Eliza Caine, you're not a... modern, are you?" I can soooo hear Mrs. Patterson, the outraged head of the young girls' school, practically sputtering with indignation as she spit out this line.

Eliza Caine is a modern, or what passed for one back in 1867. She argues religion with a village pastor, argues women's rights with a lawyer, almost turns green when any man tries to tell her that, since she's a woman, she is, of course, a hysteric and none of what is happening to her is real. She reads a job asking for a governess for two children, applies, and within a week is in for the adventure of her young life.

As the title tells you... This House is Haunted. The amusing thing is Boyne is not playing coy here. He is writing a haunted house story, not a "oh, this might be a haunted house" story. He treats the reader to full-tilt nasty haunted shenanigans... poor Miss Caine is almost pushed out a window, almost clobbered in the head by a stone gargoyle, almost strangled, and almost savaged by a dog. She is is tossed about like she's stuck in a WWF death cage match. She's scalded. She's punched.

Best of all, this has happened to a few other governess' before her. Four... in less than a year! Add in the violent back story of the Westerly family, and Eliza starts to put the puzzle pieces together.

But wait, Eliza realizes there are two ghosts...one out to kill her, and one determined to save her. And that, dead reader, made the store truly special for me. In fact, in the middle of the mayhem, I started crying!

Is this book a piss-take on a ghost story? Maybe? No matter, it's beautifully written, and held my attention the entire time. The two "Turning of the Screw-esque" children are a bit cliche, but it feels like Boyne simply uses them as an excuse to lure Eliza to her painful position.

The ending, while not unexpected, is a hoot.

Like Turn of the Screw, but with shorter, more modern sentences. I liked how the author strung his "creepy ghostly occurrences" across multiple encounters. It kept the mood nice and spooky.

Not a bad read for a rainy autumn evening.

When I read a haunted house story I am doing it for the tropes. I want the ghosts and I want the jump scares and I want the spooky atmosphere. So I am expecting them to be a bit samey and that's part of what I want. But this one was pretty dull. Not a lot happened really and although there were elements of the story I liked I don't think Boyne did it justice. I also worked saw one of the twists coming a mile off, which is not necessarily a deal breaker, but I was already annoyed so it just irritated me.

Also why did I need to be told on every other page that tha narrator was not beautiful? Why did that matter, and even if it did matter why did it matter that much? It got to the point where, when it was mentioned in the middle of an action scene, totally scuppering the mood, that I actually swore out loud.

Como minha primeira leitura de um livro de terror e um adulto escrito pelo John Boyne (O Menino do Pijama Listrado, Noah Foge de Casa), aqui temos uma história horripilante e bem escrita. Narrada em 1ª pessoa, acompanhamos a trajetória de Eliza Caine, uma professora de 21 anos que, após sofrer uma grande perda (que acontece nas primeiras páginas, então não é um grande spoiler), se muda para outra cidade onde arruma um emprego de governanta. Logo, ela descobre que coisas sinistras acontecem naquela casa, e ela precisa descobrir uma forma de sair dessa situação...com vida.

"Eu podia aturar um fantasma em troca de um pouco de ar puro" (p. 220)

A construção dos personagens é bem bacana, e ao invés de ir direto pro terror, o autor nos conduz a um suspense bem elaborado, onde seguimos a protagonista tentando entender o que está acontecendo. Há alguns clichês do gênero, mas o que mais irritou a ponto de tirar uma estrela da nota foi que toda vez que um personagem ia contar algo importante para Eliza, era bruscamente interrompido e demorava mais umas 30 páginas pra revelação acontecer. Fora isso, foi muito interessante acompanhar o crescimento da protagonista, que é bem corajosa e cheia de atitude, principalmente se levarmos em conta que o livro se passa no século 19. Também temos a participação mais que especial de um autor incrível da época, e referências à Orgulho e Preconceito, da Jane Austen. O livro também tem um lado mais denso quando trata de abuso em família, coisa muito importante no desenvolvimento da história. O desfecho é chocante e surpreendente, além de condizente. A diagramação está bem legal, a fonte é grande, e encontrei apenas 2 erros (1 de gramática, 1 de ortografia). Pra quem curtiu o filme Os Outros, estrelado por Nicole Kidman, esse livro é praticamente uma leitura obrigatória. E sinistra.

It almost lost me in the first few chapters. The character really becomes relate-able in chapter three, and then I couldn't put it down. I wanted a little more suspense in this type of novel, but it was still a really fun adventure!

See my review here:

http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/tag/this-house-is-haunted/