Title: The Haunting of Winchester Mansion

Author: Alexandria Clarke

Publisher: 2019

Genre: Horror Mystery

Pages: 440

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Fall TBR; COYER

In the small town of Black Bay, a vacant, forgotten house sits atop an overlooking bluff.

When Bailey and Bodhi Taylor move in and begin renovations, the house seems perfect. But things move on their own, screams echo from the basement, and Bailey sees a shadowy figure out of the corner of her eye. Is the house haunted? And if it is, what does the ghost want with Bailey?

CW: Child death

Well that was a bust for me. I was hoping for some creepy supernatural mystery a la Darcy Coates. Instead, we get a very lackluster mundane mystery with a few supernatural bits. I called the murderer within the first 50 pages and then felt myself becoming more and more bored over the course of the last 400 pages. The story was way too long and drawn out for what it was. The main characters frustrated me. I was not happy about their backstory and the casual way it was dropped. Seriously needed a content warning there… Add in the weird way the story was broken up and edited and I was very annoyed by it. I suspect that this was three novellas that were then smashed into one big book. If you are going to do that, please edit the transitions better. Very annoying.

Next up on the TBR pile: