This domestic horror follows a young family moving into their newly constructed home - Trent, Rita, and their son Milo. Initially, everything seems great on the surface, but soon Trent starts to find issues with the construction. He turns to YouTube DIY channel Handyman Hank who just so happens to have the exact video topics Trent needs. No matter how many different issues Trent discovers with the home, Handyman Hank has a video. But soon the videos start mentioning other things outside of DIY tips and tricks - more sinister topics.
I read most of this book while waiting for my car to be inspected at the dealership and it was a hell of a ride to be reading in public. The horror aspects were varied and well executed. From the description, I was expecting more of a slow burn build-up to the horror but it started off much more quickly than I anticipated. I've seen a lot of reviews comping this to The Shining by Stephen King and I do think that comparison is apt.
The majority of this read is following Trent's POV, but we do get some chapters from Rita and Milo's POVs which was interesting. I did find the balance between the POV choices to be a little uneven and I would have liked a few more chapters from Rita or Milo. Trent is the main focus of the read until the last 25% so having some of those other POVs used more frequently earlier on in the story would have helped the transition be not so jarring. We don't know a ton of information about our characters and it does feel like we get little bits of their backstory only when it is directly integral to a current plot point. I actually really liked that choice as it helped the isolation feeling of this family being mostly stuck in this new house - like they had nothing else going on except the house.
When it comes to the different horror elements, I enjoyed how well they connected and played off each other. We get a good variety of horror types and each escalate throughout the story. There were some gory moments that were borderline too much for me and I had to skim those sections a bit (I also skimmed over the parts having to do with the family pet). The actual mechanics of what was happening weren't over the top or extreme, but the descriptions were so visceral that it made my skin crawl. I think the paranormal/haunted house aspect was maybe the weakest of the horror elements because it didn't feel as grounded as the other parts. I wanted some more details or rules about what was happening, especially since none of the characters seemed particularly worried about the strange things going on.
By far and away my favorite horror element was the psychological horror of the Handyman Hank videos and Trent's breakdown. From reading other reviews, some readers thought this part was way over the top and into almost caricature territory but I absolutely loved it. I think we do get a good gradual ramp up of more sinister parts of the videos and we see how Hank gets into Trent's thoughts even when he isn't watching a video. Some of my favorite moments in the book revolve around Trent's DIY projects and how gradually more and more unhinged they become.
I wasn't so sure about the ending reveal/conclusion but the final scene really helped concrete the ending as a good choice for this read. I would have preferred some more emotional build up throughout the rest of the book which I think would have helped the emotional weight of the ending hit more solidly. The ending is a little open ended, which I think is a great way to end the story and works well with the information we learn during the events of the book. I would have loved a flash forward epilogue where we could see the longer term ramifications of the ending decisions, but since we didn't get that I have my own theories on what happens down the line.
Overall, this was a great horror read with some fantastic elements. From what I've seen of reviews, this is a 'love it or hate it' sort of read and I'm so glad I loved it.
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