March ScaredyKit- Haunted Houses

Welcome to this month's ScaredyKit, in which we'll read haunted house books! Or about haunted workplaces, hospitals, cars- just about any haunted structure will do. Let's not nitpick about where a ghost sets up.
Literature is generous when it comes to the haunted house trope. Here are just a few options:

Horrorstor
The Haunting of Hill House
The Turn of the Screw
The Woman in Black
The Shining
The Sun Down Motel
The Broken Girls
The Book of Cold Cases
Spite House
Twelve Nights at Rotter House
Slade House
Hell House
A House with Good Bones

Tell us what you'll be reading, and leave reviews of what you've read. Let's keep it creepy out there.

I haven't checked my tbr yet, but I imagine I'll have a few options for this one! This is one I always look forward to. :-)

I just found a copy of The Turn of the Screw, the lovely clothbound Penguin edition, and will try to make time for that.

I am planning on reading A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand.

I believe I'll read A House with Good Bones for starters.
>2 LibraryCin: I agree, I love a haunted house story!
>3 MissWatson: A classic!
>4 DeltaQueen50: I haven't read that one yet, but it gets great reviews. I look forward to hearing what you think.

I’ll read one, or maybe two, of these (Wylding Hall is short, and my haunted house list just keeps growing!):

Kill Creek by Scott Thomas
Wild Fell: A Ghost Story by Michael Rowe
The Good House by Tananarive Due
Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver
Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand

That's a good list! Nice to see that you've made plans for this topic.

I'm planning to read a short classic: The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell.

I've never heard of that one, so thanks. Yes, short stories about haunted houses are welcome!

I recently picked up Widow's Point by Richard Chizmar from my library. Books tagged "haunted house" on my Goodreads TBR and available on Kindle Unlimited include A House With Good Bones, The Suffering: A Horror Novel by MJ Mars, and Last Days. I have plenty to choose from this month! (I couldn't find MJ Mars's book as an option for the touchstone, unfortunately.)

One of my all-time favorite reads in horror is The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson so I was excited to read A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand for this theme. Dark and disturbing, this was an admirable sequel to the original and earned a 5 star rating.

I picked The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright, a middle grade horror/mystery, for the HomeCAT attic prompt this month, but think it also works here.

I've read We Live Here Now, about a couple with serious relationship issues who leave London for a fresh start on the moors. The wife is just getting her mobility back due to an accident, and she's the one who is home and experiencing all the weirdness. This one is a fresh take on what a ghost is. Recommended.

I’m reading
BELLEWETHER by Susanna Kearsley.

I started a haunted house book that I DNFed after two chapters. It just wasn't as well written as previous books by the same author. Anyway, I've started This Thing Between Us.

The Librarian of the Haunted Library by Brian Yansky ★★½


Kevin never planned on being a librarian. He especially didn't plan on being a librarian in a town that doesn't appear on any map, where the books talk back, and fictional characters occasionally escape their pages. But when the previous librarian dies face-first in his oatmeal (poisoned, naturally), Kevin makes the mistake of trying on a ring that won't come off. Congratulations—he's now responsible for a library where Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde argue about book rights, a ghost writer haunts the stacks, and something in the basement wants him dead. His job description includes: cataloging magical artifacts, solving murders, keeping Lord Blackstone (powerful magician, terrible neighbor) from stealing his position, and staying alive in a town where librarians have a shorter life expectancy than mayflies. Oh, and there's Olive, the waitress who might be a witch, whose father is technically dead but still lives with her, and who Kevin is definitely falling for—if he can avoid being poisoned, beheaded, or eaten by whatever's lurking in the haunted woods. Between the one-eyed witch, the talking boar, the teenagers making deals with fallen angels, and a demon in his basement taking the form of his favorite foster mother to murder him, Kevin has his hands full. If you’re up for a wild adventure, laughs, and action with a touch of romance, read today.

The concept had potential, but the book jumped around too much without any context. I found myself stopping often to go back and see if I had missed anything.

The book contains both a haunted library and haunted woods.

Due to multiple factors, I have not been able to read a lot so far this year, but I have started a reread of Bag of Bones, and I will count that as both my February and March selection.

>16 lowelibrary: Aw, that's too bad it was disappointing. I love the title and the idea of it.

>18 LibraryCin: So did I. At least it was free.

I read The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell and enjoyed it very much. It is set at an old manor in Northumberland and there are family secrets, phantoms, gloomy landscapes and spectral music.

April Scaredy Kit can be found here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/379650

This isn't a straight forward haunted house story, as the curse is on Thiago, so the scary happenings occur in whatever dwelling he's in, whether that's his Chicago condo or a cabin in rural Colorado.
Thiago is devastated when his wife is killed in a gang initiation, and his grief, and the fact that Vera's death has become a political football, drives him to an isolated luxury cabin, but whatever has attached itself to him gets more powerful there.
This has some witchcraft and a little folk horror, with Thiago's grief going through the whole story. Recommended.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this spooky haunted house month!

Last night, shortly before the stroke of midnight, I finished Hell House by Richard Matheson. I am not versed enough in the genre to give informed judgment, but I can say that I didn’t find it very scary. As a movie, on the other hand, it would have been...

I know that April is almost over but I wanted to give a shout-out to Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward, which I just finished. Haunted house, ghost story, very isolated place -- it checks all these boxes. Very good read.

Thanks for the rec!