My thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an eARC of this book to read and review.

Ok, let me just say that the author has a way with words and can write a sentence that can bring an image to your mind and can really get into the heads of the characters he writes. They are believable, REAL people with both good and bad qualities.

This book is written in five sections, with the first one following a boy on the spectrum and his mother in the 1970s and the second one taking place nine years later following a cop who is looking into the disappearance of the missing mother and boy. He's also a wife-beater who was divorced by said wife, BUT he did help a meter maid who was being bullied by two really nasty construction workers AND he really did want to save the mother when he came across her, so he wasn't as horrible as he was first made out to be and the reader can have some sympathy for what happened to him.

The next two sections I skipped and the last one I skimmed to see if the destination was a good one and well...not really.

SPOILERS BELOW

Evil kinda wins in this one. The reason the boy and his mother and the cop and the others all ended up disappearing is because the house they were lured to was "haunted" by a brother and sister energy vampire duo, who lived forever off of eating the souls of specific humans.

In the final section, the brother is killed by someone who is part of a group that is hunting down and killing the evil soul eating vampires. However, before the sister completely died, she was able to send her spirit into the growing fetus in a pregnant woman in the area, so she would be able to live and have revenge on the group and the specific person who killed her brother.

This was well-written, but it was too dark and grim for my tastes. I read it for "spooky" season and it kind of fell flat for me.

2, not for me but I can see why his works are so popular, stars.

Loved, loved, loved this novel! Took me awhile to start reading it but I'm sure glad I did. This story to me was made so believable that it actually scared me at many points in the plot. Two fantastically creepy characters and a wonderful cast of supporting players can be found within. Would love to see this as a movie or limited TV series. Highly recommended.

Very thrilling read. Lots of interesting characters. Author does a great job covering such a large time period.

Slade House was a breathtaking, frightening, lyrical novel. The mystery drew me in and held my attention. I’m a big fan of narratives centered around objects: the house evolved into a a character of its own as we followed it throughout time, serving as a focal point as other character came, went, and we lost. I’m never going to be able to look at painted portraits the same again.

Very well written and a fascinating story. Good sense of atmosphere. However not really to my taste I have to confess, as too fantastic for me.

Easy read, but another highly overrated book from Mitchell. If you must have a haunted house story, skip this one and head back to Shirley Jackson.

'Slade House' by David Mitchell is a novel about a malevolent house and the victims that it patiently waits for.

Just around the corner from a British pub is a house. Every nine years, someone has an encounter with it. This book's victims start meeting the house in the late 1970s. There are kids and cops and people who have heard about this weird house. The house just seems to swallow up anyone that it invites in.

I really liked this strange take on the haunted house story. It's the kind of horror novel that is a slow burn rather than cheap, quick thrills, and I was completely captivated by it. The book does tie in with The Bone Clocks by the same author. I recommend reading this book first.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Random House and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

Powerful - Mitchell is such a terrific author. This is one of his finest.

Did not finish...and that rarely happens! I've read other books by David Mitchell and enjoyed them, but this one fell short. I was not able to make it even halfway through before giving up.