This haunted house horror follows Tommy and Kate as they move into their new home in Becchina, Italy. Becchina, like many towns, is experiencing a decline in population so they started a program where you can purchase a home there for a single Euro as long as they promise to live there for 5 years. It is an easy decision as both Tommy and Kate work remotely and Becchina is the hometown of Tommy's grandparents. However, as they move in and begin to renovate the home, they start to feel an odd presence in the home. And once they find out the true history of the house they bought, Tommy and Kate must delve deeper into the darkness than they ever expected.
This was the slowest of slow burns for me and I almost put it down when I got to the middle and there still wasn't a whole lot of spooky stuff going on. However, I'm so glad I continued reading because the last 30% of the book was absolutely fantastic and the slow burn paid off. There are so many seemingly mundane details we get in the first half of the read that I was frustrated with because it just felt like a general fiction read about these people and their house. But when those details came into play in the finale, I completely understood why Golden included them early on.
I was so excited when I saw the premise for this read because I've looked into similar programs in different countries where they are selling abandoned homes for very little. What a great jumping off point for a horror read because, with abandoned homes, you really don't know what happened there before. I also loved how we get to see other couples who took advantage of the program as well and see how their lives and homes differ from Tommy and Kate's. Also, the abandoned home program details come into play throughout the read, not just as a premise to get Tommy and Kate into this house.
The horror elements were fantastic, although I do wish there was more of a consistent and gradual pressure of them throughout the first 50%. We get a few creepy moments, but then we would go for stretches with no real horror scenes. It went on long enough that I was starting to think that maybe this would be more of a general fiction with a slight horror elements. However, I was pleasantly surprised that we really go from 0 to 100 quickly at about the 70% mark. I also loved that we do get a specific sub-genre of horror (that I can't specify because I think it would be a spoiler) that I always forget I love as much as I do until I stumble across it and now I want to just read this sub-genre for the next month or so.
The ending was absolutely 12/10 chef's kiss fantastic. It was one of those endings where I went to turn the page on my eReader, expecting there to be a new chapter, but it was just the end of the book. And normally, I don't prefer those sorts of hard stop endings. I do like my reads to have a bit of a calm down after the climax of the read. However, in this case, I think the ending perfectly matches the plot and overall vibe of the read. I loved that Golden leaves it a little open ended so the reader can imagine the long-term implications of what we're left with at the end.
Overall, this was a solid read. I would have liked the horror elements to be more consistently built throughout the read but the last 30% was absolutely a 5-star read and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.
Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC. Publication date was January 30, 2024.
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