The September House by Carissa Orlando is the perfect book to read this time of year! It fit perfectly with our approach to Halloween. It was spooky and different, and I absolutely loved it!
Margaret lives in a beautiful Victorian home, the September House. Each September, the house comes alive with different types of spooks and specters, all of which have a name and a story. Most of their stories are not good. You can tell that by how they died. None of it was pleasant.
As September drags on, so do the moans. And blood. Walls drip with it. But Margaret doesn’t want to leave. This is her house. Her husband, Hal, left. He couldn’t take it anymore. To make matters worse, her daughter, Katherine, comes to help search for her father.
I find that how the story unfolds is really well done. You get a mix of what’s happening now with what happened when Hal was there. You learn how she’s dealing with it on her own, playing by the rules. And you learn about the past when Hal was an abusive drunk and couldn’t take the ghosts anymore. He didn’t want to play by the rules. You also get information on who these characters are, specifically, Master Vale and other owners of the house.
September drags on, and Margaret is doing everything in her power to hide these things from Katherine. But Katherine notices her mom’s weird behavior. She begins to think the abuse wasn’t from her father, but that her mom did it to herself. She doesn’t believe Elias is real!
I loved how Margaret folded. All the screaming and moaning and ghosts whispering into her ear all became too much. And when the police arrive again, after finding information that a cab dropped him off back at the house, they find Hal’s body in the basement. Margaret finally tells them all about the hauntings. About how Master Vale must have gotten Hal, who wanted to burn the house down. But the police have a different explanation. Once that actually begins to make sense to her. She made all this up. She was upset at her husband for trying to make her leave. She was upset about the abuse. She made these ghosts and stories up. Even her neighbor turned out to be a ghost.
As she’s getting up to leave in handcuffs, the house comes alive. If they didn’t believe her before, they soon will. Three of the mail cops are twisted and broken. The female cop is outside being attacked by birds. The ghosts are everywhere. And everyone can see them. Mast Vale goes to attack Katherine, and that’s when Margaret has had enough. She finally finds the courage to break the rules with him. “Get out!” She continues screaming at him. Her daughter joins in. And so do all the ghosts. Master Vale is defeated.
Jones, with bird feathers in her hair, realizes she has to call someone – everyone. Margaret and her daughter are treated to tea. Thanks, Fedricka.
I really, really enjoyed this book. The way the story unfolded and how you learn about the past, as well as try to figure out what happened to Hal, was great. It wasn’t a typical scary book, and I loved that. I loved how you saw things through Margaret’s eyes, and when she was just so tired to continue, she thought everyone was right – she was crazy. That turned out to be wrong!