Short synopsis

A house with history. That’s how the estate agent described the old toll house on the edge of the town. For Kelda it’s the perfect rural home for her young son Dylan after a difficult few years.

But when Kelda finds a death mask concealed behind one of the walls, everything changes. Inexplicable things happen in the house, Kelda cannot shake the feeling of being watched and Dylan is plagued by nightmares, convinced he can see figures in his room. As Dylan’s behaviour becomes increasingly challenging, Kelda seeks answers in the house’s mysterious past. But she’s running out of time.

I liked the book but I really, really, hated certain aspects of it. Kelda is a single mom with a young boy around 7 who move to a new location – an old house which is in dire need of refurbishment and some TLC.

The kid goes to a new school and seems to have trouble adjusting. He often requests to sleep in her bed and keeps mentioning a woman in his room which is out to get him.

Kelda’s own personal life is a single and not loving it type – she’s eager to date but she has an old friend called Nick who has been popping in and out of her and Dylan’s life, offering advice, support and baby-sitting duties. She likes him but is unsure whether to make a move or not, since he’s in a steady relationship with a woman called like Amazon’s speaker – Alexa.

He has his own problems – an ectopic pregnancy with Alexa, her rigid parents, a failed engagement due to arguments, he’s not even fully divorced from his previous wife, yet Kelda likes him,

Kelda also likes a dude she met of a dating site called Simon – tall and unspeakably handsome, like a model. Simon really likes children and wants to meet her son as soon as she can.

So let me tell you the red flags: Kelda started dating without specifying she has a kid in her profile. Simon, her new beau, REALLY likes children and wants to be involved early on.

She doesn’t Google him and takes him at his word that he’s a surgeon and does orthopedics.

Kelda also has a low burning flame for Nick, who’s taken.

On top of these, the house is haunted.

Intermingled with Kelda’s present-day story, we get to know the previous owners of the house – 1886 toll keeper and his wife. Unfortunately the lovely wife, Bella, dies during childbirth and the husband is so distraught with grief, he breaks open the casket during the funeral as he thinks she’s rang the bell (that people used to be buried with in case they woke up).

The doctor who assisted during the failed child birth is blamed for the issue and a death mask is requested of the deceased woman. It’s the husband who first starts noticing white pebbles that his wife used to gather, slowly appearing through the house.

Back to the present-day story, the pebbles are becoming a nuisance – and also a strong smell of lavander and increased activity of the paranormal kind.

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Where the book starts to falter and fail.

The premise is solid. The trouble is that the story could go any way from here:

• The kid could be making it all up for attention
• His friends are playing around with him and daring him to do stuff to ensure his mother doesn’t date and thus potentially bring a new man in the house
• The sister (who I haven’t mentioned but shows up out of the blue) could be interested in some hidden gem on the property or just out to scare her so she can take her son back (Dylan’s relationship with Kelda is auntie, not mother)
• The new beau, Simon, could be a pedo and the ghost can be that of Isabella trying to warn them so they can stay clear
• Nick could have a hidden side to him, only revealed when he finds out from the sister that Kelda is not Dylan’s mother.
• There could be one or more ghosts

In the end, the author goes with a mix of these and not a clear option, which, for me, destroyed the ending a little. I understand you have to subvert expectations a little and do a plot twist – ie the evil ghost was that of the toll husband, who was obsessed with his dead wife to such an extent that any woman inhibiting the house who didn’t pay attention to him, would be sent to her death.

To add a plot twist to the plot twist (plot twist x2), the husband didn’t really want a child and beat on his wife many times in order to cause a miscarriage. He should have used protection.

He also died by strangulation and the shitty doctor in 1886 did a death mask for him as well and put it in the house (why??)

Meh.

I don’t think the book is truly a gothic horror story. The Whispering (which I’m reading right now) fits the tale a lot better.