I wanted to like this book more than I did. I thought for the story it was too long. The characters were well written, and the story began with a terrifying and unexplainable event. Scarlett Vantassel has come home after dropping out of school. Wanting to make a last horror film review as a vlogger, instead she sees and feels strange vibes as it turns out a large, Gothic looking house has fallen out of the sky and landed in town. The story is about Scarlett and her friends as they try to figure out why the house is there and what is so very wrong with it. About 60% through the book I started skipping ahead to get to the end. I kept wondering if this was a YA book, as it seemed to read that way. I did enjoy the friendship camaraderie between the foursome (five if you count The Magician). They were mostly all so darn cheerful during their experience. A positive attitude is a great attribute, but some of the kids’ emotions seemed incongruent to what was happening in the book. I just couldn’t quite suspend belief enough to thoroughly enjoy this book. The book has potential, and I think there’s an audience that will really like this story, it just wasn’t attention-grabbing enough for me. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really wanted to enjoy this one! The description sounded like it would be right up my alley, but it really didn’t do it for me. The dialogue between the characters was a bit immature for me, and the characters (most) are supposed to be in their twenties. It made for some cringe worthy content.

The idea of the book was well thought out and the descriptions were great. I could very easily picture the town and the house.

I would read another book by this author, however I can not recommend this book as it wasn’t for me personally.

This was an interesting premise for a story?! It was interesting and intriguing....but a bit strange at the same time!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this arc. Even though horror isn’t a big genre, I’m a massive Stephen King and Joe Hill fan, and is something I want to read more of, so I when I saw this absolutely gorgeous cover I was immediately hooked. My interest was piqued seeing comparisons to Shirley Jackson. However upon reading this I wasn’t completely blown away unfortunately, although I appreciate the efforts of the author trying to do something different.
This follows Scarlett, a horror reviewer on YouTube. In the middle of the night she hears a loud screeching noise that has her bones on edge and a loud noise like a crater has fallen. A house has dropped from the sky. The house gets bought by a corporation and hosts a lottery daring people to go inside. Scarlett’s friend, Hannah, is grieving the loss of her parent and in an attempt to learn more about the afterlife (which she’s convinced the house is connected to) she enters the house. Scarlett and her friends go into the house, too, to save Hannah, and thus begins the nightmare...
Overall this was a fun and a spooky book, but at times the writing style bordered on science fiction with the house falling like a meteorite. Also part of the problem for me was that the author can’t write women well. In the opening chapters I was put off with a page long physical description about Scarlett and how she “wasn’t like the girls on Sports Illustrated and how flat her chest was”. I struggled to connect with the writing. Furthermore this book is over 500 pages long, and it took me ages to make any progress. With better editing, and cuts this could’ve been a better and more tighter book. 2/5.

Please note this is a 3.5.

This book has a lot of positives, but it does take a long time to get started. I absolutely loved the Lovecraftian horror that feeds through this book, with some marvellous eldritch descriptions and twisted concepts that give an incredibly punchy sense of darkness. The story was fantastic, and there are a lot of threads that are picked up and put together to form a sense of mystery and suspense that culminate in some absolutely delicious twists.

However, it did have some drawbacks. The characterisation leaves a bit to be desired, and I was a little disappointed that I didn't connect with especially the main character as well as I could have. A little bit more humanisation would go a long way to making them just that little bit easier to understand and appreciate. With that being said, the ending was incredible, and it carried with it a sense of unease that is sure to leave even the most horror-keen reader uneasy.

The characters in the book are all very likable and interesting. I found the house to be extremely scary and while the book was enjoyable, I wanted more. I felt like a lot of the time spent on the main characters leading up to their time in the house could have been used for more story about the house. I'm dying to know about the house and why/how it was made and how it became what it became.

That being said, The House that Fell from the Sky was interesting and I will recommend it to readers looking for a horror novel.

This book takes the reader on a Horror and suspense adventure that leans more heavily into what we don’t see than what we do.

