Reviewed by Kelli Jones

Writers have visited haunted houses time and again in literature. Perhaps you've even become tired of haunted house stories. I've grown less forgiving of them, more quick to forego reading another haunted house story in favor of something pieces that take a less tried-and-true path. On the other hand, I won't be dissuaded by an archetypal setting or monster when I'm faced with interesting characters who give me cause to lose myself in their changes and struggles. Beth Massie casts just such a potent spell with the small cast of characters in her new novel, Homeplace.

For those unfamiliar with Massie's writing, she immerses your senses with thorough, vivid details and smooth prose. Her style is full of vivid imagery constructed from well-chosen words and turns of phrase, all of which enrich the story. You're in good hands with this writer.

The protagonist, Charlene Myers, is a struggling artist who seeks the opportunity to recharge her creative batteries when she inherits the old family property, Homeplace, in the small town of Adams in Nelson County, Virginia. She's made a bold, impractical decision to leave her job and venture to Homeplace with very little means of supporting herself. The young woman seems to have shot herself in the foot with this decision; however, writing with appealing insight about this artist's struggles, Massie gave me cause to think and, more importantly, hope that Charlene might make it in her new surroundings.

The world is against Charlene as she deals with financial problems, loneliness, and neighbors wary of her family's reputation. These struggles alone would make an engaging story, but Massie hints at some ominous, otherworldly presence at Homeplace from the outset. The supernatural forces work themselves into Charlene's struggles with loneliness, anxiety, artist's block, and eventually, her burgeoning relationship with another person who has recently moved to that area, Andrew Marshall.

As another fairly recent transplant to Adams, Andrew has some emotional baggage and a healthy skeptical attitude about the supernatural which hinder his adjustment to the town. Massie makes a dynamic sympathetic character out of him and constructs a believable, tentative relationship between Charlene and him, adding another layer of suspense to the proceedings.

Readers won't just root for these characters' growth; more importantly for a horror novel, they will fear for their safety. Homeplace itself is thoroughly unsettling, from the vermin and insects that have overrun it to the spirits that threaten to overrun Charlene. These forces (to call them anything more specific would spoil some of the novel) are manipulative in some of the worst ways possible for these characters, and they're brutal.

This is a creepy, well-crafted haunted house book, and if you have another one in your TBR pile, leave it there and pick this one up. This is a novel you'll want to get lost in, but the creepy old house itself is another story.

Berkley Horror August 2007