Jennifer FawcettRezensionen

I liked it.....i feel like there might have been more, but there was definitely enough.

Chills you to the core.......................

Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett is a chilling horror story which definitely going to give you goosebumps. Within the first few pages the author builds up the plot with a few characters, and I immediately delved into the book. There were short glimpses of the past in the story which really helped in understanding of the plot. Abby and Clare's character were totally different and exciting. There was something very unusual about these characters. All throughout the story you are going to feel that creepy vibe which makes the book so interesting. I would say that it is one of those horror books which you would not prefer to read at night. The author has done a commendable job.

Definitely, 5 stars for the book. Thanks to the author and edelweiss for providing me with an opportunity to read and review the book.

**Thank you Goodreads & Atria Books for a free copy of this book**
This book was a long, boring, tedious read. Claire returns to her hometown when her friend Abby, who she hasn't kept in touch with for years, is in a coma due to a suicide attempt at an old house they visited when they were teenagers with two of their other friends. The story draws out jumping back & forth between now and then, along with backstory on a family that lived there, & the family that built the house. A scary house with a freaky metal basement door and darkness. There were dead ends that didn't make since, missing persons, & finally at the end of the book when stuff was revealed Claire withheld information that might have solved some other mysteries. Not worth the read at all.

I was sucked in from the first page. An octagonal shaped house in the woods that may or may not be haunted? A young woman’s coming to terms with the trauma and guilt from her childhood? Are the secrets buried in the basement haunting her and ruining her life? I anxiously sped through pages to find the answers to these questions and unlock the mystery of the house and her past. Tense and kept me guessing, I enjoyed this.

In the summer of 88 12 year old girls Claire, Abby and Lori decided to go into a haunted octagon house that was on Lori’s family land. Rumor has it a husband 30 years before went crazy and killed his wife and daughters in the house. Abby and Claire was pulled by the basement, which has a door that opens and closes it seems by itself.

Told from 4 time periods revolving the situations of this house. The girls are reunited again and need to find the answers before anyone else gets hurt.

The plot was interesting and I did enjoy it, however, I felt it could have used a some other twists and turns along the way.
Read this if you enjoy a focused plot thriller.

Thank you for my gifted copy.

I'm a sucker for haunted house stories, so I was fond of the premise here. It's written in a gothic style that reminded me a lot of Jennifer McMahon. Fawcett's prose is elegant and textured, and that adds a lot to the overall reading experience.

Overall, I didn't fall in love with this as much as I had hoped to. The final act in particular threw me for a loop and there were a lot of time jumps that pulled me out of the story. Even so, I'm excited to see what Fawcett writes next. She's an extremely talented writer with a bright future ahead.

Personally, I found nothing wrong with the writing or story except that there was too much of it. I found there were many major controversial topics brought into the story which couldn’t realistically be addressed. It would have been easier if they were mentioned as an aside and not focused since ultimately they don’t play a role in the story. Some of the topics included people developing cancer from a local industry, the trauma related to women having miscarriages, haunted houses and paranormal activity, and mental illness.

Then, the storyline becomes confusing with the history regarding ownership of the house through the years. I think the story would’ve felt more cohesive if some of the details of the extraneous information were left out. It only served as a distraction making me wondering how these topics were related to the overall story.

When Clare was a teen, she and her friends snuck into the Octagon House, a crumbling structure in the woods with a dark history and rumored to be cursed. Her best friend Abby was briefly trapped in the cellar and whatever she saw there cast a dark shadow over the rest of her life.
Clare has tried to forget the past, and has mostly succeeded at doing so until the cryptic messages from her former friend Abby induce nightmares. Her life is already unsettled when she is contacted by Abby's mother, telling her that Abby is hospitalized after a suicide attempt in the Octagon House and asking that she come to see her.
Written on multiple timelines the story kind of bounced from present day Clare as an adult, to Clare as a teen, to way back when the house was first being built, and then forward to the only family who ever lived in it. It's a slow burn, told from multiple points of view, and is more of a mystery than a haunted house story. There's not really much in the way of scares but there is a lot of suspense. I was enjoying the story immensely until something that seemed out of character happened near the end. I can't say what it was without spoiling the whole book for you but something happened that seemed almost to defeat the whole purpose of the previous goings on. If not for that I probably would have rated it 5 stars.

4 out of 5 stars
I received an advance copy for review.

Thanks to Jennifer Fawcett, Atria Books, and Edelweiss for the chance to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book will be published on February 22, 2022.

All neighborhoods have a house that people avoid, a house where a horrible thing is purported to have happened - in Sumner Mills, that is the Octagon House. One summer Clare and Abby along with other friends explore the house and discover a very creepy basement…that for some reason has a heavy metal door that seems to open on its own. This is the summer that will set the course for the rest of their lives.

