Haunting of Gillespie House – Book Review

‘The Haunting of Gillespie House’ by Darcy Coates is a horror novel about a young woman called Elle experiencing paranormal activity while house-sitting an ancient sprawling mansion for a wealthy couple.

Set in the middle of nowhere, ‘The Haunting of Gillespie’ is too typical a horror story to scare fans of the genre. You have an old big house far from civilization, a family cemetery close-by, sounds from the walls that are eerie and some forgotten secrets. Darcy Coates weaves a mildly interesting backstory for the family that owned the property for generation, but the protagonist just doesn’t blend into the narrative. Elle comes across as a tourist, an outsider, who desperately attempts to make things about her. But her supposed “connection” with the Gillespie grounds isn’t convincing.

Since it’s a pretty quick novel, almost novella sized, the good thing about ‘The Haunting of Gillespie House’ is the fact that the story gets over before things get too overbearing and plain boring. The climax however was ridiculously easy – the protagonist Elle doesn’t have to tackle any conflicts. So there’s very little suspense and close to zero ‘chilling’ scenes.

It’s a 2.5/5 from me.