Book: The House by the Cemetery by John Everson

The House by the Cemetery is one of the three new October releases from Flame Tree Press. It centres around a carpenter, Mike Kostner, who has been tasked with renovating an abandoned house on the edge of town to make it safe for a halloween haunted house attraction. The rumours in the town are that the house is haunted by a witch and has been used by satanists and the like for spiritual ceremonies. Mike isn’t one for believing all that and so, while a touch wary going ins he agrees to take the job. The story follows Mike as he fixes up the house and as the house begins its month as a halloween house. It also follows the people working in the haunted house attraction as designers and scares, and the paranormal investigators who think the house should be left alone.

Everson has written a perfect halloween month book! An easy and fun read, the story moves along a good pace and you rarely feel lost. At points there feels like there might be a few too many characters but they are all quite distinct so you quickly realise who’s doing and saying what.

The story itself is very enjoyable and has certainly got me in a halloween mood. I can’t wait to start working on a costume and watching old scary films (which this book references in abundance). If you like classic horror then you’ll love the actual haunted house in the book. It’s filled with rooms dedicated to horror of the past 60 years, some a little more obscure than others.

My only real gripe with the book was how easily mMike becomes convinced to do things. I don’t want to give anything away so I won’t be specific, I just feel he says or thinks that he doesn’t want to do something and then is immediately convinced to do it. I just wonder if he could’ve been a little stronger or if we could have been given more reason for him to agree so easily to things.

I would definitely recommend this book to people looking for a good halloween read. It’s literally a book about a bout halloween, horror films and a haunted house, It’s great! I would caution younger readers as there are some sexual scenes and there is also a fair amount of violence, but what would halloween be without a bit of blood and gore?

I was not paid for this review and all opinions are my own. The copy I was reading was an uncorrected ARC.