Book Review: How to Fake a Haunting by Christa Carmen

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“Open your eyes . . . See what’s right in front of you.
“There are ways to see what’s hidden in the dark . . .”

📚

Lainey Taylor’s husband, Callum, has a drinking problem, and she’s desperate to find a solution to his erratic and dangerous behavior before it threatens her life and that of their young daughter, Beatrix. After Callum makes it known that a divorce and full custody will never happen, Lainey turns to her friend, Adelaide, who comes up with a risky but ingenious idea: together, they’ll stage a haunting so believable, it will terrify Callum right out of Lainey and Beatrix’s lives.

They start slowly, employing tactics like eerie noises, noxious smells, and swarming insects, preying on Callum’s hallucinations and drunken night terrors and pushing him closer to the brink with each subsequent scare. But when the haunting takes an inexplicable and nightmarish turn, Lainey and Adelaide realize they’re no longer in charge. And as events continue spiraling, it becomes clear that the only way out may be for Lainey and Callum to join forces, before it’s too late.

Pulsing with fear, bitterness, and wrath so intense they’re actually palpable, How to Fake a Haunting is a phenomenal, edge-of-your-seat page-turner that offers a fresh perspective on the haunted house. Underscored by high stakes and spattered with deliciously dark, supremely terrifying scenes, it’s a chilling chronicle of one woman’s attempt to maintain control amid the chaotic remnants of her existence, producing a heart-pounding tale of regrets and disappointments, secrets and lies, decisions and sacrifices, specters and portents, and vulnerability and rage — one where disappointed hopes and shattered dreams expose buried truths and incendiary realizations.

Thank you to Christa Carmen and NetGalley for providing an eARC of this forthcoming title, which releases via Thomas & Mercer on October 7th. It’s a fantastically disquieting, wonderfully sinister story sure to wow a wide range of horror fans.

🖤Amanda

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