As promised, I wanted to share some of the titles that I heard about in the publisher previews at the KidLitCon precon. I was invited to both Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, and I’ve separated them by that. I’m not going to talk about all of the books I heard about because that would take forever, but I am going to highlight the books that stood out to me.

Descriptions come from WorldCat and some from Goodreads. I’ve included my notes where possible, including genre and/or whether the title is a debut or not. 

Simon & Schuster

33 Minutes Until Morgan Sturtz Kicks My Butt by Todd Hasak-Lowy (January 2013): An epic lunch period leads to a fateful showdown as small, skinny
seventh-grader Sam’s former best friend–now a popular athlete–promises
to beat Sam up at recess in exactly thirty-three minutes.

This middle grade novel takes on the topic of what happens when a friendship ends, and they were very excited to point out it was RJ Palacio’s first blurb for a book.

Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans (January 2013): Seventeen-year-old Felicia Ward is dead and spending her time in the
hive reliving her happy memories–but when Julian, a dark memory from
her past, breaks into the hive and demands that she come with him, she
discovers that even the afterlife is more complicated and dangerous then
she dreamed.

They called this one a paranormal adventure with romance and described it as high concept. Having read it, I would agree with the adventure, romance, and high-concept bits, but I’m not so sure on paranormal. It’s got bits of it, but I think labeling it as paranormal makes it sound like something it’s not.

They Call Me A Hero: A Memoir of My Youth by Daniel Hernandez and Susan Goldman Rubin (February 2013): There’s not a WorldCat description up on this one yet, but it’s a non-fiction memoir from Hernandez. Who is that? Well, he’s the teenager who helped save Gabby Giffords’s life. It’s a story of his youth and what led him to act as he did on that day. Note: he’s only 19 or 20 now, so this should make for a really interesting read.

The Program by Suzanne Young (April 2013): When suicide becomes a worldwide epidemic, the only known cure is The
Program, a treatment in which painful memories are erased, a fate worse
than death to seventeen-year-old Sloane who knows that The Program will
steal memories of her dead brother and boyfriend.

I like Suzanne’s writing, so I’m looking forward to this one. They called it fast paced, and said there is a sequel coming out next year (2014).

Panic by Sharon Draper (March 2013): As rehearsals begin for the ballet version of Peter Pan, the teenaged
members of an Ohio dance troupe lose their focus when one of their own
goes missing.

This one was talked up as being a book where the girl who goes missing chooses to get into a car with a guy who ends up kidnapping her. He then uses her and posts videos of her on the internet, except this book never shows these things on page. It’s all alluded to, making it more chilling.  
 
There were other titles talked about at the preview, but the bulk were picture books or middle grade novels that didn’t necessarily resonate with me. I’m positive other bloggers will talk them up, though.

HarperCollins

I’m going to be really selective about which titles I’m talking about from Harper because they showcased so many. These are the ones that caught my eye in some way or that I plan on reading. I’m going to sneak in a few others that might not be my thing but would be of interest to others.

The House of Secrets by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini (April 2013): The Pagett kids had it
all: loving parents, a big house in San Francisco, all the latest video
games . . . But everything changed when their father lost his job as a
result of an inexplicable transgression. Now the family is moving into
Kristoff House, a mysterious place built nearly a century earlier by a
troubled fantasy writer with a penchant for the occult. Suddenly the
siblings find themselves launched on an epic journey into a mash-up
world born of Kristoff’s dangerous imagination, to retrieve a dark book
of untold power, uncover the Pagett family’s secret history and save
their parents . . . and maybe even the world.

So, we know Vizzini, right? This is a middle grade adventure book that will kick off a series, and while it’s not my thing, I’m stuck on the fact it’s cowritten by Chris Columbus . . . the one from The Goonies. 

The Madman’s Daughter (January 2013): Dr. Moreau’s daughter, Juliet, travels to her estranged father’s island,
only to encounter murder, medical horrors, and a love triangle.

This one was described as very atmospheric, and it’s a debut novel. It’s also the first in a trilogy.

Crash and Burn by Michael Hassan (February 2013):  Steven “Crash” Crashinsky relates his sordid ten-year relationship with
David “Burn” Burnett, the boy he stopped from taking their high school
hostage at gunpoint.

Aside from being a contemporary novel and a debut novel, this book is huge. I got an ARC of it and am really excited to read it…but it is 530 pages in ARC form, with tiny font. I can’t imagine the size when it’s a standard book. Either way, it sounds great.

A Trick of the Light by Lois Metzger (June 2013): Fifteen-year-old Mike desperately attempts to take control as his parents separate and his life falls apart.
 
