This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Haunt Sweet Home will be released on September 3, 2024.

For my money, Sarah Pinsker may be the best out there right now writing short-but-not-that-short sci-fi and dark fantasy. So when I saw she had a new haunted house novel coming out in 2024, it immediately became one of my most anticipated books of the year. So how does Haunt Sweet Home stack up to her extremely impressive catalog? Well, that’s a high bar to clear, but I certainly enjoyed myself. 

Haunt Sweet Home follows an aimless member of a mostly-successful family, bouncing from job to job and hobby to hobby, never finishing a degree or truly starting a career. When a celebrity cousin who hosts a reality show—a combination of home renovation and haunted house—offers her a low-level role in the production, she thinks it may be an opportunity to break out of familiar patterns. But it’s not long before her made-for-TV pretend hauntings give way to one that’s all too real.

I’ve read enough haunting stories from Pinsker—“Two Truths and a Lie” especially, but “Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather,” “Science Facts!,” “Signs of Life,” and “The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye” also come to mind—to have a pretty good idea of what kind of atmosphere to expect from Pinsker writing a ghost story. So I was surprised to find that atmosphere largely absent in Haunt Sweet Home. The voice is still the same, and it made for a gripping setup that was truly difficult to put down. But the setup had no sense of creeping dread or mystery. It was just the lead starting a new job, interesting because the character was skillfully drawn and the reality TV setting was entertaining, not because it was especially atmospheric. 

Unfortunately, the introduction of the fantastical elements saw the story caught between two minds. In a traditional horror story, I’d expect a slow and ambiguous introduction, gradually building tension and atmosphere as the layers unfolded. But it could have also introduced the supernatural as a given and proceeded in telling a different, less scary story—something like John Wiswell does in “Open House on Haunted Hill.” Either could’ve worked wonderfully, but Haunt Sweet Home chooses neither, and is the worse for it. The introduction of the ghost plays out so slowly that genre-aware readers are just waiting for the lead to catch on. But that slow introduction doesn’t have much sense of the uncanny, and so it lacks the tension that keeps the reader anticipating the next move. Instead, the third quarter of the story just feels a bit muddled and poorly paced. 

That last paragraph was a bit negative, but don’t get me wrong, I liked the story. The introduction of the ghost felt like a misstep that threw off the pacing, but Haunt Sweet Home is a short book that reads easily, and 45 minutes or so of waiting for the other shoe to drop doesn’t turn an otherwise good book into a chore to read. It still comes together for a resolution that’s engaging and caps off a satisfying character arc. The setting remains excellent. The entire main family—even though we mostly see just one member—comes to life wonderfully. Pinsker knows her work, and even with an element that didn’t really work for me, this was a good read.

Overall, Haunt Sweet Home is both accessible and enjoyable, reading quickly and easily and delivering a delightful setting and an engaging main character arc. The supernatural elements don’t quite come together, and that will keep it off my annual favorites list, but it’s hard to find a Pinsker story that isn’t worth a long look, and this is no exception. 

Recommended if you like: Pinsker’s storytelling, horror tropes turned in a less scary direction.

Can I use it for Bingo? It’s hard mode for Set in a Small Town. It’s also Published in 2024 and includes Dreams and an Alliterative Title.

Overall rating: 15 of Tar Vol’s 20. Four stars on Goodreads.