What I liked

1. The main character is far from perfect while still being someone I can hope is successful.

2. There is a sense of the unknown being more dangerous than our imagined origins for the mystery.

What I disliked

1. The pacing especially near the end feels all kinds of wonky.

2. As a reader I feel like I didn’t get the payoff of answers I’d hoped for. ( this isn’t my normal genre to read so if that’s a genre convention I’m missing it makes sense)

Who I would recommend this book for : This book would be a good read for those who liked books by writers like Stephen king and want to expand their experience of the horror and suspense genres.

Loving the cover of this book and description on the back was not enough to carry me through. I found the main character a tad bit annoying (her rival dies and she blames herself even though its not her fault) and I wanted more information on the house, which I wasn't getting (The main character is looking up articles about the house, but we aren't given any information!). There are some flashbacks that are a bit weird and I don't see how it is related to the story at all, like the one where the characters are all of a sudden trying on dresses. I tried skipping forward and speed reading, but then found that I was upon Part II and still not interested enough. Unfortunately this was not my kind of read, and the description that this was Hill House-esque made me believe that the house would be its own character.

Wow.

My first note for this story was simply 'hooked'. It's been a long time since I've picked up a book with the barest blurb, without knowing the author and loved it so completely. It's even a genre I rarely read, having exhausted my appetite for horror and haunted houses in movies. But this was something else.

Scarlett Vantassel, horror vlogger extraordinaire, is granted the opportunity of a lifetime; a chance to enter the house that fell from the sky, a mysterious castle-like mansion that quite literally appeared out of thin air one night in the sleepy town of Winterview. Others have entered the house and either killed themselves or gone insane. A normal person wouldn't go. A sane person wouldn't bring along their brother, two friends and the world famous town magician. Hooked, right?

It was amazingly graphic in it's description of the house and it's interior. Several times I found my heart racing or a cold chill running down my spine. One of the wonders of the house was its ability to reanimate of sorts. Without giving too much away, I thought I was entering the Overlook Hotel, surrounded by The Thing, whilst experiencing the Event Horizon. Hooked, right?

Throughout the story there are several flashbacks detailing the characters lives and relationships. At first I thought they were meaningless, meant only to ease the nausea caused by the house but after a while I found them endearing. If you are finding the start a bit slow please keep going. I promise it picks up.

There were some flaws. It did take more than half the book to get anywhere near the house, let alone enter it but by the time they did go in I felt like I knew them all. Each character was well fleshed out and those few chapters of development made me care for them and their fate. It only made the ending more sad.

The ending was what I was expecting and more. I loved it.

Wow wow wow!!! Absolutely devoured this book. I actualy had to stop a few times. Not because I wasnt enjoying it, but because it was so creepy it started to freak me out!! Haha. Amazing story and I highly recommend it. I didnt cry honest! 😂

I absolutely loved this almost perfect book! This was a page-turner!

I was hooked from the very first page. The whole first chapter was extremely foreboding. This is the type of book that you sit down to read and realize you are in for a treat. I stopped after the first page and fought against looking up the author because I couldn't stop thinking "Who is this guy? What else has he done? Where did he come from all of a sudden?" Now, anything Patrick writes is going to be on my to-read list.

The story is that upon returning to her hometown after her relationship ends, a house falls from the sky and lands on one of the random city streets. It is a large, black gothic mansion and is referred to as a haunted house. From the get-go you realize that the house has powers to supercharge people's emotions and fill them with dread, fear, and anger and that it preys on people's weaknesses. A lottery chances that Scarlett and her friends spend one night in the house in order to win a million dollars but truthfully they do it because one of her friends believes that her deceased mother is inside. It's part rescue mission, part Lovecraftian nightmare.

Remember years ago when everyone was into House of Leaves? "Oooo a staircase. Oooo a door." How spooky. This is so much better in really giving you a house to be afraid of. Scarlett encounters numerous monsters and situations that result in her death. Everytime she dies, she awakes back in the foyer of the house and a new nightmare begins. Some of the rooms filled me, someone reading safe in my own bed, with a sense of endless horror.

