Title: The Dead House
Author: Dawn Kurtagich
Genre: YA Horror
Published: September 15th, 2015
Source: ARC won in giveaway October 2015
I won this from a Halloween giveaway last year on another blog. And sadly, I didn't get around to reading it until this summer when I tried to do a challenge. Overall I really enjoyed it! I could totally see this being done as a horror movie. And if you've read any of my reviews, you'll know that truly I consider that a pretty high compliment. I know that Kurtagich will be a go-to author for scary stories for me from now on.
The story is told in diary entries and interviews/police records. Supposedly all of this happened 20 years ago, and just recently the diary of Kaitlyn Johnson. But there are not any actual records of Kaitlyn, only Carly Johnson. From the story we learn that Kaitlyn was Carly's "second personality" that only came out at night. Technically this is called Dissociative Identity Disorder, as is explained by the author at the end of the book. The way a lot of it was told was very descriptive. It really put me right into the scary moments and locations of the book. I also enjoyed the Scottish voodoo/mystical type of magic that was part of the story. It is always fascinating to me to learn about things like that. To realize that the voodoo that I know of, isn't the only one that is out there.
In the end there was a big fire that killed as well as burned down part of the school where this mostly takes place. It is interesting to see just how long Carly/Kaitlyn existed. I would have loved to get more of the family background from before all of this. But the little sister moments, as well as memories from the girls and others in their lives did give the story an even more twisted aspect. You'll spend the whole time wondering who could really be behind all of the death and vandalism that goes on. While it seems that there is no way Kaitlyn could do all of it, there are times that it seems obvious that everyone would think it was her.
I highly recommend this as a scary book, with most questions answered at the end, but not all. Enough is left open that it will leave you thinking long after you finish it.