This is another contemporary and it tackles the voice of an anorexic male. It was called out as dark, meaning it moved to the top of my books I want to read pile.

Born of Illusion by Teri Brown (June 2013): Anna Van Housen is
thirteen the first time she breaks her mother out of jail. By sixteen
she’s street smart and savvy, assisting her mother, the renowned medium
Marguerite Van Housen, in her stage show and séances, and easily
navigating the underground world of magicians, mediums and mentalists in
1920’s New York City. Handcuffs and sleight of hand illusions have
never been much of a challenge for Anna. The real trick is keeping her
true gifts secret from her opportunistic mother, who will stop at
nothing to gain her ambition of becoming the most famous medium who ever
lived. But when a strange, serious young man moves into the flat
downstairs, introducing her to a secret society that studies people with
gifts like hers, he threatens to reveal the secrets Anna has fought so
hard to keep, forcing her to face the truth about her past. Could the
stories her mother has told her really be true? Could she really be the
illegitimate daughter of the greatest magician of all? 

Brown’s book is the first in a trilogy and it was drawing comparisons to Anna Godbersen’s The Luxe but with magicians, as well as comparisons to Libba Bray’s The Diviners.

The End Games by T. Michael Martin (May 2013): There’s not a good description of this one yet, and Goodreads’s is pretty dumb, but here it is anyway — Martin’s debut, The End Games, is about two brothers braving the apocalypse in the wilderness of West Virginia, pitched as The Stand meets John Green.

Obviously, this is a debut and it’s about the zombie apocalypse. The folks at Harper were really keen on the “x meets y” pitching method during the preview, but their pitch for this one was The Road meets The Stand. I don’t even get why John Green is mentioned in the Goodreads description. I’m assuming because the characters are probably realistic. I realize this is tangential, but these sorts of pitches are fairly meaningless and dumb. Because really? The Stand meets John Green? Fortunately, the description they gave at the preview beyond the pitch made this sound great. No cover yet. 

Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook (February 2013): Told in their separate voices, eighteen-year-old Will who has aged
out of foster care, and fifteen-year-old Zoe whose father beats her, set
out for Las Vegas together, but their escape may prove more dangerous
than what they left behind.
 
It’s a debut contemporary and it’s a paperback original. The pitch was Bonnie and Clyde meets If I Stay, which again, pretty much means nothing. The description sells it way better.

Mind Games by Kiersten White (February 2013): Seventeen-year-old Fia and her sister, Annie, are trapped in a school
that uses young female psychics and mind readers as tools for corporate
espionage–and if Fia doesn’t play by the rules of their deadly game,
Annie will be killed. 

This was sold as a dark psychological thriller and that it was a page turner. I’m game. There is a sequel to come.

Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn (June 2013): A year after vanishing from a party, screaming and drenched in blood,
seventeen-year-old Annaliese Rose Gordon appears hundreds of miles from
home with no memory, but a haunting certainty that she is actually
another girl trapped in Annaliese’s body.

Literary horror that is dark and gritty! This was likened to Sara Shepard and Stephen King.

I’m not going to name names (September Girls by Bennett Madison, out June 2013), but there is another mermaid book coming out. Actually, the pitch was that this was a realistic book “with a twist” and that “twist” was a “touch of mermaid.” It tackles gender and sexuality, which sounds really fascinating, but I’m completely turned off by the touch of mermaid.

Pulse by Patrick Carman (February 2013): In the year 2051, when most Americans live in one of two gigantic,
modern States, Faith Daniels, part of a dwindling group that lives
between, learns that she, like other misfits, has unusual abilities that
could help when the inevitable war begins.

The pitch was that this was the start of a new futuristic fantasy trilogy and that it was the best book Carman has written to date.

Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley (March 2013): Sixteen-year-old Angie finds herself in her neighborhood with no
recollection of her abduction or the three years that have passed since,
until alternate personalities start telling her their stories through
letters and recordings.

It’s a debut contemporary title, and it tackles multiple personality disorder. It was described as “disturbing.” Yes, please.

Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza (March 2013): Sixteen-year-old Mila discovers she is not who–or what–she thought
she was, which causes her to run from both the CIA and a rogue
intelligence group.

They called this one a spy-thriller with artificial intelligence and suspense. Driza is a debut author.

