This House Is Haunted: A Novel by the Author of The Heart's Invisible Furies

Unlike Mary Poppins, the main character in this book - Eliza Caine - is not practically perfect in every way: no prospects, no fortune, and she declares that she has "a face that my aunt Hermione once said could curdle milk." But she is cheerful and brave and a great main character.Now she is alone in the world, after the death of her father (which she blames on Charles Dickens). She leaves her home and her teaching position at an all-grls school in London to take a position as a governess at Gaudlin Hall to a 12-yr old girl and her 8-yr old brother.And thus the adventure begins - the best elements of "The Others" are here: a run-down estate home, a bossy older sister and meek younger brother, and irascible and mysterious staff...add in some great characters from the nearby town...four previous governesses in just the past year...murder...and a malevolent spirit, and you have the makings of a great haunted house story.I found this to be a fast-moving story, well-told, with a great balance of mystery, danger, malevolence, back story, and characterization. Are all the usual ghost story tropes here? Yes, they are. But Boyne handles them with such talent - and even some cheekiness - that it's original and enjoyable.The ending paragraph will give you the heebie jeebies and ging gang goolies. Marvelous.I hadn't read John Boyne before but I've added several of his historical fiction books to my to-read list now.The audio narration is very good and does great justice to the book.

This review contains no spoilers.This haunted house story is reminiscent of "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James, but still characterizes its own charm. After her father passes away Eliza Caine takes a job as a governess for two peculiar little children.This novel I would not define as spooky or disturbing like some others I've read, but its simplistic prose and descriptive atmosphere made it a pleasant and easy read, a tame haunted house story for readers easily frightened.Although Boyne writes Eliza Caine in the first person perspective, this is a plot driven story. There is, of course, some character development, and I surmise that if he had written this book in a third person perspective there would be even less.One thing that makes this story unique from other contemporary novels is the fact that Boyne does not blatantly tell the readers how her character has developed. Instead he takes a sly, indirect approach leaving the readers to think for themselves by observing her change not by narrative descriptions, but by her dialogue and her countenance towards other supporting characters. For example, Boyne only describes her physical attributes in the beginning as "not entirely unattractive" but as the story progresses we learn through dialogue or simply by the setting that she is a young and naive little girl who loves reading, is peculiarly punctual, knows very little of life, death, or even the children she was supposed to teach. Boyne does not come out and say these characteristics, the reader needs to be intuitive and vigilant to figure it out for themselves. To me that is the difference between average writing and great writing.For people who say there's no character development at all, I fathom they simply overlooked it. For a plot-driven story, there was a considerable amount.Altogether, this was an enjoyable read. Fast, easy, not very spooky, elegant prose, and a strong ever-moving plot with some scenes of delightfully witty dialogue. My only negative critique is that parts of Act 2 slumped a little bit. For about two or three chapters it seemed Boyne had added extra scenes just to increase the length which may have crippled the flow and intensity. I really don't think we needed the scene where she ripped the Father in the Church a new one, but perhaps Boyne was trying to explain that she was so desperate she reached out to the Church, but not even the Church could help her. Who knows? Well, probably Boyne.If you enjoy a light read on the subject of haunted houses, this is for you. If you want something really chilling, move on.

