Starred Review ALA Booklist

Starred Review After the death of her mother, Marin is summoned to the sprawling, coastal Maine home of Alice Lovelace rror novelist and childhood friend of her mom's work as a nanny for Alice's daughters. From the start, Alice's strange behavior, the girls' macabre pranks, the harsh seascape, and the house itself conspire to make Marin feel less than welcome. When Alice's oldest daughter, Evie, arrives home from school, seemingly making Marin's role as nanny unnecessary, tensions in the house rise along with the number of grotesque accidents and incidents, and Marin becomes certain the women of Lovelace House are keeping some dark secrets. McCauley, who won the Morris for If These Wings Could Fly (2020), spins a well-paced, atmospheric gothic tale that will attract teen fans of Silvia Morena-Garcia's Mexican Gothic (2020). The cast of characters in this creepy house evokes both dread and empathy, and a developing romance between Marin and Evie adds softness while keeping readers guessing about how deep family secrets run and who can and cannot be trusted. A rich, disquieting novel for fans of horror, fairy tales, and good storytelling.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

An odd house, a family haunted by secrets, and the girl who arrives to unravel it all.Since her mother's recent tragic death, 17-year-old Marin Blythe is all alone in the world, without a place to live or any money to support herself. A lifeline comes through an invitation from famous horror writer Alice Lovelace, her mom's old childhood friend, who offers Marin room and board in her remote house in Maine in exchange for taking care of her younger children, Thea and Wren, while she finishes her latest novel. But from the moment she arrives, Marin notices something is off at Lovelace House, from Alice's strangely disconnected behavior and the kids' increasingly unkind pranks to the house's secret corners and the dead, mutilated animals that appear everywhere. It's only when Evie, Alice's beautiful teen daughter, comes home from school that Marin slowly finds the answers she is looking for and starts to fall in love-just as events spiral out of control. This gothic story merges horror and a lovely queer romance with a helping of the fantastical in what is ultimately a story about grieving, secrets, and belonging. Marin's yearning for a place to belong informs most of the narrative, which starts off with her as the outsider looking in but shifts as she slowly but surely carves her way into becoming part of the family in unexpected ways. Main characters are cued White.Beautiful and textured. (Gothic romance. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

An odd house, a family haunted by secrets, and the girl who arrives to unravel it all.Since her mother's recent tragic death, 17-year-old Marin Blythe is all alone in the world, without a place to live or any money to support herself. A lifeline comes through an invitation from famous horror writer Alice Lovelace, her mom's old childhood friend, who offers Marin room and board in her remote house in Maine in exchange for taking care of her younger children, Thea and Wren, while she finishes her latest novel. But from the moment she arrives, Marin notices something is off at Lovelace House, from Alice's strangely disconnected behavior and the kids' increasingly unkind pranks to the house's secret corners and the dead, mutilated animals that appear everywhere. It's only when Evie, Alice's beautiful teen daughter, comes home from school that Marin slowly finds the answers she is looking for and starts to fall in love-just as events spiral out of control. This gothic story merges horror and a lovely queer romance with a helping of the fantastical in what is ultimately a story about grieving, secrets, and belonging. Marin's yearning for a place to belong informs most of the narrative, which starts off with her as the outsider looking in but shifts as she slowly but surely carves her way into becoming part of the family in unexpected ways. Main characters are cued White.Beautiful and textured. (Gothic romance. 14-18)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

A grieving teen contends with increasingly horrific happenings in this gothic queer romance by McCauley (We Can Be Heroes). Following her mother’s death in a train accident, 17-year-old Marin Blythe moves in with a family friend: renowned, reclusive horror writer Alice Lovelace. Acting as nanny for Alice’s youngest daughters, Thea and Wren, Marin deems her new charges as “half-feral” with cruel senses of humor. Their escalating pranks, including an attempt to persuade Marin into eating poisonous nightshade, leave her with no mental space to process her grief. On top of that, Lovelace House—which is surrounded by eerie woods—is purportedly cursed. The only bright spot is the girls’ older sister Evie, 17 and newly returned from school. While the teens’ blossoming romance helps Marin temporarily forget the house’s supposed blight, the sudden appearance of eviscerated animal corpses on the edge of the woods sows new fears. McCauley skillfully wrangles haunting atmosphere, anticipatory tension, and macabre humor to cultivate a slow-boiling thriller couched in a decades-old mystery. The sweet connection between Marin and Evie is solid and affirming, providing levying contrast to occasional moments of gruesome imagery and outright horror. Major characters cue as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary. (May)

School Library Journal (Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Gr 9 Up —Two grieving girls, one full of secrets and a strange power, learn to appreciate both life and death in this sapphic gothic romance. Still reeling from the death of her mother, Marin Blythe accepts an invitation from her mother's estranged childhood friend, famed horror writer Alice Lovelace, to care for her young daughters. Marin arrives to learn the author's remote Maine mansion, believed to be cursed, is crumbling into the sea; the girls, Thea and Wren, are macabre and prone to terrifying pranks; and Alice, her favorite author, is largely absent and alarmingly odd (to put it mildly). When the girls' older sister Evie arrives home, Marin worries she will no longer be necessary at Lovelace House, when in reality she becomes more needed than ever. Evie's terrifying "gift" turns the Lovelace estate from simply creepy to a true nightmare, and every secret places Marin in more and more peril. Together, the girls must work to set things right, before Alice can use her children to achieve her greatest wish. The atmospheric setting and lush descriptions of landscapes create a rich world, which helps offset the rough pacing. While Evie is a compelling, fully realized character, other characters, including, unfortunately, Marin, come off as underdeveloped and inconsistent. Readers sensitive to animal cruelty should be warned of frequent gory descriptions of dead and rotting creatures. VERDICT Satisfyingly dark vibes and a desire to see how it all plays out will propel readers through an uneven story that struggles to live up to its premise.—Amanda MacGregor