This is a deep book. It's not just a haunt, or spooky moments, but it contains terror through historical fiction. Des is my favorite character by far for her resilience and intuition. I'm glad I looked up the story once and forgot most of it before going in. The journey was more fulfilling not expecting pure horror, which had its moments. ( )

Eric, Dess and Stacy Ross are such loveable characters, it's impossible to not connect with them and root for their safety and success. The Texas setting felt real and scary. But, if you're reading The Spite House strictly for the horror, then the star of this story is the Masson House, a deeply haunted house built for vengeance in a place cursed by its terrible history. A ghost story with heart and history. 3.5 stars ( )

This is a haunted house story where the ghosts are very much real, and I liked it a lot. The story is really less about the house itself, however, but about how people allow certain emotions to consume them. Very well done and recommended.

A review copy was provided by the publisher

W O W!!! This is not your average haunted house story. Eric and his two daughters are on the run from something mysterious and not disclosed to the reader. Is he a criminal? Why is his wife not with them? A rich old woman in Texas hires him to be a caretaker in her extremely famous haunted spite house that she has inherited but won't set foot in. Her only request? To write down his observations to prove there is paranormal activity present. So, it seems pretty straightforward, right? WRONG. This book keeps you guessing, makes you keep turning the page and has some truly horrifying reveals. So creepy, so suspenseful and such great characters. Be prepared to be thinking about these folks long after you finish. ( )

The Spite House is this author's very well written, debut novel, and, I have to say he has come up with a frightening ghost story. Very few ghost stories actually frighten me anymore, but this one came very close. One thing that I believe makes it so, is that we are left feeling that we never really got to know the "why" or the "what" of some things. It seems that the Masson house...also called The Spite House...is notorious for being one of the most haunted places in Texas. The house was built out of spite...(hense the name), with its four-story bizarre design adjacent to an orphanage. There was a lot of history to be learned about the residents of the Spite House and those surrounding it, both past and present. However, there are still many questions that I feel are left unanswered with issues that didn't seem to get resolved for me. There are only so many ways you can write and describe a "haunted" house so of course there are similarities to other haunted house stories. Shirley Jackson’s "Hill House"...Stephen King’s hotel in "The Shining"...Richard Matheson’s "Hell House" Yet unlike all of those well- read haunts, Johnny Compton's haunted house is the stage setting for the haunted people that come across it. This is a book that has it's share of ghosts but it's underlying story is about anger, loss, and haunted pasts being passed down to innocent generations. This story was more than satisfying to "The Ghost Story Junkie" and I will certainly be adding Johhny Compton to the Stephen Kings' Shirly Jackson's, and my other favorite haunted house authors. Also...the narrator, Adam Lazarre-White, did a fantastic job with the different accents of the characters. ( )