Twenty years later, Clare receives a frantic call from Abby's mother that she is in a coma. Despite not having spoken in years, Clare rushes home to find out what happened and discovers that Abby was discovered in the basement of the Octagon House where she had been for four days. Clare realizes that she is going to have to finish what Abby started - figuring out the mysterious call of the house.

This was my first read by Jennifer Fawcett and I wasn't sure about it. I was so glad to see that this was a wonderfully told story that kept me guessing and the ending was fantastic. I would be very interested in reading anything else put out by Fawcett.

This thriller blends small-town secrets and supernatural elements for a page-turner.

I found the romance weirdly flat, but I think that might have been a function of all the time jumps.

Personally, I found nothing wrong with the writing or story except that there was too much of it. I found there were many major controversial topics brought into the story which couldn’t realistically be addressed. It would have been easier if they were mentioned as an aside and not focused since ultimately they don’t play a role in the story. Some of the topics included people developing cancer from a local industry, the trauma related to women having miscarriages, haunted houses and paranormal activity, and mental illness.

Then, the storyline becomes confusing with the history regarding ownership of the house through the years. I think the story would’ve felt more cohesive if some of the details of the extraneous information were left out. It only served as a distraction making me wondering how these topics were related to the overall story.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from Edelweiss and Atria Books. This review is my voluntary unbiased opinion.

Beneath the Stairs definitely had an interesting concept and I am certainly drawn to things that go bump in the dark. Horror books are my guilty pleasure, and while I don't tend to review many of them, I do read a lot of them. Unfortunately, this one started pretty slowly, and although not usually a problem, never really picked up and I had to push myself to finish it.

I am never opposed to dual timelines in a book as they can be very effective and create a lot of suspense when they are done well. Unfortunately, I felt like the time lines in this book affected the suspense, and some of them didn't really add any value to the story as it was more about teenage angst and love than it was about building up good suspense. Does anyone want to read about these kinds of things in a horror novel? Unless unrequited love has to do with the actual story, goodbye.

There was something creepy under the stairs and in the basement that was creating all of these issues with people, but at no time did I feel tension or that spine-tingling sense of danger as I was reading. The plot was repetitive in the sense that what happened to the girls was told over and over again, yet there was never an explanation for what happened or why, just consequences. Yes, I can read between the lines as well as anyone, but you have to have some meat to be able to do so and that 'meat' to the story was lacking behind Clare's musings over Mitchell and her failed friendship with Abby. Frankly, this was a story about a basement whose door would only open for certain people, and when they went down the stairs they would see a creepy doll. Pretty cliche, if you ask me.

Beneath the Stairs had a lot of potential, but fell into the category of being simply a mystery without a thrill or a twist. Unfortunately, the characters were one-dimensional and lacked depth and the plot just limped along without any real focus or twist. Personally, I just felt like it was about a haunted house that creeped out some kids for no apparent reason that I could ever divine as the explanations were weak or missing. However, as I mentioned, there is potential in this author's writing so I would love to try something again by her in the future. I really wished I had liked this one more.

There is a theme of mental health (borderline personality disorder) and attempted suicide and could be disturbing for some readers.

This is told mainly from Clare's POV present day and Clare's POV in 1998.

I was hooked from the beginning.

The Octagon House is a creepy, old, abandoned house, in a clearing in the middle of the woods.

4 girls go into the Octagon House the summer before their freshman year. Two go back.
Years later, one goes back and attempts suicide.
Clare gets a message from Abby's mom stating that Abby is in a medically induced coma, but before she went under, she said Clare's name. Abby was found locked in the basement of the Octagon House, possibly for 3 days before she was found. Clare goes back to Sumner's Mills to figure out what happened to Abby and why she went back.

Ben was convicted of killing his wife, 3-year-old daughter and the attempted murder of his 8-year-old daughter in 1965. Years later he is released from prison and is in a state run nursing home with stage 4 cancer. Ben doesn't remember what happened the night his family died, but he maintains his innocence.

Abby has been trying to figure out why she keeps getting lured back to the house. Now, Lori (one of the 4 girls from 1998) finds her stepdaughter is being pulled to the house.

Clare is determined to find out what Abby knew about that house and why certain people are drawn to it.

I found this to be a very good supernatural novel. Spooky at times. It shows how the supernatural can make you second guess yourself and others. The different timelines are not confusing at all.

Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett is a 2022 Atria publication.

A strange, abandoned, octagonal shaped house, hidden deep in the woods, rumored to be haunted, is a magnet for kids looking for a thrill. When four teenage girls decide to go in the house, a childish prank has unintended consequences that will haunt two of them well into adulthood.

