The Spite House

Starred review from December 5, 2022
Compton’s chilling debut is horror with heart that puts a refreshingly modern spin on the haunted house story. On the run and in hiding from a mysterious family curse, Eric Ross and his daughters, Dess and Stacy, are desperate to find ways to make ends meet. Eunice Houghton, a wealthy eccentric, is willing to pay a substantial sum for anyone willing to stay in the Masson House, one of Texas’s most haunted buildings, and record their encounters with the supernatural. Eager to provide a better life for his daughters, Eric takes the job and is determined to see it through to the massive payday at the end. But as staying in Masson House becomes increasingly dangerous, Eric realizes that no one is telling him the entire truth about the house and its history. By changing perspectives between Eric, Dess, Stacy, and Eunice, this tense work of gothic horror provides a complex and multidimensional look at how anger, grief, and trauma can strengthen bonds of familial love. The tale’s simmering tension builds to an inevitable but thoroughly satisfying conclusion that, like the ghosts of the spite house, lingers. Even the most jaded horror fans will be wowed.

March 1, 2023

Eric Ross, who has two daughters and secrets of his own, can solve many of his family's problems with the money he'll make by documenting his stay in the famously haunted Masson House. But the quiet house and seemingly accepting town of Degener, TX, aren't what they appear to be--both are stained by past horrors. Compton's debut hits every satisfying haunted-house trope, but his own tweaks on ghost lore add unsettling layers to the story. The plotting is intricate, following the points of view of many characters from the past and present, all of whom are expertly performed by Adam Lazarre-White. He captures the clash of genteel, small-town Texas facades with Ross's skilled navigation of prejudice and classism. As with any horror audiobook, the narration is an integral part of its success. Lazarre-White deftly demonstrates that multiple narrators are not necessary to skillfully perform a large cast of the living and the dead. In particular, the Ross family is instilled with such strength from their love, desperation, and determination that it is impossible not to root for them. VERDICT A deliciously chilling novel with notes of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and The Shining by Stephen King.--Matthew Galloway

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