A review by itshrewsbury
The Dead House (The Dead House #1) by Dawn Kurtagich

dark medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

Very teen-oriented even though it attempts to maneuver several heavy topics like DID/psychosis and demonic possession. I enjoyed the style it was written in, with the narrative structured as having all the pieces of evidence put together after the fact, in pieces of diary and snippets of camera footage. The descriptions of being “other” and the earlier delusion scenes were well written and I enjoyed the build up, but the end felt anti-climatic to me, tbh. 
I guessed the twist ending though, so take it with a grain of salt.

(There’s a weird moment towards the end where, during a video description, which the entire book has been narrated as objective 3rd person, says “I fucking hate crying”. It’s the first time a first person statement was used in an objective transcript like that and it really threw me off, looked for hidden meaning but couldn’t find one so 🤷🏼‍♀️)

Edit: thought on it a bit more and this book attempts to do so many things with the plot, and on the whole it drags down the narrative. There’s a magic system that seems to be trying to take root, but it’s mostly poorly explained and confusing.

13+

TW/CW: murder, self harm, psychosis, unreality, institutionalization, possession, mention of assault, blood 
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