Book Review: Harmony House by Nic Sheff

Genre: YA (not) Horror Paranormal
Publication: March 2016 by HarperTeen
Acquisition: ARC trade with a fellow blogger

Synopsis:

Jen Noonan’s father thinks a move to Harmony House is the key to salvation, but to everyone who has lived there before, it is a portal to pure horror.

After Jen’s alcoholic mother’s death, her father cracked. He dragged Jen to this dilapidated old manor on the shore of New Jersey to “start their new lives”—but Harmony House is more than just a creepy old estate. It’s got a chilling past—and the more Jen discovers its secrets, the more the house awakens. Strange visions follow Jen wherever she goes, and her father’s already-fragile sanity disintegrates before her eyes. As the forces in the house join together to terrorize Jen, she must find a way to escape the past she didn’t know was haunting her—and the mysterious and terrible power she didn’t realize she had.

(from Goodreads)

2 / 5 Stars

A fast, couldn't put down, need all the answers read without a solid story line to go with it.

Not fantastic. Kinda out of control and underdeveloped at the same time which was disappointing because I was looking forward to a good horror story.

Harmony House isn't really a horror story. Jen does live in a creepy house and there are connections to past horrors and whatnot but overall it's more a story of abuse and unexplained abilities - neither of which is satisfactorily wrapped up in my opinion.

I really wanted to love Harmony House but right from the start I knew I was going to have a hard time with Jen. Her language is filthy, which doesn't bother me at all but it didn't fit with the story. Her father is ridiculous and horrible in so many ways and she's shrugs is off as religious zeal. She's almost raped and / or assaulted on her first night in the new town and does pretty much nothing about it. Oh, and she has...powers? That do...something? Because of...reasons? I have no freaken clue.

Honestly, I don't know how I finished it.

It gets weird, and strange and none of it is enjoyable and so much of it is predictable and man, the ending was horrible.

Can't say I recommend this one and going by other reviews, I don't think I'm alone.