Horror Book Review Blog: The Haunting of Blackwood House Book Review

My first go at reading Darcy Coates was not a good one when I read Ghost Camera. I can’t say that I had high hopes for the book because my thoughts on the book’s title were mediocre, at best. But, being a man who is open to giving second chances, I picked up one of the many books in her haunted series of books, The Haunting of Blackwood House. Surely, this one would be better, right? Right?!

The Haunting of Blackwood House starts off with a bang as we are cast into the middle of a séance where we are introduced to Mara and her spiritualist parents and company. It is a setup for what we will come to understand of Mara’s attitude and outlook on life, which is rather bland and obnoxious – more on that later. Right away, we are engulfed with trope after trope in the horror subgenre of haunted houses: searching for a new home, plans fall through on what seems to be her last leg, but wait, there is this one place, but the building has a horrid history, price is too good to be true aaaand….. I’ll take it! Oh, and did I mention that a serial killer once lived there and committed murders in the house, a child murderer at that? Of course, none of this is enough to sway Mara. Not only is there a morbid history to the place, but it’s in bad shape being unoccupied for 20 years. While Mara acknowledges the tragedies that occurred in the house, including the deaths of children, she looks past that and, as if trying to convince herself, she chalks the events as “normal” in that things like this happen everywhere! The house is just bricks and wood.

Mara’s character was not one that I cared for in the least, as she is extremely annoying. She came across as a disrespecting snob who always stuffed her face with junk food while trying to be “cute.” There was an air of arrogance about her when she “dropped knowledge” on what may have attributed to the ghost stories of Blackwood House. One of her theories included “house stalkers,” people who stalk houses rather than other humans and may have scared the previous homeowners away to have the house all to themselves. I’d say that’s a bit of a stretch. She also had what seemed like an affinity to “snap” at people and was utterly defensive and offensive to those who were either trying to help or make her see things for what they were. Her poor boyfriend, Niel, suffered the brunt of her tantrums. My initial impression of Mara is that she is a bonafide “witch” with a capital ‘B‘. Despite Mara’s belittling and dismissiveness of Niel, she truly marveled at his looks and physical attributes (eyes, hands, muscles, jaw, smile) as the point was made on well more than one occasion. Ok, I got it, I got it! Neil is handsome, maybe even God’s gift to the world, but did I need to constantly hear about this seemingly perfect specimen and his bluest of blue eyes? All this in just the first forty pages with their constant gushing over each other like two teenagers in love.

“Beware the home that craves you, child. Your gift and your curse are the same. Beware the home that craves.”

― Darcy Coates, The Haunting of Blackwood House

In between this and the book’s conclusion, we are “treated” with ghostly happenings in the house to which Mara responds with wanting nothing more than to be left alone to fend for herself only to wish she didn’t drive Neil away and wish he was there with her. Did I Mention that Neil offered countless times to help and stay with her, and she did nothing but refuse? I mean, I get it, independence, but jeez, if you think there is someone in your house, having company would not be a deal-breaker. Despite all of the strange happenings and things she saw and heard, Mara still refused to believe that something weird and possibly otherworldly was happening in her purported house with a history of evil doings as well as being haunted. Is that someone staring at me from the darkness? Did I just see someone hang themselves? Nah, chalk it off to “house stalkers.” (shrug emoji) 

Finally, much, much later in the book, Mara gives in, and our ghost hunters are introduced – carbon copies of Specs and Tucker (the ghost-hunting duo from the 2010 horror film, Insidious). It was a slight change of pace where comic relief was, at least for me, unwelcome because of the different tones throughout the book. But, leave it to the “darling” Mara to still be rude even though they are there to help her! 

There were no scares in this book at all and nothing new to add to the genre. Most of the scenes were descriptive, and actions were constantly interrupted by Mara’s thoughts of the situation at hand. Is there someone upstairs, and what were they doing? Could it be someone who broke in, maybe it’s a house stalker, etc., etc.. Don’t tell me what to make of the noises and what may or may not be happening. There were too many directions and suggestions for my liking.

Coates tried to incorporate mystery within the story, and even when the twist was revealed, it did little, if anything, to garner a response from me. I really wanted to like this book with the hopes of reading more of her work, but I could not get into this narrative. The characters were not interesting, and with Mara’s backstory, I feel that there could have been more to explore, but instead, we get an obnoxious, entitled, and disrespectful brat. I understood she wanted to escape her past and did not want to be “ruled” or controlled by anyone, but it could have been portrayed differently. Neil, for the most part, was a prop and uninteresting. He did, eventually, have his moment only for Coates to take that away immediately. The Haunting of Blackwood House was a complete disappointment, and, sadly, I don’t think that I will be revisiting this author anytime soon.