My Five Word TL:DR Review: Family Drama, Low on Scares

I really like Alma Katsu, I loved her Taker series and also The Hunger so I was excited to see a new book, a contemporary gothic horror story with a dysfunctional family at its centre.  A family with great wealth and power, a family where things have a way of working out in their favour.  A family either greatly blessed or absolutely cursed.  What’s not to love.

The Berisha Family.  Zef is the head of the family.  Ruthless, sexist, cruel.  He rules with an iron fist and to be honest, you really don’t want to make him angry.  There are three children.  Dardan, the treasured first born and only male heir who will one day take over the running of the family business.  Maris, the second born, very similar to her father and ruthlessly ambitious.  Nora, the youngest, far from being the baby of the family Nora was more or less rejected by her father as a waste of time as a small child because he found her fanciful.

This is not really a loving family, although it is a family that sticks together, or at least, over the years, the Berisha family have stuck together through thick and thin.  More recently tensions are running high.  Maris, much more ambitious than her brother, wants control of the company.  Zef doesn’t see Maris as anything more than a good prospect to marry off and breed more Berisha’s.  Nora is the black sheep.  She hates the family business but not enough to detach herself from the wealth and privilege it bestows upon her.  She spends her day doing nothing but drinking and debauchery.

The story is told in alternating timelines.  Then and Now.  This way we get to see some of the earlier interactions between the family, get a feel for the dynamics between them all.  The one thing that comes across consistently is that they are all totally ruthless, and to be blunt, not really likeable at all.

So, what worked for me.

The writing is good.  The dialogue and family tensions all read well.  The author sets the scene well.  Then she ramps up the mystery a little, there’s a death in the family and from there onwards things start to go wrong.

But.

Unfortunately, in spite of so much promise, good writing and actually a really intriguing set up this book just didn’t wow me and I’ve been absolutely puzzled about why that is.  I’m not sure I’ve totally pinned it down.  I think the horror is too scarce.  I can genuinely say that I didn’t have the heebies at all and that is somewhat disappointing, particularly given the cover.  I think I was expecting a demonic presence, I really believed this would turn dark and full of tension, I thought I was going to get the creepy house vibe.  I hate to say this but I think the scariest thing about this book is the cover.  But, again, maybe I just hyped myself in all the wrong ways, I don’t know.

Ultimately, this feels more like the start of something rather than a complete tale.  I feel like there’s more story untold, like this is just a taster, and if that was the case then this would certainly be a good start, but I don’t think that’s the case here.

As it is, this story is well told.  You won’t like the characters but that’s intentional, you’re not supposed to like them.  The family is pretty awful, the company is your basic nightmare.  I think you could read this as a contemporary thriller, is there really any curse, or is it just this particular family doing what they do best?  But, for me, well I came for the demon, the curse and the darkness.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks, the above is my own opinion.

My rating 3 of 5 stars