The setup here is pretty straightforward: a large house suddenly appears in a rural section of a northeaster US town. Trapped in the house is a group of people, all of whom have secrets the house seems to know about.

I liked a lot of this. The mysterious nature of the house was compelling. The characters – many of whom are scumbags – were developed and intriguing.

It did start to feel a bit repetitive to me, with many characters following the path of confronting some aspect of their past in the house’s hallways and rooms.

I’m a fan of efficient and terse writing, and the prose here is wordier with various literary flourishes. Not my thing, but I know lots of people love that style.

That said, I would read more by this author. I give it four severed fingers/plucked eyeballs/whatever out of five.