Rating: 3.5 / 5
Continuing on with catching up on OCTOBER book reviews (yes, I fell rather behind)… THE INVITED by Jennifer McMahon is a book that caught my attention when it first came out. After enjoying THE DROWNING KIND for a buddy read last year, I was very excited when this book showed up in a book box!
THE INVITED follows Helen, newly moved to a rural plot of land with her husband Nate where they plan to build their dream house. Helen is a historian, so she is intrigued more than bothered when she hears that the area has a past. She becomes determined to learn the full story of Hattie, the woman who once lived and died there. In her search, she finds materials which she brings home to make part of the home they are building, but are these items haunted? By adding them to the construction, is she asking for trouble?
I went into this one pretty blind and I am very glad that I did. This author has a lot of skill when it comes to building up haunting settings and I really enjoyed the spooky vibes around this story and the shifting timelines and points of view. I like that she mixes a bit of the spooky / supernatural vibes with the every day explainable circumstances that really keep you guessing as to where the boundary between natural and supernatural lies.
I will say that I guessed the twist to the story fairly early on which didn’t diminish my enjoying of the story, but did leave me wishing for a bit more of a surprise in the end. I wound up not enjoying this quite as much as THE DROWNING KIND, but I did still enjoy it and will absolutely be reading more from Jennifer McMahon!
DG Reads 