Rolf Rudolph Deutsch is going die. But when Deutsch, a wealthy magazine and newspaper publisher, starts thinking seriously about his impending death, he offers to pay a physicist and two mediums, one physical and one mental, $100,000 each to establish the facts of life after death. Dr. Lionel Barrett, the physicist, accompanied by the mediums, travel to the Belasco House in Maine, which has been abandoned and sealed since 1949 after a decade of drug addiction, alcoholism, and debauchery. For one night, Barrett and his colleagues investigate the Belasco House and learn exactly why the townsfolk refer to it as the Hell House.

Warnings: Graphic violence, misogyny and sexism, Sexual assault

Category: M/F, F/F

We’re well into spooky season which means a haunted house novel would certainly not go amiss! This is a textbook example of the genre, complete with a psychic mediums and paranormal investigators and violent hauntings, this is the perfect book to cozy up with on a cold autumn morning with a cup of coffee- not late at night when you might court nightmares!

WRITING
This is more or less a quintessential paranormal investigation haunting narrative. It’s got the usual cast of characters and revolves around a haunted house where a horrible tragedy had previously occurred- such a tragedy that nobody will go near the house now, in fact. Hired for the job of discovering the secrets of the Belasco house is a team of investigators that will go in and spend enough time in the house to hopefully lay the vengeful spirits to rest. As they investigate they discover more and more the mysteries of the house’s previous owner, as well as encounter all manner of horrors and violent phenomenon visited upon them. The most fun part of the book is guessing what violent misfortune is going to befall them next- and guessing why the ghosts of the house are so angry! That said the ending really dropped the ball for me because its quite suspenseful and creepy most of the way through but the ending encounter left me going “That’s it? Really?”

EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT
I am not very certain that this book succeeds in making its characters interesting, but it certainly gives a good effort at it. They all have different reasons for investigating the haunted house, and very different feelings about what they are encountering. Whether its the skeptic that wants to scientifically explain away the strange phenomenon, or the kind mystic who wants to help the tortured spirits to pass on into the next life, each of them is interesting in their own way. That said since they are in a constant state of reacting, we don’t get too close to them as individuals, so it isn’t as though you end up truly rooting for anyone in particular here. Mainly it was interesting to guess what fresh horror they were going to encounter next, without being so invested in who they are that I was overly concerned for their safety.

WORLDBUILDING
Here we come to the aspect of the book that was likely my least favourite. As the investigation progresses of course naturally we need to learn a bit about the backstory of the ghost or ghosts and why they are haunting this dwelling in the first place. I won’t spoil all the suspense of the story for you but it is suffice to say that a large part of what makes the house so evil is a whole boatload of sex-negativity rhetoric. “Unspeakable acts” were committed in this house, that began with such horrific things are swinging parties and prostitution. Naturally these things lead to all manner of horrors! It was both interesting as well as frustrating to see sex painted in so demonized a way, especially as an explanation for the evil spirits residing within the haunted house. Aside from this there is also an attempt at exploring the supernatural through the lens of science, but the physicist that is investigating and wants to capture the ghosts or explain away the supernatural via a concrete scientific explanation was interesting, but ultimately his scientific explorations were probably the dullest parts of the book to be honest.

STEAMINESS
Sexually, this book is buck wild. I’m talking suspenseful seduction, lesbian affairs, and ghost rape, the whole nine yards. Its got some extremely upsetting content to be sure, and its cavalier approach to sexual assault is often hard to read, but it does make for some thrilling horror content. Naturally all sexuality is seen through a negative lense in this book- whether its the ghosts sexually assaulting the women, or the women lusting after each other being played as corruption, or one of its main characters abstaining from sex all together, this is a book with a troubling relationship with sex- but that troubling relationship is part of what makes it so thrilling to read. Sex is frightening in the pages of Hell House, it is a force to be distrusted at best as we see time and time again. Don’t get me wrong, I think its sexual politics are bad, but it does mean that there’s a lot of ghost noncon and dubcon that really gets your blood pumping in the late hours of the night so it landed well for me.

Not a perfect book by any means but one that still managed to leave me quite creeped out by the end of it. I had a good time reading it even with my complaints, and would recommend as an interesting and balls to the wall violent example of the haunted house genre.

Have you read Hell House? Let me know what YOU thought by leaving me a comment!

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