Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Haunt Sweet Home is a Horror novella featuring a Reality TV show, part Ghost Adventures, part HGTV, wherein home makeovers are mixed with the ghosts that live there.
Our MC is Mara, who lands a job on the show as a PA. Her cousin, Jeremy, is the show’s host. He knows she’s been bouncing between different pursuits, trying to find her path, so at a family function he offers her the job.
Mara being Mara, she doesn’t commit right away. It takes some time before all the pieces fall in place. Once she is on the job though, she feels like it’s going to work. She feels like maybe she’s found her place.
This story follows Mara as she settles into her job, and tags along to the set of a few of the episodes. After a creepy coworker makes Mara begin to question everything though, events truly come to a head.
Due to the length of this, I’m not going to say anything more about the story itself. I loved the idea behind it and getting to be on set of the Reality TV show was a lot of fun.
I also loved the various topics explored, particularly those involved in Mara’s character arc. I really enjoyed how the author included excerpts from the show too. I felt like I could picture everything, and yeah, I was picturing Jeremy as Zak Bagans, sue me.
I listened to the audiobook for this and did really enjoy it. I thought the narrator’s delivery matched very well with how I was picturing Mara’s character. It brought it to life for me.
I would definitely recommend the audio format for anyone who has that option. Particularly with the Reality TV scenes, it just makes sense to hear it play out.
Thank you to the publisher, Tor and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. I’m looking forward to reading more from Sarah Pinsker!