Calling All Haunted House Fans: A Review of The Spite House by Johnny Compton
Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.
Spooky Season continues on, as do the reviews here on Reading Has Ruined My Life. And there has been one thing I’ve been missing when it comes to celebrating the season: haunted house novels. Sure, you could argue I have discussed haunted houses already this Spooky Season with my review of The Haunting of Room 904. But that’s a haunted hotel story, not a haunted house. Today’s read is a proper haunted house tale.
Please welcome to the stage The Spite House by Johnny Compton!
As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you’ve read any other review on this site then you will know I simply love to spoil the entirety of the books I review. This is your one and only warning. Also, a quick content and trigger warning before I get to the review. The Spite House deals with child death and child neglect. There are also some historic elements to this book which discuss lynching. Please be aware of these topics before going in. With that, let’s get to the synopsis.
A spite house: a building constructed or modified with the primary purpose of annoying, inconveniencing, or irritating neighbors, family members, or local authorities. One of these houses exists in Degener, Texas. A man by the name of Peter Masson built the home in the late-1910s. Since he built the home, rumors began circulating Degener about both Masson and the home, and as the years passed, rumors turned to legend.
In the present day, Eric Ross and his two daughters are on the run from their past. After thousands of miles on the road, the family arrives in Degener. Eric came across a job listing for a house sitter. Cash payment, free room and board, all the job requires is for the house sitter to document the paranormal activity happening in the spite house.
A joke? A trick? Nothing happening at all? A house from hell? Who knows what Eric and his daughters will experience in the house. Nor does he know what secrets his family may uncover whilst there. Unfortunately Eric can’t afford not to take this position. So uncover the secrets of the spite house he shall.
There are too many point-of-views in this book. Originally I believed the novel to be told solely from the point-of-view of the Ross family, but then the home’s owner, Eunice, is brought in as a point-of-view character. At this point, I’m still okay. I can deal with four point-of-view characters. Eunice is relevant to the events of the story, her point-of-view most definitely adds flavor to the text. Then the women who work for Eunice are introduced as point-of-view characters. As is a woman who wrote a scathing article about Eunice and her family. Then The Spite House cuts to the early 20th century and Peter Masson narrates. Too many people are talking and I can’t remember who many of them are! Leave the narration to the Ross family and Eunice!
The amount of point-of-view characters make the narrative disjointed. The focus is everywhere but where it should be: on the haunted house and the Ross family’s mysterious past. Just when you think the story is going somewhere, just when you think important information will finally be revealed, the narrative cuts and one of the unnecessary point-of-view characters is in control.
Between the excess point-of-view characters and the story’s slow start, The Spite House was a slough to read. The Spite House begins as a slow burn horror novel. The first one hundred pages are filled with questions regarding the Ross family’s past and what is occurring inside the Spite House. Normally I’m fine with slow burn novels. Unfortunately, this does not work in the case of The Spite House. The Spite House spends too much time evading the answers to any question readers may have regarding the plot or the family’s backstory. This is a deliberate choice made to draw out suspense. But I don’t feel suspense. I feel boredom. I had to actively push myself to read. Thankfully once the Ross family’s past is revealed, the novel does pick up and I did want to continue reading. That said, taking one hundred pages to get to something juicy in a novel that’s only 260 pages long is a major disservice to the book. I get the feeling many a reader marked The Spite House as “did not finish” due to the slow pace.
At least The Spite House had atmosphere. The house itself had lore for days. Every character had a story surrounding the house; who knows which are real, which are exaggerated, and which are pure myth. They accumulate into a haunting atmosphere and leave readers primed for spooks. Though the lack of time spent in the fabled house leaves little possibility for hauntings; especially considering the majority of the Ross family leaves the home in under 48 hours. This does not negate the fact the atmosphere was still good. I simply wish the house was treated as the main character it is on paper and not relegated to a small handful of scenes which left this reader ultimately wanting more.
As a super fan of haunted house novels, I wish I had better things to say about The Spite House. Alas the narrative structure worked hard against it leaving the more interesting elements unexplored and other aspects over explained. The Spite House never comes together as it should. There are tantalizing ideas, but not much else.
With that, I shall bid you all adieu. Thank you very much for joining me today, Book Nerds, I will see you all again next week with another great Spooky Season post. If you can’t wait that long, then you can follow Reading Has Ruined My Life over on Instagram (@ReadingHasRuinedMyLife). I post there almost daily so come back often to revel in literary goodness. You can also follow the blog on Twitter and BlueSky (@RHRMLBlog). If you want something not related to books, then check out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. The show stars me and two of my dearest friends. We talk about everything and anything. There are plenty of episodes out already to help you celebrate Spooky Season. Nothing to See Hear can currently be found on Spotify and YouTube.
Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.
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