The September House

De: Carissa Orlando

Narrado por: Kimberly Farr

“Why run from a haunted house when you can stay and ignore the ghosts? Just when you thought you'd seen everything a haunted house novel could do, The September House comes along and delivers an eerie, darkly funny, and emotionally grounded book about the ghosts that haunt houses and marriages."– Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House

A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this thoroughly enjoyable, twisty, and layered debut novel.

When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.

Margaret is not most people.

Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.

©2023 Carissa Orlando (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Kimberly Farr narrates this creepy, mesmerizing story of Margaret and Hal, who purchase their dream home, a beautiful, haunted Victorian.... Farr masters every unique character, alive or dead, in this one-woman show." (AudioFile)

"Margaret is a delightfully well drawn protagonist, sturdy, unflappable, and often dryly funny, but as the narrative unfurls, we learn that the reasons for her strictly regimented behavior are neither simple nor pleasant...The September House is a surprising, engaging debut." - Vulture.com (Best Books of 2023)

“Every once in a while, a story comes along that fully upends a genre in the most beautiful way, essentially reinventing the notion of what’s possible within that genre. Now, author Carissa Orlando, a horror enthusiast, has written that very story.” - Shondaland.com

“The metaphor is layered and at times heartbreaking, as secrets held by both a house and a family come to light with terrifying poignancy in this wonderfully eerie debut.” - Library Journal (starred review)

Fun, storyline, but the audio mixing and narrator were pretty horrible

As amentioned, this was a fun story. I appreciated all of the characters and the stories connected to them and had a pretty solid through line. That said, the sound mixing and narrator made this nearly unlistenable. The main characters internal dialogue seemed very low energy and uninterested throughout the entire book, and the narrator took this to heart! My recommendation if you are going to listen to this book, is to listen at atleast 1.5 speed to make it sound like a normal person talking. There are only 2 emotions in this book, bored and apathetic or loud expletives, nothing in between. Additionally, the two main characters in the book are at two obscenely, different volumes, so, when they are in conversation, it is impossible to control the volume. My first recommendation, is to read this book. If you do want to listen to it, I recommend trying to find it at a library, it is not worth a credit.

This book is just perfect

Seriously, this book has everything. I absolutely adored it. I loved the characters and the plot.

Loved it

Everything !!! Loved it what a fun twist on a haunted house I loved the main character and was understanding her why. Crazy as it was

Middle aged girl power meets Stranger Things monsters

Not what I expected, but in a good way. I can’t imagine this won’t be made into a movie. It’s has all the components. Very gory but you can’t see it. Quite captivating so you keep reading. Lots of twists and turns.

A fun, sometimes heartbreaking, ghost story

A wonderful mix of humor, horror, and heartbreaking, The September House is a delightful listen brought to life by a wonderful narrator.

Had a great time

I loved this book so much, I didn’t want it to end. I loved margaret and identified with her a lot, and loved the way this story unfolded. I thought the narration was perfect, and I’m sad this book is over.

So good

This was such a great story. Ghosts. Blood dripping down walls. Evil in the basement. Such a delightful story.

WOWZA. Can we get a movie???

This story was awesome!!! The narrator was good, don’t get me wrong. It just felt like Marion Cunningham (IYKYK) was reading it. I feel like it would have been 10x creepier had I read and not listened. Oh well. It was still a PHENOMENAL story!

Horrific and absolutely delightful

Probably one of my favorite houses house books to date! The characters are interesting, the mystery is engaging, and the finale had me engrossed. The main mystery while engaging wasn’t wholly surprising in the end but that never bothers me as long as the journey to get there is interesting and BOY, was this interesting. I can’t recommend this enough!

Whoa

The middle third hits you with an emotional curveball, but absolutely delivers in the horror aspect.