From the author of You Must Not Miss comes a haunting contemporary horror novel that explores themes of mental illness, rage, and grief, twisted with spine-chilling elements of Stephen King and Agatha Christie. Following her father’s death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh … Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor’s doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone . . . and more tormented.
As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident “bad seed,” struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response. Jane’s mom also seems to be spiraling with the return of her childhood home, but she won’t reveal why. Then Jane discovers that the “storage room” her mom has kept locked isn’t for storage at all — it’s a little girl’s bedroom, left untouched for years and not quite as empty of inhabitants as it appears . . .
Is it grief? Mental illness? Or something more . . . horrid?
The story follows the nursery rhyme, “There was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead…”
After her father’s death, Jane and her mother leave the warmth of California to take up residence at the dilapidated North family home in an insular little town in Maine. Strange things occur, like lights coming on when the electricity was turned off and scuffling upstairs. Jane’s mom takes a job and becomes more distant. Left to her own devices, Jane tries to find her way through acclimating to a new, and much colder, home.
“And when she was good, she was very, very good…”
Jane takes a job as a barista at the local book store and forges three charming friendships. She shares her enthusiasm for mystery novels, especially the works of Dame Agatha Christie. However, the mystery of her home grows murkier. Mysterious messages, roses growing well past their season, strange reactions and interactions, and a store room that is not used for storage, but a place to hold a memory – or a ghost.
“But when she was bad, she was horrid.”
The Gothic vibe is strong with this book. It plays with perspectives and explores the psychology of displaced grief. The author cleverly uses phrases from the nursery rhyme as chapter titles. Her creation of North Manor, AKA The Creep House, during a New England late autumn gives a cinematic backdrop for the action. Katrina Leno made an interesting foray into the Modern Gothic with “Horrid.”
I’ve had this one on my shelf for a while. Thank goodness for Spooktober
This is a very quick read and I quickly got lost in the story. It has all the creepy vibes! An old house with a secretive history. Noises and bumps in the night. Flickering lights…dead flowers…
Definitely a good one for the scary season.
While there were some genuinely creepy parts, on the whole this was pretty predictable. I also felt like it needed to be at least 30-50 more pages to develop some inconsistencies and characters, or it needed to be edited down by about that many pages. There were just several holes in the plot, unnecessary characters and not enough development on the horror elements.
I loved the main character’s descent in here though. It was maybe the most ominous part of the story.
In Horrid, Katrina Leno brings the reader in with Jane’s vulnerability and pain after her father’s sudden death when she moves away from her home in California, leaving everything she knows and loves. She moves into her mother’s childhood home, an unnerving gothic mansion with something sinister holding residence. Jane tries to somewhat adapt to her new life the best way she knows how. However, strange and unusual occurrences keep happening to her that she can’t explain or comprehend. Her mother, who should be her rock and guiding light through this challenging time, seems to be unraveling and losing herself, so she isn’t much help. Jane tries to talk to her mom about the odd, otherworldly episodes, but her mom keeps blaming it on her grief, refusing to look at the fact that something is seriously wrong with the house they are in, not to mention Jane is not okay.
Horrid had me captivated in a way that doesn’t happen too often because the grief Jane felt was so raw and real it was overwhelming at times. And the mysterious gothic horror elements with the house and roses in the garden made for an eerie fascination that was almost a pleasure to read. It’s like when you watch a great horror movie, and it scares you so much it gives you chills.
Horrid by Katrina Leno is a beautifully layered emotional gut punch that keeps coming.
Holy crap. Wow, what a delightfully creepy and mysterious book. It was so messed up, but in a good way. I was turned pages from beginning to end, eager to unravel the mystery. I usually don’t read spooky books like this, but I may need to reconsider that. What a great read!
Wow what a book… I did not expect that ending. I couldn’t stop reading the last pages, it was so addictive.
Jane is such a reliable character with a serious mental illness. The way the author describes it feels so real, like you could be that person or you could know that person. The same thing happens to Ruth, she’s completely numb and it’s so real… It’s unreal how much this book is real in terms of describing mental illnesses.
And then we have the horror part, so we’ll mixed with the reality that at some point we can’t take apart really from imagination. Was Jemima real or was only in Jane’s mind?
I truly recommend this book
HORRID is the first novel I have read by author Katrina Leno.
Jane, a senior in high school, and her mom, Ruthellen, move from California to Maine following the death of Jane’s father. The mansion in Maine is where Ruth grew up–and never returned to, before now. Greer’s death left them financially bereft, and this was the only option, as it was left to Ruth following her mother’s death a couple years prior.
