And the Trees Crept In

This book was so disturbing and twisted and I loved that part of it. I felt like the rhymes and book scrap inserts too away from the overall story, but without those this was a super creepy story from start to finish, and it just kept getting darker and darker. Not sure if this is really appropriate to be teen fiction, but as a horror novel it's pretty fantastic.

The concept of this book was very intriguing to me, and it ended up being a major disappointment. I think I wanted it to not be as much of a mind game as it was because I wanted there to truly be something creepy out in the woods that keep getting closer to the house rather than everything being in her head.

I enjoyed the suspense of the novel and parts of the confusion that Silla was going through. However, her confusion made me confused at some points because of the times where we would come around to the same setting as earlier and something totally different would be happening (mainly towards the end of the book when they are at the cave part). I didn't like how she could just “reset” her life in the house and try to make it something new (i think that's what was happening with the cave - i am not totally sure of that).

I also didn't trust Gowan from the beginning. Him coming out of nowhere and just acting like he knew them and was friends with them and loved them (which I guess he actually did in their life) made me very suspicious of him and I really would have rather had him be a bad character and not someone trying to help her.

Overall, I did not like the ending. I thought it was interesting that she had created this place for herself because of her guilt, but I didn't like how she was doing this in her death - I think it would have been more interesting to have her go crazy in real life. I would have also liked it more had the curse been a real curse. It also really bothered me that Silla and Gowan as “ghosts” could just return to the earth at try their hand at life again. I was like “what????”

Insert big ass SIGH here. I hate endings....that I hate. This book started off well enough and I was creeped out reading. It was a lot of madness at one point. Couldn't tell what was real or not. Was it all in Silla's head..or was this all really happening. Then at one point it stopped being creepy because it was most of the same. The aunt screaming in the attic and the whispers at night and the voice coming from the hole in the floor stops being creepy after it's been repeated for several chapters. But that ending...cue massive eye roll. I know this isn't the most heart warning review but I really didn't hate the book. Just the ending. Funnily enough the one other Kurtagich book I've read I also hated the ending while loving the rest of the book. I hope that's not a pattern.

3.5ish stars? this was definitely creeeepy and I really liked a lot of it but it got a bit repetitive and I did not like the ending.

Oof, I don't even have words to describe that plot twist!!!

In my quest to find good YA horror, I think I have discovered that I was simply reading the wrong books. Because man oh man, I really liked this one.

Teenage Silla and her young sister Nori have escaped from their abusive father in London, and have found themselves living in the middle of the forest in their Aunt Cath's dilapidated manor, La Baume. Much like Hill House and the Overlook Hotel, La Baume has its own personality and agenda. Add in a family curse, the threat of World War 3, a monster called the Creeper Man, and a mysterious-yet-dreamy boy, and basically you've written a book just for me. It even has a creepy library as the “safe” zone! I love creepy libraries!

The library is a monolith. Central to La Baume in the way the heart is to a human body. It's a semicircular room, three floors high - a cylinder cut right through the middle of the manor. Standing in the center, you can look right up through each floor and the skylight to see the sky. It's a sanctuary, but even here, the oppression of the house is all around, trying to press in.

It's also a book that does not allow you to forget how bleak everything is. “Hopeless” and “hopelessness” are repeated words for a reason. If depictions of starvation and sanity slippage, plus visuals of maggots and mold growing on skin and clothes bother you, then definitely don't read this book. This imagery, and some of the plotting around the middle of the book, do get a little too repetitive, but I think it fits well for the pay off.

About that ending...the whole "dead all along" thing was not much of a surprise, and it's certainly not a new concept, so I get why it's so divisive to people. I didn't mind it, though, and thought the emotional payoff of Silla forgiving herself made up for it. I'm also kind of a sucker for sappy romance, and as such thought that Gowan and Silla reuniting (and vowing to find each other when they returned to Earth) was sweet. I do wonder if Silla would actually want to redo life without a chance to have Nori do the same, though, so that was maybe a bit out of character?

All of that aside, I really found this book to be a good little slice of horror and psychological thriller, and it definitely made me more afraid of trees than The Happening ever did, so: 4/5.

I didn't know if I liked the book until the end. How did I not see that coming?! And the overall message of the book, just wow! The only thing I would say is that the very last bit was a little more fanciful than I liked, but it is a YA. And that is a bit picky. I want to go back and reread it now that I know how it ends.

DNF. The writing was really disjointed - I realise it was for effect but it made it difficult for me to concentrate - and I couldn't relate to any of the characters enough to keep me engaged.

There is some fine writing in this book. There are also some repetitive gimmicks that can distract. There are visual gimmicks more than literary ones, and they're stale by the time one finishes the book. There is also quite a bit of repetition in Silla's account of what is happening–multiple times she speaks of trying to eat, trying to feed her sister, the trees encroaching upon the house. Over and over, Silla says the same things. She gets a bit annoying. I don't dislike her, but the characters start out strong and sort of peter into dullness. The multiple viewpoints also get a bit sloppy and uneven, because they're not evenly distributed. Almost the entire novel is told from Silla's p.o.v., but there are a few random snatches of her aunt and little sister randomly throughout the novel. And Gowan. In the end, it's a romance, and she's saved by the dude who never stopped loving her. Her wonderful, beautiful prince. Meh. One is also not quite certain what in the world happened to the world these characters lived in. Did Trump become President and destroy everything?

All THAT being said, AtTCI was never dull. It was, at times, beautifully written. It was also at times disturbing and creepy, and it was fun trying to figure out what the devil was going on. It was also sad, in the same way that ‘The Others' with Nicole Kidman is. And even though I'm not happy with Gowan saving the day, SPOILER here!–I was charmed by the fact that he always loved her and went right to her side once he died–as an old man in his 90s. That little detail saved his character for me. Whatever, it was sweet.

So despite flaws, I would happily read ‘Dead House,' and, since I'm going to the library this evening, I think I'll look it up.

Initial reaction: What the what!!!! Holy crap, I'm four chapters in and this book is cray-cray and I love it. Holy smokes! The snake!

Final review: This book had me, scared me, wore on my nerves, lost me, and then I finished it. The first quarter of the book is some of the best horror I have read in a long time. The tension is ridiculously high. Ridiculous. The problem is, it doesn't let up. Unless you are going to read this in one sitting, prepare for some jangled nerves. Usually a writer throws the reader a bone-some humor or a plot review. Something to ease the tension. Nope, not here.

And then, Chapter 22. No, nah-uh NOPE. No one while chasing down the Boogey Man who has just stolen your baby sister stops midchase for some crazy, sexy grown up fun. Hell, no. Gowan annoyed me from the time he first appeared and this chapter made me feel even more like he was a character from somewhere else that wandered into this book. This whole chapter makes no sense. And then, when Silla wakes up and just decides now Gowan is The Creeper Man I just wanted to give up reading all together. Only little Nori kept me going.

And tbh, I'm still not sure I “buy” the ending. I didn't find it satisfying at all.

I'm still going to recommend it because I think a less demanding reader would be satisfied with it. I think Kurtagich has chops. This only her second book. I predict she will get better.