A terrifying new gothic horror novel about two sisters and a haunted house that never sleeps, perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle.They say there’s a door in Wakefield that never opens…
Sam Wakefield’s ancestral home, a decaying mansion built on the edge of a swamp, isn’t a place for children. Its labyrinthine halls, built by her mad ancestors, are filled … built by her mad ancestors, are filled with echoes of the past: ghosts and memories knotted together as one. In the presence of phantoms, it’s all Sam can do to disentangle past from present in her daily life.
But when her pregnant sister Elizabeth moves in after a fight with her husband, something in the house shifts. Already navigating her tumultuous relationship with Elizabeth, Sam is even more unsettled by the appearance of a new ghost: a faceless boy who commits disturbing acts–threatening animals, terrorizing other children, and following Sam into the depths of the house wielding a knife. When it becomes clear the boy is connected to a locked, forgotten room, one which is never entered, Sam realizes this ghost is not like the others. This boy brings doom…
As Elizabeth’s due date approaches, Sam must unravel the mysteries of Wakefield before her sister brings new life into a house marked by death. But as the faceless boy grows stronger, Sam will learn that some doors should stay closed–and some secrets are safer locked away forever.
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A triumph of gothic fiction. Haunting and addictive, the evocative language leads the reader along a deliciously horrifying path to an ending we both dread and wait for with held breath. A must-read for horror fans.
A truly chilling novel with an ending that will take your breath away. Mad Catherine’s house is (literally) the stuff of nightmares, and in Julian, Jo has created one of the most frightening characters I’ve come across since Gabe from Pet Semetary.
There are few new writing stars rising faster or shining brighter than Jo Kaplan… Beautifully hypnotic and eerie, this novel is a must-have for fans of the literary macabre.
It simmers with darkness and danger and kept me turning pages until late in the night. I loved it!
It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan is a chilling gothic horror story that focuses on a family living in a haunted house. Our main character, Sam, has returned to her childhood home to live with her mom after a vicious robbery that left her struggling with PTSD. Sam’s childhood home is not your average haunted house. It’s a decaying mansion on the edge of a mysterious swamp that has the ability to show Sam and her family echoes of the past and the ghosts of their ancestors. Sam and her family cannot interact with the past or the ghosts, but when her pregnant sister, Elizabeth, moves in after a fight with her husband, something in the house shifts. Suddenly, Sam starts seeing a new ghost – a faceless boy who takes pleasure in killing animals and even has the ability to interact with the past, killing one of her ancestors and following her around the house with a knife. When he calls her auntie, she knows immediately that the boy is Julian, the son Elizabeth is about to give birth to. Sam is horrified by her nephew’s actions and will do whatever it takes to change the future.
This atmospheric read will keep you guessing until the twisted ending. The author’s writing style is captivating and works perfectly for a ghost story. The rich descriptions really made the haunted house come alive, and it felt like I was right there, experiencing the creepy and terrifying events occurring at Sam’s home. There’s a sense of uncertainty throughout the story about whether the house is actually haunted, or is Sam mentally unstable. I enjoyed watching this dark mystery unravel. This is not one of those stories where the main character gets a happy ending. The ending of this book was heartbreaking and very disturbing. If you’re a fan of Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, then I highly recommend this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is the best horror/gothic novel I’ve read in a loooong time! The descriptions of both the mansion and especially the nearby swamp were eerie and fresh, poetic but precise – many times I found a gorgeous sentence that just took my breath away. No spoilers, but the blurb is accurate, and the story moves with perfect timing, completely engrossing and again: fresh. Great writing, a great story and I loved it. Highly recommended.
This novel is a contemporary Southern Gothic story. Samantha Wakefield is the main character, and she lives in a haunted antebellum mansion in the Virginia swampland.
The Wakefield mansion is a character itself in the story. It’s like the Winchester house, too big and disorienting. The mansion is so isolated that it’s cut off from the Internet, and there’s no TV or even a neighbor.
Kaplan creates striking imagery that invokes sights and sounds (or silence) and heat and cold and smells. Her prose can be precise, but it is also wonderfully loose and meandering when inside Samantha’s head.
It Will Just Be Us is a ghost story, yes, but it’s also a folk-horror story with cosmic underpinnings. So creative!
I can’t think of any negatives. I loved this book from start to finish. Five spooky stars.
IT WILL JUST BE US by Jo Kaplan is a gothic horror haunted house story that I was completely immersed in. The writing was absolutely incredible that slowly enveloped me into this haunting story.
Sam and her mother live in the Wakefield Manor, a decaying ancestral mansion situated right in the middle of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia. The house has labyrinthine halls that were built by her mad ancestors, which reminded me a lot about the Winchester Mystery House I once visited in San Jose, California – a haunted mansion built to confuse ghosts and spirits with its odd configuration of rooms and hallways. Houses like this really gives me the creeps and the Wakefield Manor with phantom ghosts and memories present in every room, was absolutely terrifying. When Sam’s sister Elizabeth shows up pregnant after a fight with her husband something suddenly changes. This causes a shift in the house, and a sinister faceless boy soon makes an apparition and starts causing havoc with disturbing acts and behaviors.
Jo Kaplan is a master of atmospheric and tense writing that was suspenseful and wonderfully creepy. Slowly revealing the secrets and mysteries of the house from the past and the new apparition was really spine tingling and chilling. This had everything I wanted in a gothic horror – a character so sinister and evil, a haunted house that never forgets, and an ending so shocking and twisted. I recommend this!!
Jo Kaplan channels Shirley Jackson adding her own depth and haunting style. The best haunted house novel I’ve read since Sarah Langan’s Audrey’s Door.
A chilling, poetic, modern Gothic masterpiece. Evocative and reflective, this is a story that haunted my imagination for many a night.
Marvelously atmospheric, emphatically suspenseful and beautifully written, Jo Kaplan’s It Will Just Be Us had my full attention from its deliciously creepy first page and kept frightening me straight through to the end.
This mysterious world sucks you in and keeps you turning pages.
Kaplan writes with extraordinary skill and authority, balancing the supernatural with the psychological… A vibrant, thrilling novel of family love and conflict.