Malice House (Malice Compendium, #1)
Megan Shepherd
Of all the things aspiring artist Haven Marbury expected to find while clearing out her late father’s remote seaside house, Bedtime Stories for Monsters was not on the list. This secret handwritten manuscript is disturbingly different from his Pulitzer-winning works: its interweaving short stories crawl with horrific monsters and enigmatic humans that exist somewhere between this world and the next. The stories unsettle but also entice Haven, practically compelling her to illustrate them while she stays in the house that her father warned her was haunted. Clearly just dementia whispering in his ear . . . right? Reeling from a failed marriage, Haven hopes an illustrated Bedtime Stories can be the lucrative posthumous father-daughter collaboration she desperately needs to jump-start her art career. However, everyone in the nearby vacation town wants a piece of the manuscript: her father’s obsessive literary salon members, the Ink Drinkers; her mysterious yet charming neighbor, who has a tendency toward three a.m. bonfires; a young barista with a literary forgery business; and of course, whoever keeps trying to break into her house. But when a monstrous creature appears under Haven’s bed right as grisly deaths are reported in the nearby woods, she must race to uncover dark, otherworldly family secrets―completely rewriting everything she ever knew about herself in the process.
Publication Year: 2022
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0 0**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**
Actual rating: 3.5
Megan Shepherd's latest book Malice House combines the haunted house with the book about books. Haven Marbury goes to Malice House after her Pulitzer-winner father dies. Haven is left to get the house in order to sell or keep, with no other inheritance. As Haven is fleeing domestic violence, she has no other place to go and no other funds to use. Haven knows about the rumors surrounding Malice House and about the bear attack deaths in the surrounding woods. Soon, Haven begins to suspect bears didn't attack anyone and there are more deaths than ever to explain.
As with all horror and thriller type books, please seek content warnings if needed.
I will be doing my best to give this review without spoilers.
Shepherd's writing is accessible and well-paced, particularly for a thriller. I did find the twists to be a bit transparent, but they did make sense for the story being told. As such, there was never a real sense of tension or a particular thrill for me. Haven and Kylie's friendship was welcome, as was the character of Rafe in general.
I did like seeing a more horror/thriller take on the book on books trope that is very common in fantasy. I was glad that Shepherd leaned all the way in to the developments surrounding Haven's family rather than trying to explain them away later. I did find that several things were left unresolved, which was a bit unsatisfying for me and made me question whether this book is intended to stand alone or if room was deliberately left for later exploration.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Malice House even if I was a little lukewarm on how things played out. I would not hesitate to pick up another book by Shepherd in the future.
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