I'm a sucker for a good haunted house book. Or flick, for that matter. Yes, they can be repetitive, and yes, they're a little overdone, and yes, my husband would probably be thrilled if I announced I never wanted to see a horror movie ever again, let's just watch anime, let me go get my textbook to learn Japanese so we can watch it with no subtitles. But that's not going to happen. Well, maybe the learning Japanese part will eventually but not yet.

Part of the draw of a good haunted house is the story behind the menace now threatening you -- something awful happened to somebody somewhere and now they just want to lash out and hurt anyone in their reach, and whoever's in reach needs to figure out what the **** actually happened just to save their own behind. And God only knows why that poor sucker was in reach in the first place -- usually through a situation where they're backed into a corner, where something looks too good to be true because it is.

The awesome thing is that Cherie Priest manages to make it original. I mean, the tropes of the story are there -- they have to be, it's part of a haunted house -- but this time, it's based on a company coming in to strip a beautiful old house of its antique pieces, the hardwood floors, the marble mantlepieces, the old wooden banisters made of wood that doesn't grow in the United States anymore (sidenote: if you ever want to hear about a tragedy, read about some of the decimation of the American chestnut, man...).

And while Priest is famous (infamous?) for her steampunky Clockwork Century books (Boneshaker et al), there's part of me that really feels like this this a return to her Southern gothic roots that she left off with the series of Eden Moore. She brings a lot of cultural flavor to her books that not an awful lot of people manage, and the result is gorgeous.

I also have to say that I really loved Dahlia, our protagonist with a penchant for old houses and a past that's left her just a touch wounded, but determined to make it work and possibly stronger for it. Priest also really managed to convey what it's like to work for a family owned business and the stresses and burdens it brings -- the 'to you it's just another job, but to me it's not just my livelihood but the livelihood of my family and employees' thing.

Good read, either way. Darn you, Cherie, you kept me up until 3 a.m. finishing this book. ;)

The Family Plot - Likewise Book Reviews

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