The House Where Death Lives

by Alex Brown, Nova Ren Suma, Gina Chen, Traci Chee, Linsey Miller

Overview

A dance to the death. A girl who’s just as monstrous as H.H. Holmes. A hallway that’s constantly changing—and hungry. All of these stories exist in the same place—within the frame of a particular house that isn’t bound by the laws of time and space.

Following in the footsteps of dark/horror-filled YA anthologies like His Hideous Heart and Slasher Girls and Monster Boys, and Netflix’s ground-breaking adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House, this YA speculative fiction anthology explores how the permanence of a home can become a space of transition and change for both the inhabitants and the creatures who haunt them.

Each story in the anthology will focus on a different room in the house and feature unique takes on monsters from a wide array of cultural traditions. Whether it’s a demonic Trickster, a water-loving Rusalka, or a horrifying, baby-imitating Tiyanak, there’s bound to be something sinister lurking in the shadows.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798890030122
Publisher:	Page Street Publishing
Publication date:	08/06/2024
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	47,247
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Alex Brown is a queer, biracial Pilipino American writer who loves rooting for the final girl—especially if she’s a monster. Alex is also one of the co-creators and producers of The Bridge, a spooky, folklore-filled audio drama podcast that has over 1,000,000 downloads to date. Alex has a short story in The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror, which was an instant Indie Bestseller, and her YA comedy-horror debut, Damned If You Do, was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Alex co-edited Night of the Living Queers, a YA Horror anthology featuring stories solely written by Queer Authors of Color, and which has received multiple starred reviews. In a past life, Alex worked on Supernatural and Netflix’s Resident Evil, though she’s now traded in her Hollywood lifestyle and is happy to work with queer college kids. She enjoys spending time with her partner and their three chaotic cats somewhere in northern California.

Courtney Gould writes books about queer girls, ghosts, and things that go bump in the night. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and Publishing. She was born and raised in Salem, OR, where she continues to write love letters to the haunted girls and rural, empty spaces. The Dead and the Dark is her debut novel.

Shelly Page is a young adult contemporary fantasy and horror writer making her editorial debut with Night of the Living Queers. By day, she’s a practicing attorney representing homeless LGBTQ+ youth of color. By night, she’s planning ways to scare her readers while simultaneously awakening their inner gay. She’s an oil painter, a lover of autumn, and possibly the only lesbian who doesn’t own a cat.

Editorial Reviews

05/27/2024

In this speculative fiction anthology, which spans genres and cultural traditions, Brown (Damned If You Do), who also contributes, gathers 16 horror writers—including Traci Chee, Rosiee Thor, and Justine Pucella Winans—to tell grisly tales about a haunted house from the perspectives of residents and visitors alike. Selections are set in individual areas of the house and grounds—love frees a ghost from an attic purgatory in Courtney Gould’s gripping “Good Morning, Georgia.” In Sandra Proudman’s futuristic, escape room–esque tale “Smartmonster,” which takes place on the second floor, strangers struggle for survival in a deadly AI-controlled gauntlet that leads them through myriad hidden passageways. Downstairs, sisters sacrifice greatly to save each other in Liz Hull’s aching “After Midnight,” while “Mirror, Mirror” by Nora Elghazzawi, also set on the second floor, follows a djinn that preys on vanity from the mirror it’s trapped in. Themes of love, loss, and transition are woven throughout simmering romances and expansive adventures, which come together to build a collection of Haunting of Hill House–inspired tales that is cohesive, reflective, and satisfying. Ages 14–up. Agent: Renee Nyen, KT Literary. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"[A] superb ensemble of nightmarish stories about demons of all kinds. [...]Compellingly horrifying."

—Shelf Awareness, starred review

"Loss and grief of various kinds are at the core of each story in this engaging volume. Will make readers lock their doors, turn on the lights, and cover every mirror in the house."

—Kirkus Reviews

"Themes of love, loss, and transition are woven throughout simmering romances and expansive adventures, which come together to build a collection of Haunting of Hill House–inspired tales that is cohesive, reflective, and satisfying."

—Publishers Weekly

"[H]aunting and luminous"

—Booklist

"[T]he blend of horror with deeply emotional scenarios creates a poignant and evocative whole [...] with some truly haunting tales. Purchase where anthologies circulate well."

—SLJ

“Eerie and poignant, The House Where Death Lives is a bewitching collection—a striking, shivery tribute to warm hands, cold claws, and broken hearts.”

—Ann Fraistat, bestselling author of A Place for Vanishing and What We Harvest

From the Publisher

08/30/2024

Gr 10 Up—In a house unbound by the laws of the natural world, where death follows the inhabitants, these 16 stories by a mix of well-known and newer authors trail through the dark hallways of human fear. As readers progress from the attic down through each room of the house, it gives way to secrets and stories of the deaths it has seen. Other than the house as a pathway from one to the next, little common ground can be found in the stories, which represent a broad array of identities and topics. Illustrations are a chilling addition to this dark collection that bridges space between abortion, monsters, ghosts, infant loss, societal pressure, devotion beyond death to a sibling, and more: while the stories are only connected to each other by their taking place in the same house, the blend of horror with deeply emotional scenarios creates a poignant and evocative whole. Particularly creepy pieces include "Cradle and All" by Kay Costales, "Mirror, Mirror" by Nora Elghazzawi, and "Like Mother" by Gina Chen. VERDICT An inspired concept, somewhat successfully executed, but with some truly haunting tales. Purchase where anthologies circulate well.—Allie Stevens

School Library Journal

2024-05-17
Sixteen authors conduct a haunted tour of a house that forces us to look at the ghosts we don’t want to see.

In this collection, readers take a journey through stories that are divided into sections: “Attic,” “Down the Stairs,” “Second Floor,” “First Floor,” and Grounds.” The stories, which are rooted in various folkloric and mythological traditions, are by a diverse range of authors, including newer voices and well-established fan favorites, such as Traci Chee and Nova Ren Suma. Some of the standout entries include Courtney Gould’s “Good Morning, Georgia,” which plays with perception as two teenage girls communicate through a vanity mirror; Kay Costales’ “Cradle and All,” in which the Tiyanak, a blood-sucking creature from Filipino mythology, appears to a girl who’s haunted by a loss; and Nora Elghazzawi’s “Mirror, Mirror,” which introduces readers to a djinn who will prompt them to question what they’d be willing to give up to get what they want. Equally strong are Gina Chen’s “Like Mother,” which describes a deal with a demon and a commentary on the traumas, losses, and legacies of the immigration experience, and “In Deep” by C.L. McCollum, focused around a murky pond at a B&B where heartbreak and revenge thrive. Loss and grief of various kinds are at the core of each story in this engaging volume.

Will make readers lock their doors, turn on the lights, and cover every mirror in the house. (Horror anthology. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews