What a unique take on a haunted house story. It was so mysterious in the beginning and then it got so dark, but there was so much emotion with the different characters. There was a lot of darkness, and horror, but the humanity drove the story.

Haunted house! I loved how the house was its own character trying to heal from the trauma. Such an interesting take. I actually started to feel bad for it </3.... I do wish this was a bit longer. The writing was good during the parts that were fleshed out.... just could have used more of those moments for bigger impact -- some portions felt a little choppy and jumpy... I also did not enjoy the sisters relationship and it felt like a super unnecessary part of the story. Still an interesting take on a haunted house!

I had no clue what I was getting into when I requested the e-arc for this one, but I prefer going into books blind. This did not disappoint. A mix of grief horror and a haunted house that you could feel the experiences of the author bleeding into. I'm a sucker for grief stories. Haunting stories, not so much. This worked really well for me, though. I love the premise, but I won't get into that here for spoiler reasons. The twist on the typical haunting tale was perfect, and I didn't see it coming. I will definitely be checking out more from this author and keeping an eye out for any new work he releases.

The Flowers at Flood House by J.J. Walker was mysterious, thought provoking, and a little emotional. This story really wraps you up in the characters and has you rooting for Yanna and Seth to figure out just what is going on at Flood House. Seth has to take care of his ill mother all alone and in a house he barely knows anything about. Creepy things start happening soon after he and his mother move in. He and his new found friend, Yanna, try to put pieces of the mystery together to try to find out what his mother may have seen and the experiences they’re having too. This book let me know that flowers aren’t always a pleasant thing. The writing was great and I could envision the story as everything unfolded. I want to thank NetGalley, the author, and the publishers for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

'The Flowers at Flood House' is an excellent haunted house and mystery novella. The house is haunted by its own memories. The haunting is more psychological than gorey. It gets inside your head and heart. At 106 pages, it can easily be read in one sitting, and the pacing is just right. 5 stars.

A really unique and twisted horror, this was a lot of fun to read. It was very short, which is where most of my criticisms come in, I wish there was more character development and suspense built in. However, for a quick read it was a creepy and entertaining story!

This was a quick and entertaining read that I finished in a few hours.
A well written story that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
A fun thriller novella that I really enjoyed reading.

The premise leads the reader to believe that Seth is the main character of this story and he is not. The narrative mostly follows the perspective of Seth's friend Yanna, who seems to be the only one in town who is sympathetic to Seth's situation. Seth's mother is prone to acts of violence and the townsfolk remain wary. Is his mother's outbursts simply a symptom of dementia or is she being influenced by something within the house? Her later death is ruled a heart attack, but a devastated Seth isn't so sure. It can be read either way, but this is never explored further and remains unexplained.

Since it's a short story, at only 106 pages, I also felt like there were too many characters for its size. There's Seth, Yanna, Seth's mother, Yanna's sister Gina, their partner, an old friend of Yanna's mother, and the two sources of the haunting...If it kept within the first four it would've been solid. Instead, transitions are disjointed, and there's little room left for thrills and character development - even Gina's role becomes debatable. It has good bones though! I genuinely pitied Seth, and the idea of forcing a house to face its demons instead of its inhabitants is intriguing. The author says in the acknowledgements that there were multiple drafts before the final product, so I hope this wasn't an editor issue. I would give them another chance!

2 1/2 stars out of 5 on IG!

This starts at a quick pace and I felt that the author draws you in from first page and really sets the scene. This is a good one sitting read thriller novella with some seriously unsettling moments. The concept of the story is great. The book is really hard to put down because the pages just roll and all you want to do is find out what happened and how it happened. I would have enjoyed if it was a bit longer. I needed more from the book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley.

This was a fast read and an interesting premise, but I would really have liked to see the story fleshed out. We get glimpses of character and plot, but only in minute detail. And the conclusions that the main characters arrive at are just dropped in as whole cloth-there is no doubt or ambiguity shown at all. Having said that, the bones of the story are there. Read this when you just want a quick distraction and don’t want to spend too much time thinking about plausibly.

"The Flowers at Flood House" by J.J. Walker is a captivating novella that takes readers on a journey through mystery and intrigue. Set against the backdrop of Flood House, the story unfolds with unexpected twists and turns that kept me engaged from start to finish.

Walker's storytelling prowess shines through in the way they weave together elements of suspense and uncertainty. As a reader, I found myself constantly guessing about the next plot twist, which added to the excitement of the narrative. The characters are well-developed, each with their own secrets and motivations, contributing to the overall depth of the story.

One aspect that left me wanting more was the length of the novella. While the brevity added to its intensity, I couldn't help but wish for a more expansive exploration of the characters and their backgrounds. Nonetheless, this concise format also contributed to the novella's charm, keeping the pacing swift and the suspense palpable.

Overall, "The Flowers at Flood House" is a compelling read that combines mystery with intricate storytelling. J.J. Walker's ability to keep readers on edge while crafting a vivid narrative is commendable. If you enjoy stories that defy expectations and leave you pondering long after the final page, this novella is certainly worth diving into.

The Flowers at Flood House is a short yet engaging read that raises the question: What does it mean to be haunted? J.J. Walker explores the idea that a haunting can extend beyond the supernatural, suggesting that humans are like our own houses, often haunted by trauma and grief. Although Walker notes in the author's note that this isn't directly about dementia, I also appreciate the care he took in depicting memory and its power.

