October 2023 Standalone BOTM - The September House, by Carissa Orlando

[Alaina]

A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.

When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.

Margaret is not most people.

Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.

**This BOTM thread will be open until November 5th @ Midnight (in your time zone)**

[Ashley]

I READ IT - I LOVED IT - it made me laugh hysterically it made me upset and it made me cheer

[Kira]

This was amazing

Prologue-Chapter 5: (view spoiler)[A weird set up so far, I find it diabolical that Margaret is so casual about living in a house that "bleeds" and is haunted by not one but multiple spirits, I wonder how Katherine will react to this once she eventually finds out. I do not fault Hal at all for wanting to get away from this crazy mess and at this point I am curious to see if something is wrong with Margaret for these things to not bother her (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 6-10: (view spoiler)[Ok so it is starting to look more and more like Hal was an abusive alcoholic husband and father and something might have happened to him in the house itself, the ghosts might have protected Margaret during one of the incident? What i still don't understand is why Katherine is so insistent on finding him if he is such a bad person. The book has piqued my curiosilty and I am excited to read ahead and uncover the whole mystery (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 11-19: (view spoiler)[Hell this is getting so weird. I am still perplexed about why Margaret chose to live with Hal in the first place despite everything. The backstory about the home owners was enough to give me a chill ngl. Master Vales sounds like a vile and despicable creature. I want to see how Margaret is able to get rid of all the evil spirits eventually if she ever does. It is also interesting that Katherine isn't able to see the ghosts, i wonder why (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 20-24: (view spoiler)[This just got very interesting, so Hal did come back to the house afterall and now I am wondering if "He's down there" is meant for Hal and not Master Vale. I feel like Margaret definitely has something wrong with her due to all the abuse she has suffered over the years. I will never understand why she didn't just separate from Hal the first chance she got (hide spoiler)]

Finished: (view spoiler)[What the hell kind of creepy disturbing book this was. I cannot begin to believe that ending at all. I had my doubts about Edie but when Katherine started talking about mental illnesses, I had almost convinced myself that it was all in Margaret's head. I was super taken aback by how everything ended, those poor police officers. I am relieved to find out that Katherine wasn't leaving because of Vale's "rule" (hide spoiler)]