Arclight by Josin McQuein (April 2013): There is the Light.
There is the Dark. And no one survives The Fade. These are the
absolutes… until a teenage girl stumbles out of the shadows with no
memory of how she survived. Her appearance brings hope, but also
danger as a race of parasitic, chameleon-like creatures known as The
Fade begin attacking those who have given her shelter. Torn between the
possibility that she’s the key to defeating the Fade, and the growing
dissent that would sacrifice the girl in hopes of stopping the attacks,
she’s hard pressed to find anyone she can trust. She finds a
strained ally in the son of the man who died to bring her to safety. And
when the two teens stumble across a captive Fade who begs them for help
locating his lost mate, they begin to wonder if the Fade are the enemy
they’ve been taught to believe.

That’s the lengthy Goodreads description, but in short, it’s a scifi thriller and the cover (which I couldn’t find online) is shiny. Very shiny. McQuein has a couple of books coming out next year but I believe this one is her debut.

Reboot by Amy Tintera (May 2013): Two teens who have
“rebooted” after dying must work together to rescue their kind from
enslavement and end up falling in love in the process. 

Tintera’s book is a debut and the first in a series. This was sold as a great next read for Divergent fans. 

Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum: Twenty years after robots designed to fight wars abandoned the
battlefields and turned their weapons against humans, siblings Nick,
Kevin, and Cass must risk everything when the wilderness community where
they have spent their lives in hiding is discovered by the bots.

Robots. Robots. ROBOTS. That’s all there is to say on that. This is also a debut, and it comes from the creators of Homeland and Destination (which I’m taking to mean this is a packager, but either way, it’s robots and that sells me).

Flowers in the Sky by Lynn Joseph (March 2013): Fifteen-year-old Nina
Perez is faced with a future she never expected. She must leave her
Garden of Eden, her lush home in the Dominican Republic, when she’s sent
by her mother to seek out a better life with her brother in New York.
As Nina searches for some glimpse of familiarity amid the jarring world
of Washington Heights, she must uncover her own strength. She learns to
uncover roots within foreign soil and finds a way to grow, just like the
orchids that blossom on her fire escape. And when she is confronted by
ugly secrets about her brother’s business, she comes to understand the
realities of life in this new place. But then she meets him-that
green-eyed boy- who she can’t erase from her thoughts, the one who just
might help her learn to see beauty in spite of tragedy.

Asylum by Madeleine Roux (April 2013): About three teens at a
summer program for gifted students who uncover disturbing secrets
beneath the sanatorium-turned-dorm where they’re staying – secrets that
connect all three of them to the asylum’s dark past.

This one was described as Miss Peregrine meets The Shining — it includes images of abandoned asylums. It’s “creepy.” 

I have maybe touched on half of the books talked about during the Harper presentation, and I noticed when I got to the end of my note-taking, the notes were becoming more one-word notes than anything else (“end” or “friendship” are among some of the thoughtful and thorough notes I took). That said, a number of big series are wrapping up next year, including Michael Grant’s Gone series, Lauren Oliver’s Delirium series, and Josie Angellini’s Starcrossed series.    

This is the small pile I (mostly) took home. A few didn’t end up making it into my bag because of space issues. I’m pretty excited about these! 

Eight years ago, Caro became an only child. Her sister Hannah left home and because of their age difference, Caro doesn’t remember her a whole lot. But now Hannah’s coming back home and she’s not at all what Caro expected — she’s quiet, meek, and withdrawn, and she’s not making a great impression on her sister. Worse though, their parents are letting Hannah get away with this behavior. Her coldness further turns Caro off.

Caro’s method of dealing appears to be denial. She lies to her boyfriend about Hannah and now she’s not only frustrating him, she’s frustrating both her friends and her parents with her behavior. What should be an exciting reunion of sisters isn’t.

The Opposite of Hallelujah is Anna Jarzab’s sophomore novel, and it’s a memorable one. But before I delve into what made this book work and why it kept me hooked, let me start by saying the description is a bit misleading. It sounds much more mysterious than it is — while Caro’s sister has been gone for eight years, it wasn’t under strange circumstances. Rather, Hannah enrolled in a convent. Yes, that kind of convent. Hannah wants to be a nun.

Caro’s live a pretty good life, but it’s been a life she’s constructed of many lies. Because she grew up without Hannah, she never told anyone she had a sister. Actually, that’s not true either: Caro mentioned in elementary school that her sister had died, and that was always what people associated Caro with — a dead sister. That lie got her into huge trouble at home, and following that, she’s just chosen to ignore the sister all together. It’s when Hannah comes back, though, that Caro has to confront the fact she not only has a sister but that her sister may need her much more than she could have ever imagined.

