Overall I found this be quiet boring, now I do believe the audiobook helped in creating this feeling. The narrator did nothing to breathe life into the story, but the writing also lacked any real fire to it. I picked this up as one of its tags was Gothic Horror, and unfortunately this had no gothic atmosphere at all which also ruined the experience for me. I feel within the bones of this story there was a good idea, it was just executed poorly. We spend a lot of time being told about the books in the library that main character Booth is archiving, and after awhile it just because monotonous and uninteresting. Long winded paragraphs of info dumping that while did pretaint to the story, wasn't presented in an engaging manner. Another annoyance I had was Booth's speech pattern, I think Monette was going for the shy, introverted, doesn't talk to a lot of people character trait but you can only handle someone "err'ing and uhhh'ing" so many times before it starts to ruin the enjoyment and since my enjoyment was already so low, it was frustrating. The haunting aspects left a lot to be desired, I have noticed this trend in haunted house stories that involve the author just having a character tell us what the hauntings are and not having the characters live through them. Now there was a few scenes where they did live in the moment of a "haunting" but for me there wasn't enough, nor where they scary, tragic yes, but nothing that made me gasp or physically respond to. I kept going because a bunch of other reviews said the ending is worth the long winded paragraphs and slow moving story, and sadly for me it was absolutely not worth the work. I was very disappointed in the end, I'm not a fan of the whole "last chapter is a quick wrap up of what happened to everyone the end" it's such a lack luster way of ending a tale, and the outcome of the haunting and the events leading up to it wasn't that spectacular either. All in all I should have followed my gut and Dnf'd this but we live and we learn right.

Given that I have enjoyed Sarah Monette's previous books, I went into this knowing the style was likely to work for me but I do think it's likely to be hit or miss for folks. A Theory of Haunting is definitely slow-paced gothic horror but with Monette's characteristic dry sense of humor and atmospheric scene setting.

This feels like Monette's take on [b:The Haunting of Hill House|89717|The Haunting of Hill House|Shirley Jackson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327871336l/89717._SY75_.jpg|3627] with a more relatable, maybe slightly less repressed main character. The main character, Kyle Murchison Booth, is an archivist who clearly wants to just be with their books and is anxious and sensitive in a way that makes navigating social situations frequently difficult. And then is dumped in the middle of a paranormal-obsessed group, who themselves are a mix of true believers and cynical frauds. I found myself really rooting for Kyle as he investigates what's happening at the house.

It's an interesting take on elements of Shirley Jackson's classic haunted house story but with a more defined and honestly a little less horrifying and disturbing ending. I could see this working better for folks who want something more defined. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and Sarah Monette continues to be an author that I'll pick up anything from, even when it's not always a 5 star new favorite for me.