I will read books about ghosts and haunted houses that are filled with horror and terror anytime of year. During Halloween season (my favorite), I seem to scour the library to absorb as many spooky books as I can. I’m grateful I found John Boyne’s, This House is Haunted.

1867, Eliza Caine has experienced a life changing event and is searching for a new direction. She is hired to be the governess at Gaudlin Hall. Her arrival to the mansion is only the beginning of strange occurrences. She is immediately met by the two children she will be caring for: Isabella and Eustace. No parents or adults are present to greet her and the children present as this is normal.

As the occurrences typical of a haunted house begin, Eliza is unnerved, but she is not frightened away. In fact, she is determined to find out what is going on with this unusual arrangement. She embarks on a mission to learn the whereabouts of the parents and to meet the other employees of Gaudlin Hall. While accomplishing her goal, she learns more than she bargained for.

I enjoyed my time with this story and its characters. Eliza Caine is a young, determined woman with a huge heart. She was faced with ghosts, a family with a sordid past, and very unusual living conditions while navigating her own life changes. It was a pleasure to see Eliza grow and brilliantly take on new challenges. The ending of the book was perfect. Exactly what I would have expected!

I adore haunted house stories that are set in Victorian times. The simplicity of this era that lacks our modern conveniences, offered an additional layer of spookiness to the mansion where this story takes place. While listening to this story, the works of Shirley Jackson and Susan Hill’s, The Woman in Black, kept coming to mind. I would arrange This House is Haunted with those books as a recommendation for perfect Victorian era Halloween reads.

I borrowed this audiobook from my local library with the Hoopla App. Listening to the narration by Alison Larkin was an absolute delight.

I have photos and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog ( )

I like this Victorian story. The links to Dickens and the way it is written fits perfectly with the horror stories from that time period in my view. It is a bonus that the themes in this book are way more modern. The story is a bit predictable, but I loved it anyway.


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An old-fashioned gothic haunted house story! What fun! I so enjoyed the atmosphere of this book and the pace. John Boyne is a terrific storyteller. I highly recommend to fans of The Turn of the Screw or the movie The Others. ( )

In this novel John Boyne recreates the setting and mood of 19th Century ghost stories with the help of some of the commonest tropes of the genre: a grieving governess, two not-so-innocent children, a haunted country mansion and pages upon pages of thick fog. The novel is enjoyable and moves at a quick pace, but the pseudo-Victorian style does not ring true. There are several contemporary writers who are better at Victorian pastiche (e.g. Sarah Waters, the late Michael Cox)and traditional supernatural tales (e.g. Susan Hill) ( )

(54) I really enjoy this author's novels - they are all so different; so entertaining; and fairly well written. My favorite remains 'The Heart's Invisible Furies.' But I have also enjoyed 'The Thief of Time,' and 'Ladder of Years', and this novel from 2013 - a fairly classic ghost story is no exception. A bit like 'We have always lived in the Castle,' and 'The Haunting of Hill House,' except much more Victorian. Our protagonist is a 21 year old school teacher who cares for her elderly father in London until his rather sudden death. She hastily takes a job as a governess in Yorkshire in despair without investigating the position and well... it appears she is alone in the house with the rather creepy children, or is she? No one in the town will talk to her and some hair-raising things happen to her in the house. The ankle grabbing in the bed.... shudder.

The story is easy to read and escapist. Creepy but more psychologically so, not true horror. The Victorian attitudes toward women were well depicted. I wish the backstory regarding the children's mother was more fleshed out - in the end the reveals were mostly easy to guess and the denouement was predictable preventing a higher rating. But still a satisfying read. I am really enjoying how adept this author is with writing different genres. In all his novels there exists good characterization, realistic dialogue, as well as plot and atmosphere. His books have each left a lasting impression on me, but are not portentous or overly lyrical. I will read more by this author. In fact, I think his 'Crippen,' sits on my bookshelf TBR. ( )