Whisper House Press

Title: The House of Last Resort

Author: Christopher Golden

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2024

Steve’s Rating: 4 ⭐ out of 5 ⭐

The plot of The House of Last Resort is straightforward: an American couple moves to Sicily thanks to a screaming deal on a home in an idyllic village in the shadow of Mt. Etna, and the villa where they’re putting down roots turns out to have a stranger history than they knew when they signed on the dotted line. These two innocents must face the consequences of this spooky history.

There’s a lot going right with this novel and not anything noteworthy going wrong, at least in terms of storytelling (for the characters, on the other hand…).

A note on one of this book’s areas of standout performance: Golden’s rendering of a husband-wife relationship—the back-and-forth emotional oversteps, shortfalls, and strengths—is perhaps the most genuine and compelling I’ve read all year. (An honorable mention goes to Jem Jenc’s Grip of It, from 2019, which I also read in 2024). The horror in this story doesn’t rely on mistrust and dastardly deeds on the part of either partner. Rather, the horror comes from an external source. These two, Tommy and Kate, are in a loving relationship. It’s tested through what they come up against, but it’s nice to read a horror novel in 2024 where the members of the couple in focus aren’t toxic to one another. It’s tough to overstate the emotional successes in Golden’s construction and demonstration of a caring relationship where neither person is a jerk or a moron and they attempt to face the unknown (literally in terms of the move overseas, figuratively in the case of the history of their new home) together.

I recommend this book, especially for fans of Amityville Horror and other haunted house stories with a Catholic bent (this is a much, much better book than A.H., but praise be to those who trod these paths before us, right?).