Where The Flowers at Flood House struggles is in its pacing. The story introduces many different characters and relationships, and I feel we lost time with characters like Joseph and Debra, who felt somewhat underdeveloped. That said, the ending, while leaving some questions unanswered, was satisfying to me. Sometimes trauma can't be neatly wrapped up or solved in one therapy session. It's usually messy and takes a lifetime to heal. All we can do is take each day as it comes.

Thanks to NetGalley, After Dark Press, and J.J. Walker for the Advance Reader Copy.

It starts with unexplained bunches of flowers hanging in the basement of his house. This horror novella is a sad and creepy exploration of haunted houses and memories, ending in a way I definitely wouldn't have expected it to.

I found this a very easy book to read, it had an eerie vibe to it and had me wanting to know what was going to happen next. The time jumps were very fun & I really loved the concept. I was shocked by the ending, I didn’t expect it. I would definitely recommend this book if you want something short and thrilling. I basically finished it in one sitting.

Thank you to After Dusk Press, the author and NetGalley for a DRC in return for an honest review

Well, where to start...I feel like I have stumbled across a hidden gem. 'The Flowers at Flood House' is a deeply unsettling exploration of grief and memory. At just 106 pages, J.J. Walker has expertly crafted a story that never feels rushed or overstuffed. This Horror novella blends supernatural horror with deep psychological resonance — there are no cheap scares here, it's a story about how trauma can literally consume you when left unexamined. Flood House is less a setting than a living, grieving presence. A sentient house haunted by its own history — a structure that absorbs, reflects, or even perpetuates human grief, violence or guilt—is a well-established motif in horror literature and film, with different authors putting their own spin on it. Think about Hill House in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's The Shining. I do not make these comparisons lightly. Walker is definitely a name to watch.

Walker is a new writer to me, his bio states he "loves writing unsettling stories about small towns, old houses, and characters that examine what it means to be human" and if this book is anything to go by, I’ll be reading everything he writes! Next on my TBR list is Waxwing Creek, not an anthology but a collection of interconnected horror stories, set in the town of Hunt, described in The Flowers of Flood House as having a "seedy underbelly". The following eerie description made me want to read it immediately - "There was something about Hunt’s trees that felt darker and denser, with leaves that always looked wet. She told him about the places she’d already looked for him. A bingo hall desperate for a lick of paint. A dive bar called Roseland. A motel called Waxwing Creek..."

When I moved into my first fully furnished, very small, rented home, in each room a vase of dried flowers had been placed in a central position. They were heavily dust laden, devoid of colour, devoid of life - they gave me the creeps. The first task I undertook in my new home was to gather them all together and stow them in a cupboard - there they would stay, unobserved, until the day I moved out 2 years later. I never gave them another moment's thought. As I opened the cupboard on moving day, to return them to their original places, I remember thinking that there seemed to be more of them than I remembered...

Since then I have always thought that dried flowers were kind of creepy...now I know why...

#TheFlowersAtFloodHouse #NetGalley

This was juicy and emotional and twisted. It will reach your soul in a very new way. I was surprised i didn’t think i would like this at first but i gave it a solid chance and it won me over.

A short novella about a haunted house and the dangers of a past that will not stay buried. Seth is a recent arrival in the small town in Stillwater, having moved there with his mother to take better care of her since her dementia has been causing her to behave erratically. But the small town is not a big fan of newcomers, especially not those who can be found wandering the streets at night… naked. The only person who does not seem to hate him is Yanna, a woman who also lives in town and the only person he can call when he begins to see and smell the strange things that haunt his mother.
The story moves fast and I found the connection between Seth and Yanna sweet, despite how little time they have to develop it. I think finding similarities in one’s experiences amidst grief can certainly lead to deeper and faster connection than otherwise possible, so that was something I enjoyed.
I also quite enjoyed the way the story was told in short sequences, the way frailty of memory was explored and how trauma and grief affected all characters in the story, including the house. I enjoy haunted house stories where the house has character and despite how short the story was that was something that was well done here!
I unfortunately did not much care for Gina, Yanna’s sister, or Yanna’s relationships with other people in town. There were a few scenes that I think could have been removed to instead focus more on Yanna’s relationship with the house and with Seth. As these scenes were very short, they did not really add that much to Yanna’s character and with a story that is so short it can sometimes be better to really dig into the main relationships instead. In general, some parts of this novella could have been more fun if they had been explored in more detail. I also wish the mother's dementia had played a bit more of a role, since I feel that it was advertised as playing a much bigger role than it ended up doing.
All in all however I found this to be an intriguing short read with some great imagery, an interesting weaving together of a few timelines and an interesting exploration of how sometimes solving an older haunting can help you deal with your own pain.

TW: ableism, death, grief, gore, gun violence, murder, violence

An interesting read, a glimpse into what it's like to live with disjointed memories, not quite sure if they are reality or not, and doomed to repeat them over and over.

A little creepy, more than a little sad, a worthwhile read

i’m giving this a solid 3/5, there’s a lot that i like. I think this take on haunted house was really interesting, and the writing was fantastic. I’d definitely read more by this author. But i am a character focused reader, they can really make or break a book for me and for this one, they simply didn’t work for me. I felt absolutely nothing towards them, which i think would have made the whole thing way more effective. And i hated the sisters, i thought they felt so childish. I found them so annoying, it made it a little hard to fully enjoy this book.

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a pretty well-built story. The narrative was haunting, and the mystery surrounding the house was horrorific (complementary) in some parts.
I found the characters compelling and key to compliment this story.
I fear that this had a lot of underdeveloped potential. Some parts of this novella felt a bit rushed and left some things unsaid that left me wanting more, especially towards the end.
I will check out more of this author because they have a gripping voice.