My favorite novel this year.
I received an e-book ARC of It Will Just Be Us from NetGalley and the publisher Crooked Lane in return for my honest review, which follows below. I thank both for this opportunity.
I rated this 5 stars.
I chose this rating for a few reasons. One: after finishing this novel, I knew I would have to own a copy when it's released. So I added to a book wish list that will give a wonderful reminder when I can buy it. Two: I am recommending this book for anyone that likes Gothic, swampy, haunted house horror, family horror, and that feeling after reading a book so good you're not sure what to do with yourself except sit there and whisper expletives under your breath for an unknown amount of time. Three: I kept stopping to tell my husband, who does not like horror, how I would love to tell him the whole plot in extreme detail so he could appreciate how much this book rocked. But I didn't because I respect our separate interests.
The description of the family home brought to mind the Winchester house, a wild growth of wood and glass spiraling up and out from the original plans of the house. In my minds eye I kept thinking of the fading opulence of the house in Crimson Peak, a loved home that needed some care more than an erratically constructed, guilt fueled attempt at redemption. As the story progressed I felt that the home was sprawling, and maybe the rooms were confusing in their layout, but that was the choice of the house, not the builders.
There are within these cavernous walls, ghosts. But not the kind to interact with, more like seeing memories playing out again. If it happened on the property you may see it, from your own childhood or from relatives many generations past. I have lived in houses where the doors would close or open on their own, dishes would fall from the closed cabinets, and once a dead radio turned on full volume at the dead of night. But seeing people long dead, or visions of you as a child running through the halls; I'm not sure how I would handle that. But Samantha (Sam) and Elizabeth grew in this environment, while their mother was struggling with alcoholism after the death of their father.
When they are adults and moved out, separate circumstances bring them back to their family home, living with their mother. Elizabeth is pregnant with her first child. A child that Sam becomes convinced she sees visions of in the house. Which should be impossible if he has not been born yet, right?
The amount of detail that the author put into this book is astounding. If you were given a tidbit of information, she has a purpose for it. I loved the pacing, the building tension; the last fourth of the book I realized I was grinding my teeth. Everything was coming together, not that I had any clue until it was written out for me; but there it was, zipping up so neat and clean and I'm clenching my jaw. I had to keep opening my mouth like a fish so I wouldn't hurt myself, but I kept getting engrossed in the book and forgetting again.
This book has so many stories besides the one happening in the current time with Sam as the narrator, but the author does not drop or waste a single one. I can not praise this book enough, I loved every part of it.