Yes, the house is haunted. Oh, yes, the house is haunted, and big time. And while some of the surprises are scary, the novel eventually slows and grinds down because that's all there is.The story is about a youngish English girl whose father passes away unexpectedly. It turns out he was not a man of means, so she decides she must take a job, in this case, as a governess at a great house in the English countryside. It is quite mysterious to begin with. She shows up and finds the two young children she must manage, and . . . nobody else. No adults are there to greet her. The rest of the novel has to do with her coming to terms with these circumstances.In the best of this genre, there is some ambiguity. Some suspense. Perhaps the narrator is convinced that there is a ghost or some other paranormal event going on, but she just can't get anybody else to believe her. Or perhaps she's not convinced herself: is it just her imagination, or a dream, or is someone playing tricks on her? Or is it the old unreliable narrator, telling the reader things that we slowly learn are not true? Those kinds of stories can be hugely entertaining. Hamlet is an obvious example: is it a ghost, or is Hamlet unhinged?But in this one, no. There is a little bit of suspense initially, but it doesn't take long before the ghost manifests itself in a number of quite straightforward, impossible-to-misinterpret ways. The protagonist knows that it must be a ghost, the people in the town with whom she speaks recognize it as such, and both she and the townspeople recognize how this ghost must have come to be.So, now that that's out of the way, the story delves into horror as horror is more contemporarily defined, with lots of grim-goings-on, murder, unexpected death, and catastrophic events. Followed by the ending--meant to be scary again--but which doesn't make any logical sense with what has already gone on.But the great disappointment here is the narration. Perhaps one can't expect every narrator one runs into to be clever or witty or funny, but this one is not even terribly deep. One would at the very least expect her to share with us in meaningful detail her speculations and conjectures as they regard these incredible events. But here, she's more like a journalist. The reader is interested to try to figure out what is going on: what is the narrator thinking?In the end, there is an outline of a pretty good story here, but it really needs to be fleshed out. If you're looking for a creepy, suspenseful, gothic tale with a lot of depth, try Diane Setterfield's, "Thirteenth Tale." Or go to the masters: "Jane Eyre," or, "Rebecca," by Du Maurier.

Oh my goodness what a wonderful book. How the characters came to life both the living and the dead. This is one of his best books ever, if not the best. Highly recommend.

“But as I stared at my new home, I felt a curious urge to ask Heckling to turn the carriage around and drive me back to Norwich, where I might sit on a bench at Thorpe Station until the sun came up and then return to London, a job badly done.” (Original citation page 70)Content:When her father suddenly had died, 21-year-old schoolteacher Eliza Caine wants to leave London and applies for the position of a governess at Gaudlin Hall in Norfolk. Her job begins in October 1867. When she arrives, she meets the two children, she will look after, 12-year-old Isabella Westerley and her younger brother Eustace, 8 years old. They seem to live alone in this grand country house. There is Mrs. Livermore who cooks and cleans but she lives in the nearby village. Soon Eliza learns that she is not the first governess coming here, but only one of them is still alive, because the house is full of secrets and terrifying things happen. Nevertheless, she is determined to not abandon the two children.Theme and genre:A gripping ghost story in the best tradition of the famous 19th century gothic novels, including a dark house with secrets and supernatural mysteries, and a brave heroine. The narrative takes place in England, in the year 1867.Characters:Isabella and Eustace are very well educated children, but they are very quiet, severely traumatized by the circumstances of the death of their mother.Eliza is missing her father, but she has a very brave character, not willing to give up when she can solve some of the mysteries surrounding Gaudlin Hall and the two children. It is typical for this kind of gothic novels that the reader likes the heroine and fears for her.Plot and writing:The exciting, creepy story is written in the first person, told by Eliza, the governess. As Eliza begins to ask people, she and the reader learn about past events that explain some of the occurrences happening in the present. Unforeseeable twists until the last pages stress the captivating storyline.Conclusion:A spine-chilling gothic novel that makes the reader shiver and unable to stop reading. Perfect for enjoyable reading hours on dark winter afternoons and stormy evenings.

A gripping story. Even though it is predictable, the author has treated it in a way that makes it difficult to put down

Excellent page turner book. I enjoyed reading it so much. It's easy to read and the story is really good

What is it like to be dead? Do we become permanently unconscious, gone forever? Or do we get neatly parcelled into hell or heaven? Or do some people hover in a state of obsessive compulsion, unable to leave a place or some people? What is so creepy about being haunted? We don't feel too alarmed when a living person knocks on the door and yet if we experience supernatural knocking we feel freaked out. Yet if you were dead and were knocking or moving things about, hoping to be noticed, how awful would it be to be ignored or shunned? To have people react with loathing - even those same people who cried at your funeral? I feel nervous of the dead, too. They don't obey the rules. If we don't invite them in, they just come in anyway and some of them seem to be malevolent - just like some living people are. However I wonder if they would move on more readily if we invited them in, sat with them comfortably and just let them feel connected with people for a while. Or are those the famous last words of a silly idealist? The governess in this story had her own approach. Would you have made the same choices?

Entertaining, crisp. Kept me waiting for the next thing to happen. Easy to read yet with complex characters. Would definitely recommend it