Now, as I pointed out from the get-go, this is not equivocally perfect for me. Some of the characters, especially when there are four or five together, fade completely out of a scene. They may have one line of dialogue just to remind us that they are there. The mystery of what the house is...who the mysterious godlike being is...is almost fully explained but not quite. There's the mysterious Crow Organization whose name I hate and whose ultimately fizzle out to non-importance. They are the ones who hold the lottery, after securing the rights to the house...and it's said towards the end that they must have been in the house once before but we don't know why or when or what for. It's almost like there's an entire other book that's missing here or yet to be written. I WANT A SEQUEL!

One other major plot point I don't like is the part about the Magician. In the beginning he seems to be a bigger character, possibly evil and having something to do with the house. He invites Scarlett to the house when only Tommy and Hannah were going to be there, and even secured a ticket for Jackson. The Crow Organization leader wasn't surprised to see him there. Why not? At the end it turns out that the children saved him years ago from a car wreck, and he feels indebted to their safety, but if that is the case then why did he think it was safe to bring Scarlett and Jackson to the house where they could possibly lose their lives? The motive doesn't add up. As well, his speech at the end about them being his true friends...it didn't work for me. I loved his character, but something was off.

Then finally, Jackson tells Scarlett he will always be there for her...but that he's also leaving town.

I demand a sequel! Lets have a return to the house as a rescue mission!!

Rose Red meets Haunting at Hill House. One October night a house appears in the town where Scarlett, Tommy, Hanna and Jackson live. It’s just not any house, it’s a horrifying house, a house where nightmares live. As these four friends are dealing with the failures in their own lives they are given a chance to spend the night in the “most haunted of houses”.

This book will have you on the edge of your seat, holding your breath and waiting for the nightmares to end.

Thank you NetGalley, Patrick Delaney and Oblivion Publishing for this edition and hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner

This book is like a fever dream, weaving between different characters, timelines, and personalities. You begin to wonder just what you’ve entered and what will become, but you will not leave disappointed.

I enjoyed this very much. It was well written. Pacy. Good characterisation.

What do you do when a house falls from the sky? Apparently you want to go inside and this house is not heavenly, believe me!

Spooky, atmospheric, a real page turner!
Definitely one to get!

This book is, in my opinion, more scifi than horror, sometimes difficult to follow, but still hard to put down. The writing style is very good..

(I was given an advanced e-ARC on Netgalley for an honest review)

"Our very own Hill House right smack-dab in the middle of the city."

This is one house of ungodly horrors no one would ever wish to enter, not even those with a passion for jump scares and love for those creepy, unnatural creatures that would send any sane person running. "The House that Fell from the Sky" takes the topper for the most wickedly terrifying and deranged haunted house of horrors!

The story follows four friends whose lives didn't turn out the way they hoped, leaving them stuck and hopeless for a better future. Hannah, who's shut herself up in her family home as she loses herself to grief over the loss of her mother. Tommy, a man destined for an amazing sports career until an accident that changes his life. Jackson, a failure in the eyes of his father for not taking a "successful" path in life. And finally, Scarlett, who struggles from a recent breakup and a lack of creativity as the most popular horror reviewer on YouTube.

When a house falls from the sky, it gains immediate popularity worldwide. Hannah becomes one of many who becomes obsessed with where the house came from and why it's there. She begins to convince herself it holds the key to reuniting her with her mother and whether there is life after death. When Hannah jumps on the first chance to get inside the house, her friends follow, because no one ever lets their friend enter a spooky and potentially life-threatening house alone.

This is a story guaranteed to have readers on edge, gritting their teeth through one ghastly horror after another as the four friends journey inside a house they may not come out of. Delaney is superb with his creation of equally entertaining, witty, and complex characters who are all having a rough go at life whom readers will be able to connect with. While most horror stories lack a pliable reason for characters doing the insane and setting themselves up for an event they may not live through, Delaney's characters are so uniquely their own that their decision to enter a house that unsettles them all seems completely rationable.

The house itself is a wonderful, enticing mix of supernatural and psychological horror that makes it clear this is not the kind of house anyone should mess with. I'd love to say more, but this is definitely a novel where the reader has to enter the house themselves.