A review by curiouslykatt
It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan

slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Holy shit. I loved this one. It Will Just Be Us is a grotesquely fascinating Frankenstein, pulling together my favourite parts of horror and the macabre to create a very creepy gothic horror novel. 

After Sam is assaulted and left on the streets, she decides to return home. Not the flat she was living in, no, no, her ancestral home the Wakefield manor. The derelict manor in disrepair and rotting with decay. The manor sinking at the edge of Virginia swampland. The manor haunted by memories. Sam and her ailing mother see flickers of memories and are accustomed to reliving the past in the winding halls and behind locked doors. Soon their uneasy peace is turned over when Sam’s sister Elizabeth has decided to leave her husband and return home to the manor to see through her pregnancy. 

Sam is used to the house showing her flickering memories of former manor residents, but something is different now that Elizabeth has arrived. Are these memories, or are some ghost flickers of future Wakefields? 

Right from the hop Kaplan begins her creepy story and she doesn’t let up. There is a weird section in the middle that gets a bit too meta for my personal brand of horror, but it doesn’t last long. I thought I was going to get House of Leaves but I got so many pieces of classic horror I adore. 

If you’re a fan of The Winchester House, Shirley Jacksonesque horror style around grief, the Netflix series of The Haunting Of Hill House, the film aesthetic of Kubrick Re: The Shining and a slow burn haunted house story, you’ll want to pick this one up. 

CW: animal abuse (frogs and birds), suicide, domestic violence, physical assault
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