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A review by themysterymaven
The Invited by Jennifer McMahon
5.0
I think we’ve all had that moment… You drive by a dilapidated house, paint peeled, roof rotted and in ruin, weeds winding their way through the yard, seemingly only darkness and dust within…and you think, “Now, that’s a haunted house!” And if you’re like me, your mind wonders at the story of it, who lived there, and how did its history unravel to abandonment?
But now flip that script, and what if someone were building a brand new house…and decided to make it haunted?? What if along with the new windows, siding, shingles, and shutters a curious mix of materials were added in, repurposed from places that tell of tragedy and terror?
And that brings me to this novel, and this is the kind of book that if you were to ask me what kind of stories I seek out to read, it would be one exactly like this! Jennifer McMahon is a sublime storyteller who crafts the most unique thrillers blended with an almost folkloric cadence, and at times, she will weave in supernatural elements, but I love how you never know which tales will wind that way.
In this one, she expertly creates a mystery that almost consumes our main character, a teacher who decides to move to the country with her husband, build a home by hand, and becomes slowly entranced by the history of the land, which was once owned by a woman hanged for witchcraft…in the early 1900s. The more she learns, the deeper her connection to the past unfolds, especially as she finds artifacts in the area to incorporate into the house, such as a beam beautifully carved from the actual hanging tree. These past stories then begin to intricately intertwine with the present, intersecting with the disappearance of a local woman.
This is my fourth book from this author, and it is my favorite! It’s atmospheric, it’s well-written, and I so boldly thought I’d deduced some of the over-arching twists…and I did not.
But now flip that script, and what if someone were building a brand new house…and decided to make it haunted?? What if along with the new windows, siding, shingles, and shutters a curious mix of materials were added in, repurposed from places that tell of tragedy and terror?
And that brings me to this novel, and this is the kind of book that if you were to ask me what kind of stories I seek out to read, it would be one exactly like this! Jennifer McMahon is a sublime storyteller who crafts the most unique thrillers blended with an almost folkloric cadence, and at times, she will weave in supernatural elements, but I love how you never know which tales will wind that way.
In this one, she expertly creates a mystery that almost consumes our main character, a teacher who decides to move to the country with her husband, build a home by hand, and becomes slowly entranced by the history of the land, which was once owned by a woman hanged for witchcraft…in the early 1900s. The more she learns, the deeper her connection to the past unfolds, especially as she finds artifacts in the area to incorporate into the house, such as a beam beautifully carved from the actual hanging tree. These past stories then begin to intricately intertwine with the present, intersecting with the disappearance of a local woman.
This is my fourth book from this author, and it is my favorite! It’s atmospheric, it’s well-written, and I so boldly thought I’d deduced some of the over-arching twists…and I did not.