Ben Alderson’s The Haunting of William Thorn is a melancholic, atmospheric blend of gothic horror and queer historical romance that lingers long after the final page. Drawing comparisons to The Haunting of Hill House and The Notebook, this dual-timeline novel explores the weight of grief, the resilience of love, and the ghosts—both literal and emotional—that we carry.

After a devastating betrayal and sudden loss, William Thorn inherits a crumbling manor in a hostile village and soon finds himself entangled in the spectral tragedy of two men from the 1920s. Through haunting diary entries and the guarded presence of Edward, the enigmatic groundskeeper, William is drawn into a mystery that echoes his own sorrow.

Alderson’s strength lies in his immersive worldbuilding: Hanbury Manor is practically a character in its own right, cloaked in shadows, creaking floorboards, and secrets soaked in blood and heartbreak. The romance is subtle but moving, with both timelines steeped in yearning and loss rather than overt heat.

The novel’s emotional core is grief—raw, spiraling, and unrelenting. William’s arc is messy and painfully human, which may frustrate some readers but ultimately lends authenticity to his journey. The pacing wavers slightly in the middle, and some gothic tropes feel familiar, but the payoff is worth it. Twists land with emotional force, and the ending—equal parts devastating and redemptive—cements this as a standout in queer gothic fiction.

Alderson delivers a chilling and tender narrative perfect for readers who crave haunted mansions, historical heartbreak, and character-driven horror that prioritizes emotional depth over cheap scares.

I’ll be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by this! It read as your running the mill haunted house story until the very end and the twist had had me talking about this book for days. Absolutely loved this!

I don’t have a lot to say about this one to be honest. I wanted to love it. It has all of the elements that I usually love, but I just had a hard time getting into it and staying invested in it. Love the gothic elements and I was excited for a queer love story but something about it just was a bit disconnected for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free ebook copy in exchange for an honest review. This book is expected to be released September 9, 2025.

So..should not have been reading this one at work because I’m currently bawling my eyes out.

Ben Anderson has been one of my favorite authors as of recent and the Haunting of William Thorn truly cements that! This book is dark and complex and will leave you crying your eyes out for the foreseeable future.

The amount of emotional states you will shift through will leave you feeling drained and fulfilled because as the story comes to a close you will truly feel the love between our two main characters.

This book has twists turns, gore, and so much more! A great read for anyone who loves horror and thrillers! This book will have you in the edge of your seat throughout its entirety!

5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I've been reading Ben Alderson's work for a while now and love his fantasy books. This felt really different to anything of his I've read before and I really enjoyed it! I laughed, sobbed & kept looking around the room at every little sound.

THIS is how you do horror & I'll absolutely be rereading in autumn

William's sardonic outlook on life against Edward's light & bubbly personality mixed really well, who doesn't love a grumpy x sunshine?

The back and forth between past and present set a great pace with the murder mystery, I really wanted to figure it out before I got to the reveal. (I was sure I had it sussed but I didn't - what a twist!)

This is a perfect mix of tradegy, mystery and spooky, there were some scenes that left me genuinely frightened and regretting reading in the dark.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Angry robot books for the opportunity to read early - thoughts are my own

I think that this book was simply not for me. Vibes so good, romance not so much. The cover is pretty and i had high expectations but it did not live up to them sadly

Devastating twists, cinematic writing and a third act that doesn’t let up, this book kept me hooked and guessing until the very end. Every time I thought I’d figured it all out, there was something new, rich and well written waiting around the next corner. It has the honour(?) of being the first book to make me cry this year and the skilful genre hopping from horror to thriller to romance is tight and executed with ease. This is an A24 film waiting to happen and I feel like I already watched it unfold in my mind in a vivid way that could haunt my dreams tonight.

Oh. My. God.

This book has taken over my life in the last 10 hours and I will never get over the emotional whiplash. I have been terrified, moved, surprised, and SHOCKED to the core in the span of 400 pages.

I have had a couple of Ben Alderson’s books on my shelves for the past few months and I never really found the time to dive into them—until I got this ARC. I was so excited to read something that wasn’t typically my usual genre (horror/thriller isn’t usually my thing at ALL) but I was too curious to pass this on.

And, well. I think I’ve discovered one of my favorite reads of the year, no doubt. What a book! I will now be crying for the foreseeable future thinking about William, Edward, Robert and Teddy.

And mostly, thank you to NetGallery & the publisher for kindly offering me an advance copy of this book for an honest review!

