A Diary of a Haunting

 

Author: M. Verano

Genre: Young Adult / Horror

Format: Hardback

Pages: 313

This was a bit of a disappointing read for me. From the synopsis and the cover, it seemed like this story had a lot of potential. I also really liked that it was set up in a journal format that way it a first-hand account of what was going on inside the house, and I just love a good haunted house story. Unfortunately, everything just fell a little bit flat for me.

Except for Paige, our main character, I really did like her. Throughout the whole story, she kept trying to figure out what was happening to her family. To figure out what was wrong with the house. Only to find out the whole time the downstairs neighbor had all the answers but refused until the last minute to help. And I understand that when bad things happen to people they want to talk to about them, but he could have pointed Paige in the right direction of answers. Instead, he waited until he no other choice and even then getting answers out of him was trusting. I was frustrating just reading. 

Then there was Paige's mother. I understand she was supposed to be an old school hippie, a pacifist, and music of some kind, but really she was a bad mom. She ignored the signs that something was wrong with her son until the last minute, and constantly Paige to be more positive and ignoring her when she killed bugs. But really when there are that many spiders and flies it's time to call the exterminator women. Throughout the whole book, Paige would go to her and her mother would blow off her concerns, and I couldn't honestly write paragraphs on what was wrong with the physiologist. 

 And, for a story about a haunted house, the house wasn't really haunted, or cursed, or possessed. There were moments when I thought the build-up was going somewhere but it didn't. The only really paranormal thing about the house is something that would go missing, then turn up later only to have multiplied. I understand that goes into the Pronoica part of the story, but since the backstory happens so close to the end, it really doesn't do much good. There wasn't a moment where I was more than grossed out because of spider nests, or flies flying into mouths. I was just a drafty old house.

The whole backstory was kind of lackluster for me as well. While pieces did explain what was happening to Logan, the younger brother, it just didn't leave me at the edge of my seat. Or, honestly make much sense as a whole. 

Also, the ending didn't make much sense either. It honestly felt like it came from left-field since you only got Paige's side of the story, but everyone kept telling her she changed and had been acting strange. But, the only sign we ever got was in the last few pages when she attacked the downstairs neighbor in her sleep. So really the ending made no sense and didn't feel like it tied with the story, and then there is the article at the end about a wildfire not burning the house down.

 It all felt disconnected in the last hundred pages or so. The writing itself was solid, I just felt like Paige could have been a strong lead character than she was used for. There were whole opportunities for her figure things out through the duplicate journal pages and letters. I'm not sure if the author wanted her to be a dumb high school kid. But, then why was there the experiment with the flies? I feel like Paige had more potential than she was given. This story also had more potential to be scary than it was given as well.

So, I liked the book in the fact it had potential, but I don't see myself finishing this series.

HAPPY READING!!