Synopsis
Amidst the devastation of Ireland’s Great Famine, a young woman is salvaged from certain death when offered a mysterious position at a remote manor house haunted by a strange power and the horror of her own memories in this chillingly evocative historical novel braided with gothic horror and supernatural suspense for readers of Katherine Arden’s The Warm Hands of Ghosts and The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins.
County Clare, 1848: In the scant few years since the potato blight first cast its foul shadow over Ireland, Maggie O’Shaughnessy has lost everything—her entire family and the man she trusted with her heart. Toiling in the Ennis Workhouse for paltry rations, she can see no future either within or outside its walls—until the mysterious Lady Catherine arrives to whisk her away to an old mansion in the stark limestone landscape of the Burren.
Lady Catherine wants Maggie to impersonate her late daughter, Wilhelmina, and hoodwink solicitors into releasing Wilhelmina’s widow pension so that Lady Catherine can continue to provide for the villagers in her care. In exchange, Maggie will receive freedom from the workhouse, land of her own, and the one thing she wants more than a chance to fulfill the promise she made to her brother on his deathbed—to live to spite them all.
Launching herself into the daunting task, Maggie plays the role of Wilhelmina as best she can while ignoring the villagers’ tales of ghostly figures and curses. But more worrying are the whispers that come from within. Something in Lady Catherine’s house is reawakening long-buried memories in Maggie—of a foe more terrifying than hunger or greed, of a power that calls for blood and vengeance, and of her own role in a nightmare that demands the darkest sacrifice . . .
Review
When I first saw This House Will Feed by Maria Tureaud, I was immediately drawn in by the cover because of the pretty colors, but I hesitated because I was worried it’d be too much for me. But then I kept seeing updates and reviews about it and immediately felt fomo so I went back and requested an ARC. And I’m so glad I did. Wow.
The author warns at the beginning that the epigraphs for the chapters are mostly eyewitness accounts and should be read with caution, and she wasn’t wrong. It only took two of those for me to want to rage. It’s not hard to believe that people are cruel if you pay attention to the past or the present, yet it still shocks me on the regular anyways, as it did here.
It took absolutely no time to be drawn into this book. The writing was compelling from the start, absolutely heartbreaking throughout, and though I usually love dual timelines, I wished several times to avoid the past in this one because though it was a bit predictable at times, it was still so hard to sit through. But I appreciated that, even in its predictability, the story made me feel so strongly and also had some surprises as well in the small details, especially the character revelations.
I expected gothic vibes as soon as I saw the cover and was not disappointed. This is something that was introduced to me by a friend and that I’ve started to really enjoy. It works so well with culturally based stories and was no exception here. I want to read more books that make me extremely emotional, whether towards the positive or negative, and This House did an exceptional job with that. To know that this was based on true history, the Great Hunger that caused over a million deaths of starvation and disease while their food was being exported, made this an even more difficult read.
Though the ending wasn’t quite as dramatic as I had expected, which gave me a bit of mixed feelings as a first reaction, I decided to sit with it a little bit and then read the author’s note instead of immediately writing down my review. And I’m glad I did because after some more thinking, I realized that I actually think the ending was quite fitting in a “heal the land” kind of way.
This book wasn’t the super scary horror that I had first anticipated, the kind that would cause me nightmares for weeks to come and is the reason I approach this genre so carefully (I have a way too active imagination sometimes). It’s the quieter kind of horror that makes you realize just how horrible real life can be, the kind that makes you sit with your feelings for a while. If you’re a beginner horror reader like me, I would definitely recommend this one. It’s so emotional and atmospheric and exactly the kind of quiet but loud horror that I have come to appreciate over the last year.
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