Clare and Abby were best friends as kids, until the fateful day they entered that house. Twenty years later, Abby went back to the house and found in the basement, near death after what was a suspected suicide attempt. Upon learning of Abby’s condition, Clare, whose life is a right mess, returns home to offer support and to hopefully find the courage to fix the mistake she made all those years ago, in hopes it will save Abby’s life, as well as her own….

In March, after months of dark, cold winter days, my thoughts turn to light, sunny beach reads. But this book caught my attention and though horror novels are usually a hard sell for me these days, this one sounded like one I might like. Turns out my instincts were correct!
The story does get off to a slow start and the atmosphere takes a while to cement. It didn’t take much thought to figure what- or who- was behind the haunting- but the specifics take a while to reveal themselves.

Because ‘horror’ novels these days is usually synonymous with over-the-top blood and gore- I’m very picky about this genre and rarely even indulge in them anymore, but this one was not dependent on those elements, instead making it more of a mystery and relying more on good old-fashioned haunted house atmosphere.

The book goes back and forth between the past and the present, exploring other areas of the past where the octagonal house played a part. The areas centered on the teenage Abby and Clare could occasionally feel juvenile, but it was important to the story, because the triggers for Abby’s mental state is relevant to how Clare and Abby’s family approaches the present-day issues that have trapped Abby in a comatose state- though I did feel it went on a bit too long- since I got the general idea, and was ready to get on with learning the history of the house and how Clare will figure it all out.

The best part of the story, though, was the bonds of friendship, and underlying message of how childhood or teenage traumas can haunt our adult lives.

Overall, this was a quick, non-violent- sort of old school horror story. It’s not destined to be a classic or anything- but it was a nice change of pace for me right now.

3.5 stars½

The octagon house has a traumatic past and a very twisted future
“Beneath the Stairs” opens as children explore an old, vacant house; it is in very bad condition, in fact, it is hardly a house at all. Nevertheless, it is frightening just the same. Now the house is awake, and she will come back; they always came back. In the summer of 1998, right before they started high school, she and her three best friends, Monica, Lori, and Abby, went into an abandoned house.

Events unfold in Clare’s First-person account going back and forth in time. There are also alternating narratives from other points of view. Something terrible happened in that strange house shaped like an octagon. The old lady owner did not knock down the house after those murders. Why not? Just what happened? The police said one thing, then the newspapers picked up the information, and even the lawyers believed it. It would have been easier, simpler, to just give in. The more puzzling problem is why would someone go back?

Little by little readers hear the story of that night. Details are disclosed, but the important things, the real answers, take time to materialize. The house and the events that happened there left a residue on all involved that is impossible to leave behind, and of course there is “the doll.” I received a review copy of” Beneath the Stairs” from Jennifer Fawcett, Atria Books, and Simon & Schuster. It is a compelling, twisted, and surprising story.

Beneath the Stairs is Jennifer Fawcett's debut novel.

Twenty years ago teenagers Clare, Abby and two other friends dared each other to go inside a local 'haunted' house, which had been the scene of a murder. They all went in, but Abby came out traumatized. And now she has attempted suicide - back at Octagon House.

Beneath the Stairs is hard to slot into a genre niche. There is definitely a horror element to the book, but it's done subtly and is very effective for that light hand. That being said, I mentally kept yelling "Don't go in the basement!" I'm going to let you discover what's in the basement, but it gave me the creeps.

The plot is actually character driven. The timeline flips from present to past as Fawcett explores family, the relationships between the four friends, coming of age and where they are today. Can you ever go home? How has what happened in the past shaped their lives? And where do they go from here? Well - it's back to the house.....

Beneath the Stairs is a slow burning, atmospheric tale - one that I quite enjoyed. I thought it was a really good debut. Fawcett's writing is easy to get caught up in.

I chose to listen to Beneath the Stairs. Carolina Hoyos was the narrator. She has such an interesting voice. It's low pitched with a hint of a gravelly tone. Her voice draws you in to listen. Her speed of speaking is again, just right for the character and the plot. She's easy to understand and enunciates well. She absolutely captures Fawcett's work with her voice. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I find myself drawn deeper into a book by listening. That was absolutely the case with Beneath the Stairs.

This is exactly how I like my ghost stories - eerie, atmospheric and creepy. This hit every note perfectly. Really, really creepy without ever getting actually scary (IMHO) and a great blend of past history seeping its way into current day. It also wrapped up really nicely with a right amount of facts and ambiguity to allow the plot to close up nicely but still leave a bit of the creep factor. Great read! Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy and provide my honest opinion.