“There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead…”
This was definitely a slow-burn horror novel, and yet the atmosphere was dark all throughout. The unsettling feeling grew as the story went on, but gradually, so that the tension increased, yet left the reader to take in the emotional turmoil and other factors involved. For example, Ruth begins spiraling into a “not-quite-there” state, once she arrives. It’s obvious that she has bad memories associated here, but the author doesn’t give out more information than that.
Jane was a fantastic character! On the surface, she is as “adult” as her mom and they are more like friends, consoling each other over the grief of their loved one. Jane has bouts of rage that occasionally pop up in bad moments, but she is able to temper it by recalling how her father used to soothe her in the past.
The house itself is the best mystery. While it’s clear from the start that the residents all know something bad happened there, nobody talks about it–feeling as though it’s common knowledge.
Common, to everyone except Jane, perhaps….
“And when she was good,
She was very, very good, . . . ”
When Jane finds a child’s well-preserved bedroom locked up in the mansion–that her mother obviously lied about–the speculation continues, leaving the readers to draw their own conclusions until the very end. Is it just the grief of losing their loved one, mental illness, or something….else?
“But when she was bad, she was horrid.”
The real action and revelations are saved for the very end, but I found that didn’t effect my enjoyment of this mentally complex novel in the least. That last section–for me–elevated the book from a four star, to a five star rating.
Recommended.
Horrid is the first book by Katrina Leno that I was reading. I’m not disapointed. Horror is not usually a type of book that I read but I did enjoy this one.
After her father’s death, Jane move with her mother from California to the Maine where this one grow up the her grandmother’s house. This one had died two years ago and no one had went to the house since then. As Jane make new friends she also is bullied by one of the girl she goes to school with. And her mom don’t really like be in her old house but don’t really want to explain why. When Jane discover an old storage room (or what her mom says this room was for) but is in fact an old litlle girl bedroom think start to get a bit creepy… or Horrid.
I read the first 100 pages and found as the story went on I cared less and less. There’s nothing wrong with it per say it just, bland and dull and way too familiar and “been done.” I speed read the rest of the book and boy, what a disappointment. The writing is there, the basics are there, the potential is there but that’s about it. It’s such a hollow story line an outline rather then a finished copy. There was nothing scary, spooky or haunting a out the story and the ending… well it reads like a cop out to me. I know this is listed as YA or 9th grade and up but really it could be middle grade. So bummed.
I don’t really know what to say with this book. By the title and cover I was expecting it to be more “horrid” then it actually was.
To me, it wasn’t an edge of the seat type book or a page turner. It was interesting enough that it kept me engaged till the end.
I couldn’t quite tell if the house was haunted or if it was more of a psychological type deal, between lies, secrets, ghosts it just left me unsure. The ending really left me unsure, I don’t really know how the author wanted us to take the ending, maybe I’m the only one who’s lost and confused I’d love to hear everyone’s opinion
Horrid wasn’t horrid at all, it was Timid. This was one of my most anticipated books of the year but it fell flat. I was bored at times, and there was an overwhelming amount of “noises” in the plot, both sensory and unnecessary. I will give it props for creating feels whenever the deceased father was mentioned. The writing was mediocre and I hoped for a more solid ending, but it was an easy read. 2.5 stars, and still on the hunt for a satisfying, creepy read.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the main reason that I was drawn to this book was because of the cover. It’s just so deliciously creepy. When I read the blurb and saw that this was a New England horror story, I was sold.
Jane is trying to cope with her grief after the unexpected death of her father. To make matters worse, her father lost all of their money, so Jane and her mother Ruth pack up their things and leave sunny California to live in a dilapidated mansion (North Manor) in Maine where Ruth was raised.
Omce Jane and Ruth get settled in, it is clear that Ruth is hiding secrets from her past. Jane quickly makes friends at school and even gets a part time job in a bookstore, but none of those things distract her from the strange things that start happening at North Manor. Jane isn’t sure if it’s grief, mental illness, or a poltergeist, but she’s determined to uncover the secrets that North Manor is harboring.
This is my first book by Katrina Leno, and I definitely fell in love with her lush and atmospheric writing . The amount of details that went into describing the decrepit state of North Manor made me feel like I truly stepped into a house of horrors alongside Jane and Ruth. Everything about North Manor made my skin crawl.
While I was reading this one, I definitely struggled with wanting a concrete answer as to whether the strange events taking place in North Manor were real versus a manifestation of Jane’s mental state. In addition to Jane’s grief, she also struggles with intense anxiety and anger. In order to calm herself down, she eats a page from a book. Literally. The way her pica is addressed and handled is really fascinating, and something that I have never seen in YA.
Overall, if you love stories that make you look over your shoulder while reading as well as second guess everything then definitely pick this one up!
Thank you to The NOVL for providing a review copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.