5 ⭐️

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for giving me an eARC. 

Firstly, the atmosphere of this novel was fantastic. I was a bit dubious about how tense the atmosphere would be, since it seemed to be aiming for gothic horror but in the modern day. However, the atmosphere was creepy and tense; I was on the edge of my seat at specific parts, and I had goosebumps in certain scenes. It definitely got the creepy gothic horror atmosphere perfect; it was extremely vivid. 

I really liked the prologue being set in the past to give context of the house and what happened there. It definitely set the creepy vibe from the start, whilst also being melancholic and setting the tragic scene. I really liked learning more about the characters and their relationship through the diary entries. It was a really clever way for the reader to get to know both the characters in the past and the two in present day, through the past characters' voices. 

Wiliam, whilst I wouldn't quite describe him as loveable, was certainly a sympathetic and realistically written character. Grief can do a lot to a person, so his attitude and responses to specific situations was very understandable. 

The novel had several twists that I didn't see coming. I liked that it kept changing, so once you thought you knew something, actually it was revealed that it wasn't the truth. 

Personally I didn't feel like the 'cult' aspect near the end was needed. It was already an extremely tense read, with genuinely scary moments, and I liked the supernatural quality of them. Having the scene at the end brought it back into the realm of realism for me, and that took me out of the story a bit. It was easy to feel tense and scared when the threat was supernatural and difficult to comprehend; it wasn't as tense when it was grounded back in reality. 

Overall a really impressive horror read. I thought the supernatural and paranormal aspects were really well done, whilst not cheapening the real tragedy behind the haunting. Never once did I forget that two men suffered for their love, whilst not doing anything wrong, because of hatred and prejudice. I really liked the author's fantasy books, the delve into horror definitely did not disappoint, and I'm excited to pick up what they write next.

this book broke me!!
along with a hauntingly beautiful story, this book was written so well. even from the beginning the atmosphere was so quick to get me into the mood for a scary house story with sad undertones of the untold mystery. my original rating was going to be a 3.5 but after the ending which really got to me i know i had to rate it higher. my reasoning for the other rating was just pacing issues, at the start i really couldn’t put this down, the haunted house setting was so creepy but it i was so eager to find out more questions. but throughout the middle i felt it drag a bit and didn’t hold my attention as much as the start, i also began to find William quite irritating? just some of his impulsive and rash decisions annoyed me and often found him to be quite contradicting especially with his behaviour towards Edward. other than those few tidbits with my own preferences i really enjoyed this and thought it did everything it needed to to tell this heartbreaking story. thank you so much to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this.

It was good, but definitely not perfect.
Can look past the typos, since it's an ARC after all, but chapter 22 has Edward refer to his 'great-aunt', but it's his great grandmother instead (as we learned earlier in the story). Only adding this in the hope that it gets fixed before it's officially published. Overall a decent enough story.

This was so good !
My new favourite ghost story.
Well it sort of was .
The past and the present timeliness were interesting and didn't get confusing.
I didn't particularly like William or Edward but I think that was the whole point of the book.
It was giving dorian grey / the notebook but with out the creepy portrait but maybe that's just me !
The twist and ending was brilliant but sad and bitter sweet . I really enjoyed reading it .

when i first asked for an arc copy (thank you netgalley and angry robot for trusting me), i was mostly attracted to the cover (and the blurb), but wow, i didn’t think i would like it that much.

How does one overcome the death of a lover? The story follows William, a young author who, after a traumatic event, inherits a neglected manor. William is clear about his intentions: he has one week to decide whether to sell or keep Hanbury Manor. But the task is not that simple. When William meets Edward, a mysterious gardener who seems deeply attached to the place, his stay takes an unexpected turn.

While I don’t want to say anything more about the plot, one fundamental aspect of the novel is that you also follow the story of Robert and Teddy, who previously lived in the manor, through Robert’s diary. The novel is hauntingly beautiful, and I absolutely loved the plot, even though I quite figured out what could happen at the end.

Before being a gothic/haunting/spooky novel, it is mostly a story about grieving a loved one. How could we move forward when our entire future was planned with another person? How could we move from all the memories that won’t happen? I was truly moved by William’s grief, and if you like tragic love story, you might like the novel.

If you love :
- gothic
- haunting manor
- paranormal
- spooky thing
- tragic past
- romance

this one is for you.

tw: death, suicide, murder, grief, depression, body horror, blood/gore, religious trauma, bullying, profanity

5🌟

I loved this book so much that I completely forgot to write down my thoughts as I read.

