In the Shadow of Spindrift House

By: Mira Grant

Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky

Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

For Harlowe Upton-Jones, life has never been a straight line. Shipped off to live with her paternal grandparents after a mysterious cult killed her mother and father, she has grown up chasing the question behind the curve, becoming part of a tight-knit teen detective agency. But "teen" is a limited time offer, and when her friends start looking for adult professions, it's up to Harlowe to find them one last case so that they can go out in a blaze of glory.

Welcome to Spindrift House. The stories and legends surrounding the decrepit property are countless and contradictory, but one thing is clear: there are people willing to pay a great deal to determine the legal ownership of the house. When Harlowe and her friends agree to investigate the mystery behind the manor, they do so on the assumption that they'll be going down in history as the ones who determined who built Spindrift House - and why.

The house has secrets. They have the skills. They have a plan. They have everything they need to solve the mystery. Everything they need except for time. Because Spindrift House keeps its secrets for a reason, and it has no intention of letting them go. Nature abhors a straight line. Here's where the story bends.

©2019 Seanan McGuire (P)2019 Tantor

Noooo

I’m so sad it ended. I could have easily listened to another few hours of this story. It’s sad in a few ways and I would love more stories about previous adventures. We just get the end of the line for most of the characters and the true beginning of one.

Meh

It was okay, but MS/SMcG has written much better stories. It seems more like a creative writing class short story than anything else to me.

Jinkies! Zoinks Scooby, that wasn't scary at all!

This story is a total pastiche of Scooby-Doo, The Super smart girl (Velma if she was gay) The Stoner, (Shaggy) The Hot Girl (Daphne) and The other guy (Freddy) who really doesn't do anything except for maybe ruin the plan.
We get a lot of talk about their "past cases" which sound a lot like the Scooby Gangs antics.
But now the "horrors" (it really wasn't scary at any point) are real, and... I couldn't care less.
That might have been an interesting premise, like MEDDLING KIDS, but it just feels like a half hearted rip off of that book and SD mixed with some H. P. Hatecraft... (SD reference)
The ending can be seen coming a mile away and it feels like a Teen retelling of "Shadow Over Innsmouth" with dashes of the 1999 "The Haunting" (the legacy of the woman who left the house) only helped by the fact that is so short and feels more like an overly long short story, and not a short novel. Much more, and better could have been done with this premise.
Skip this one.
The reader managed to sound "young adult girl" with out being annoying, a rare feat. Too bad she didn't have a better Story.

Jinkies! It's old man Dagon!

You could reduce this to a modern day scooby gang meets eldritch horror....and you'd be right. Great book.

Edge of my seat

Good suspense, lyrical prose, fantastic ending. If you’ve read any with HP Lovecraft, this will be familiar, although much better written. What more could you ask for? Mira Grant aka Seanan McGuire aka A. Debora Baker is my favorite author, so of course I’m slightly biased toward the book before I even started it, but it did not disappoint. If you like the stories of Lovecraft but cringe at his writing (like I do) this is the book for you.

im a sucker for lovecraftian stories.

and im a sucker for scoobydoo too.
really great narration, really great story, would definitely recommend to gals like me who loved Mira's other books about things that live in the deep.
looking at you mermaids.

Scooby Doo meets Lovecraft...

...and it kind of works! I was drawn into the story and started to care about the characters right away. It’s more creepy than funny.

Incredible

This book was compelling, dark and amazing. The mystery of it really grabs you and doesn’t let you go until the end. The writing was beautiful and the narration made it that much better. Overall amazing would definitely recommend.

Barebone Story

Go read/listen to Meddling Kids instead. This little novella has nothing unique or interesting, it's just a random assortment of ideas you'll easily be able to place from other books and media.