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The September house
Book
2023
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Where is it?
Fiction/Biography Profile
Characters
Margaret (Female), Mother, Determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare
Genre
Fiction
Thriller
Horror
Mystery
Topics
Ghosts
Haunted houses
Family
Missing persons
Secrets
Mothers and daughters
Large Cover Image
Trade Reviews
Library Journal Review
DEBUT With grim humor, emotional resonance, and brilliant subversion of a familiar trope, this compelling debut is perfect for fans of Clay MacLeod Chapman, Simone St. James, and Grady Hendrix. Margaret holds steadfast to the sentiment that everything is survivable each September when her dream home, a stately Victorian that she and her husband purchased, becomes a macabre nightmare: blood seeps from walls, disembodied moans howl like the wind, and there is an increase in appearances of ghosts of former residents who met untimely ends. With surprisingly good humor despite the circumstances, Margaret is determined to stay put, diligently washing walls and paying little mind to otherworldly roommates, but after three Septembers, her husband reaches his breaking point and leaves. This absence means little to Margaret until the couple's adult daughter makes her first visit to the house one September, intent on finding out why her father isn't returning her calls, and Margaret must balance fielding her daughter's questions while going to increasingly extreme lengths to keep the ghosts at bay. VERDICT 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.--Emily Vinci
Publishers Weekly Review
If P.G. Wodehouse had written The Amityville Horror, the result might have approximated Orlando's equally charming and spooky debut. Middle-aged, matter-of-fact, and stubborn, narrator Margaret Hartman has no intention of abandoning her Victorian dream home, even if her stolid housekeeper was in fact axe-murdered more than 100 years ago and the walls drip blood every September. ("It was going to be a long month. But that's just the way of things.") Margaret's husband, unable to face another autumn of ghastly incursions, has left without word, and her daughter, Katherine, is about to visit for the first time, to search for him. Margaret must hide the haunted truths of her household from Katherine if she wants to avoid being bullied into moving--even if the facade of normalcy requires opening the dreaded basement door. As her neighbor Edie sighs, "Oh, Margaret, you're in a real pickle." That direct, practical voice is central to the pleasure of Orlando's storytelling. While horror tropes abound, there are no screaming teens or action heroes--the ghosts are tactile and verbal, the neighbors know about the problem and pitch in, and, when push comes to shove, it's a hard-won combination of biological and found family that unites to confront the supernatural threat. This utterly original haunted house tale is a joy. Agent: Katherine Odom-Tomch, Folio Literary. (Sept.)
Summary
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.
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