Absolutely stunning, such a good book. I loved everything about this, yes, even the ending that came so suddenly it felt like a punch to the gut and now I'm devastated that it's over. I have so much I want to say but I don't want to spoil anything! Everyone needs to be blindsided and have to live with what they've read just like I have.

William is a great character, he's very relatable and likeable. I love his personality, that snark and prickly exterior filled with a heavy grief and sadness underneath. Getting to follow him through his journey was a pleasure and I will mourn that his story came to an end. Edward was such a mystery wrapped in a puzzle that I had no idea where he was going at any given moment. I also loved him and his horribly timed humor. Robert Thomas' story left me weeping, that's all I'll say about him; just gutted over him and his Teddy.

Hanbury itself was a haunting and dark setting for a seemingly mundane old building. I could spend forever in that place and not be bored with all the secrets it holds. I wanted to be there with William and Edward in those spooky halls while the haunting unfolded around them.

Lastly I just have to mention that this book turns the meaning of a haunting on its head in the most unexpected ways. I'm left thinking back on everything I've read and really looking dumbfounded at what Ben Alderson meant by The Haunting of William Thorn. Absolutely amazing, I can't wait to get a hard copy to reread all over again.

Thank you NetGalley and Angry Robot for the ARC!

Before I get to the contents, I want to go over the cover of this book! It is so pretty! I love the color scheme, and I love the portraits. This was a beautiful little haunted novel, and the story was really lovely.

Like all good ghost stories I need to warn you this book is not for the faint of heart, the emotional turmoil I have felt over this story has left me struggling for words. Sometimes I thought I knew where the story was going or I thought I had worked out a clue, I was surprised again and again. This is a truly power book about loss and what drives people to madness. The view on the past was so special and heartbreaking that the present time felt creeper and stark.

William is such a strong willed character with such scattered memories that you really don't get the full picture till the end. I know this book will follow me for a while, even now I'm not sure of my true emotions over the stroy as a whole. I feel like it will have lasting impact on how I view ghosts and death.

I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have received an advanced copy of The Haunting Of William Thorn from the author, NetGalley, and Angry Robot! 🫶

The Haunting Of William Thorn is perfection! 🥹💕 It has consumed my heart and soul and it gave me goosebumps all over my body! 🫶 This story tore my heart into a million pieces and had me crying my eyes out so many times! 😭💔

This book is basically a spider web because the layers of the world building and complexity all tying itself together is unreal with how good it is! 🕷️🕸️ Ben Anderson should offer a class of how to include multiple storylines in a story because this incredible. It was so seamless how the journal entry storyline tied in with the main storyline. It had me on my toes the whole time and I was wanting more and more from both of them! 🤭

If you love horror, mystery, secrets, journal entries, ghosts and hauntings 👻, gothic setting, and a book that will forever remain in my heart then this is the book for you! 🫶

First of all the writing of this book was sublime. Ben Alderson writing style is just so pleasing.

But this book. This book has me feeling all the emotions. Everytime you think , yeah this is gonna happen, YOUR WRONG. So many amazing plottwist. It’s exciting and thrilling. And as soon as the investigation happens. You want to keep reading and reading. The character of William is so amazing. He went through some bad things. And in the beginning it seems it made him a little bitt grumpy. But he’s just actually a sweetheart. I would die for William.

This book is defintly a must read for people who like the horror / murder mystery

By the end of this book I had slightly mixed feelings that sway to the positive side. Let me start off by saying I really enjoy Ben’s writing! As I always do. I love how he brought William and Edward to life on the pages. It was very clear that both carried a lot of pain from the past. I also loved the way they were connected to the ghosts and the manor. Somewhere between the 60-80% mark I felt like it dragged on a little bit, with some predictable discoveries and twists. And then some big discoveries had me very intrigued again. I like a happy ending and while it doesn’t have that, it is fitting for a book about a haunted mansion. All in all: I definitely enjoyed reading it and would recommend it.

I couldn't put this down.

We had a mystery, ghosts, an old manor house and hostile villagers. As well as a lovely romance between William and Edward, which was very gentle with no spice.

I can't generally cope with horror, but managed the scary bits OK.

The blurb calls this “split timeline”. However it was mostly focussed on the present day story, with the historic elements told via journal entries.

I did find the writing a bit clunky and repetitive in some places. However it didn't detract from a rollicking good story.