond mere anecdotes—though she uses concrete examples—and seeks out the possible origins, the initial malignant cell that contaminates a house and makes it sick, in a thoroughly compelling work of non-fiction that will captivate horror enthusiasts and curious minds alike.

Thanks to NetGalley and Repeater Books for this ARC

Sick Houses is an exploration of unnerving and haunted domestic buildings, from simple family homes to imposing concrete tower blocks, and the fiction and real life that shows us these. The chapters focus on different types of architecture and spooky homes, sharing a range of examples and some of the eerie elements of these, and drawing on a range of media to look into what makes a house haunted.

I like Taylor's approach to the idea of haunted houses, making it quite a broad term that doesn't just cover houses with ghosts, but a range of types of 'haunting'. There's a lot of different material covered in the book, with a lot of examples, but I did find that it was more of a collection of different kinds of haunted homes rather than an analysis of things about them. I expected it to have more of an argument than it did, though I did like that the final chapter was Taylor's own experiences and a sense of uncertainty around what exactly a haunting is. I'd say that it is good if you're looking for something that shares a lot of different types of 'sick houses', but it is worth knowing that it isn't an in-depth exploration of the concept of these houses and what it might mean. I think it would sit well alongside Jacob Geller's YouTube video 'Control, Anatomy, and the Legacy of the Haunted House', which takes the approach of analysing a few haunted houses more deeply, as for me that video set the bar very high for looking at the concept of a haunted house.

Cool concept, and I liked the debunking of some misreadings.
I expected it to focus more on the mood of the settings, the locations, and more of the author’s analyses and supporting visuals.

I never expected a book about houses—haunted or otherwise—to be so interesting. Leila Taylor avoids the morbid details of true crime in favor of exploring real and fictional horrors, and does so with the precision of a professional and the charm of a close friend.

Absorbing and highly atmospheric, this is a well-written book about houses with a creepy past, whether fictional or true. The author’s tone is likeable and readable, and the information is in depth yet totally parsable. The author clearly knows her stuff!

My expectations for Sick Houses were very high as I am a big fan of horror, especially of the haunted house trope. This is a non-fiction book that unfortunately reads like a school report on horror movies. The majority of the book is just a movie synopses and summaries that are big spoilers if you haven’t seen the films. I had to skip some descriptions, because I don’t want to be spoiled the ending or the whole premise of certain books and movies – huge spoilers for the movies Us and The Amityville Horror. I expected the author to put more explorations and analysis of their own opinions, but we just got some facts about famous houses. The best quotes and metaphors were from different sources, the bibliography at the end is massive. It was interesting reading how true events can be interpreted and presented as hauntings, as in the case of the Winchester house. This house was very fascinating, but there we no photos of it. There are plenty of photos of other houses, including movie scenes from various films, which was very unnecessary in my opinion. There were no floor plans or architectural drawings of buildings, there were some photographs I can assume taken by the author, but I can’t be too sure of that. The book ends with a personal experience that the author had, but for the most part I felt like the person writing this isn’t very familiar with the things they are writing about. I was pretty disappointed and unfortunately I cannot rate it very high.
Thank you to NetGalley and Repeater Books for providing me with the ARC.

What a fascinating combination of personal experience, film criticism and social commentary! I thought this was such an interesting concept and it did not disappoint- the author’s conversational tone brings life to the analysis. I think I’d have liked to hear more on about houses in fiction but that’s just a personal preference for literary studies and doesn’t negate how interesting I found this, or how informative it was. I’ve spoken to people about this already so I’ll definitely be enthusiastically handselling on publication. Looking forward to reading the author’s other work on black southern horror!

This in not only a great breakdown of what makes haunted houses in movies work, but a greatly way to get movie recommendations. I love that each house gets a thorough run down and explanation and that it is divided neatly into parts.

I saw this on NetGalley at the end of the last year and thought it would be a perfect fit to start the 2025 Year of Horror.

A great little journey through the house as a centre for the weird and spooky, whether that is just a normal person expanding their house as they desire or the abode of some of the most terrifying human beings. There are also explorations of some of the creepiest film and book houses where things definitely go bump in the night.

Written in a very accessible form this was such an enjoyable read, though there are quite a few spoilers in here for horror books and films, so beware when you start reading about a book that it may be spoiled in here.

This has added more books and films to my want to see/read list though and that’s always a good thing.

I really enjoyed how it took in both the factual and fictional creepiness of houses and took in the personal experience of spookiness, as we have to agree with Leila that there are always houses around that we just wouldn’t want to walk into in your neighbourhood.

A well thought out and executed look into the domestic side of horror that could have been a much larger book in my view.

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fantastic concept for this type of book, it had that element that I was looking for and was hooked from the description. I thought it was a great idea to discuss the architecture of haunted houses. I enjoyed the way Leila Taylor wrote this and am excited for more.

I'm not really a non-fiction kind of reader, but the description really appealed to the horror lover in me, and I was not disappointed!

The book takes you on a journey through both fictional and real-life houses of horror and peculiarity, with some areas being more fully covered than others. I was really fascinated with the story behind the high-rise multiple occupancy homes both in reality and as portrayed in film. I also enjoyed that one of my favourite miniaturist content creators was referenced in the book as it was a nice personal easter egg for me. Some of the photography was also brilliant, and I found myself wanting more reference pictures and looking up a lot of images as I read.

My only complaint is it did spoil the ending of a book on my TBR, and I didn't think it really needed to be done to get across the point of the story. Although I guess it's on me for not reading faster!

Overall, if you're like me and you only read one or 2 non-fiction a year, I'd recommend this one!

I don’t typically read nonfiction so it’s only fitting that I picked this up because it was horror-related! This is a very interesting read that explores what makes the safety of the home, and dives into many pieces of literature and film and shows and the architecture of the homes that rip that safety away and set the scene for hauntings, murder, witchings, etc. She explores why those structures have such an influence on the overall “vibes” of each piece of work, why they’re perfect in creeping us out. She even goes so far as to explore the symbolism of dollhouses in films and other works. It was a very unique exploration of architecture within films and very engaging to get short blurbs of each piece of work before she dives into the “sick houses” in them.

The writing felt very conversational, not too dense, which was refreshing for a nonfiction read. I did expect more of an exploration into if certain architecture can attract bad energy but, I have to say that I enjoyed the analysis of films and shows and novels quite a bit. There were many iconic pieces of work featured that any horror lover would be happy to dive into analyzing - Ammityville Horror, Haunting of Hill House, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, and so on.