Synopsis
Lost and unmoored after her mother’s death, Carmen drifts from place to place. Moving from one Airbnb to the next, she is a ghost in the towns she passes through—an outsider, never quite belonging.
With her inheritance dwindling away, and determined to stop drifting, Carmen decides it’s time to settle. Time to buy a little house, close the door, and try to rebuild her life.
When she finds a surprisingly cheap property on a nice street, Carmen thinks she’s struck gold, until the estate agent hesitates. The house has a history, she warns. Something unspeakable happened there. A murder so brutal she can barely bring herself to describe it.
But Carmen isn’t easily spooked. The house wasn’t to blame. And a bargain is a bargain. Ghosts aren’t real. Hauntings are just superstition.
Yet, as Carmen turns her key in the lock, a thought haunts her:
What if she’s wrong?
What if walls really do remember?
Something Bad Happened Here is a chilling haunted house story which deals with themes of spirits and possession. It will appeal to fans of The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty and Come Closer by Sara Gran.
Review
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the audio arc!
I liked the colors used for the cover and thought the premise was interesting, so I wanted to give this a go! The narration by Andy Stevenson wasn’t but, but wasn’t my favorite. Just seemed like an odd choice for this mostly one-character perspective.
The book opens with Carmen. She’s grieving the loss of her mother, the only true constant in her life. She’s been popping around just sort of adrift. Staying at AirBnBs with no real place to call home. Her stuff is in storage, and she doesn’t feel comfortable enough where she’s staying for it anyway. So a bit of a house hunt ensues, and wouldn’t you know it, there’s an undervalued home in the town she wants! It just happens to be the site of a heinously graphic murder, but what could really go wrong? And look at the new appliances!
I remember thinking while listening to this that it felt like a haunted house story with a setup from someone who’s never read one. And I don’t mean that in any way as insulting or to sway readers against it; it just really stuck out as a thought to me. The opening is long, not really slow, but noticeably longer than the actual section of the book where things start happening. In that sense, it felt kind of reminiscent of The Haunting of Hill House to me. I enjoyed the setup, and I think the writing was solid, but if you take your time to set up a character, the length of the story should suit their journey.
The second half of the novella, I did struggle a bit with. It felt like the beginning of a larger picture, like it was missing a part three or something. And while I am a fan of writing open endings, I’m not so sure about reading them personally. Carmen’s deterioration needed more explaining, in my opinion. I did feel her grief, that desire to speak to someone just one more time, but I never felt like she was spiraling. And I think the reader needed that before there could be a satisfying break.
The more “choose your own” style of it, is it possession, or is it a mental breakdown, I did enjoy, though. However, this does feature a rather rough sexual encounter that I can’t say I’m a fan of. I enjoyed the ghost “incidents” and even the fact that the murder in question was inspired by a true event, but wow, was it dark. Even to read it fictionalized was a lot. It did read like setting up a story just to include that real-life murder, which is why I think it just needed a little more. I enjoyed what I listened to, just wish it was longer.
A murder-heavy haunting novella that blends grief and longing with an ending open to interpretation.
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