Jarzab’s story, despite sounding like one about faith and religion, is actually about grief. Hannah’s choice in attending a convent was her means of dealing with loss and with a heavy burden of responsibility for that loss. She’s sullen and broken, has disordered eating, and she looks — by Caro’s accounts and by what we can pick up along the way — terrible. But because Caro herself is put off by Hannah, she doesn’t know why her sister is that way. The Opposite of Hallelujah isn’t only about Hannah’s grief though. It’s also about Caro’s.

By accounts of those around her, Caro is selfish. She’s not interested in learning about her sister and she’s guarded about the fact she has to put up with an adjustment at home. The thing is, Caro’s grieving the loss of everything she’s known. There’s security in being an only child for her, and having it disrupted and changed is tough. It’s made only more challenging because of Hannah’s behavior. Caro is a deeply flawed character, and she as much as admits to it. But I found her thoroughly likable because of her flaws and because, despite them, I sympathized with everything she was going through. She’s a bit impulsive and doesn’t always act in the smartest ways; however, Caro is dealing with things in a way that’s authentic to her and authentic to the story. She’s not passive.

What ends up drawing Caro into Hannah’s story is a boy: Pawal. He’s the new kid at school and it doesn’t take long for Caro and him to become close. This is the part in a lot of books where I find myself frustrated, but there’s no real secret here that Pawal is a plot device. It’s through a huge oops moment at dinner between Pawal, Caro and her parents when she must confront her sister and find out what is going on. Why she left them years ago. Why she is so withdrawn now. That’s not to say Pawal’s only role in the story is as the catalyst to making Caro interact with her sister; there’s a bigger payoff, too, in the form of a realistic, well-developed romantic relationship. It’s not guaranteed and it’s not rushed.

Like Caro, I’ve talked around the central aspect of the story. If you don’t want spoilers, jump down a paragraph. What we learn as readers is that Hannah may have been responsible for the death of a friend. It’s through Caro’s investigation — and the help of her friends — that she’s able to reconnect with the family of that girl. I can’t say I bought all of this part of the story (I had many problems with the way Sarba’s brother reacts to meeting with Caro and how he reacts to Hannah’s being back), but because I was so invested elsewhere, it was forgivable. Caro and Hannah come together over this, and Caro really begins to understand the choices her sister made in terms of attending a convent and in turning her attention toward faith. It’s her way of grieving and it’s her way of healing. It’s also her way of feeling like she can be a good person again. I wish this had been pushed a little further in the plot, but that’s where my primary challenge with the story comes: because this is Caro’s story and not Hannah’s, we’re getting Caro’s story. Caro’s far more interested in learning about her sister’s past than she is learning about what the power of faith and years at the convent have done for her healing-wise. Hannah had a fuller arc than Caro, which was why I hoped for a little more — where Hannah came through the grieving/acceptance process, Caro still had a little bit of room to finish it out when the book ended.

Hannah wrestles not only with her internal demons over this, but she also wrestles with a number of other issues. She’s struggling with eating (relating to grief, of course), and it’s arguable she’s also struggling with a bit of post traumatic stress disorder. Her choice to leave the convent brings so many feelings she’d chosen to lock down to a head. Where she’d been able to lock them away and turn to God and serving in spirit, her return home requires her to deal with things on her own. As much as faith could heal and help, there’s also an element of needing to face things straight on for Hannah. She can’t look up or ahead without accepting the things behind and inside her. This was a particularly powerful realization not only for Hannah, but even moreso for Caro. 

More than once during the story, I thought a number of plot elements felt convenient. The parents, for example, were terrible communicators and I found it hard to believe never in that span of eight years would Hannah come up in conversation. It was odd Caro never cared, either. That said, because Jarzab’s writing was so strong and because she handled a number of heavy topics without ever laying a right or a wrong side down, these conveniences were easy to let go.

While there is a bit of a mystery in the book, it’s a solid contemporary title. Months after reading this, I’m still thinking about Caro and Hannah. Although The Opposite of Hallelujah clocks in at over 450 pages, it is an absorbing read — Jarzab has a handle on her story and on her characters, and she anchors them both with great references and motifs throughout (I keep thinking about the way MC Esher, physics, and The Bell Jar all weave perfectly into the greater parts of who Caro and Hannah are). Rarely do I think I’d like more of a book, especially a book already running long, but I would have read another 100 or so pages of this story to get even more out of the faith/grief experiences of both girls. In many ways, this book reminded me of Sara Zarr, especially Once Was Lost, and I think there’s a lot here fans of Zarr’s books will enjoy. I’d be comfortable handing this to younger YA readers, as well as more mature ones. Jarzab gives readers on both ends of the spectrum a lot to chew on.

The Opposite of Hallelujah is available today. Review copy received from the publisher.

It’s October, and we try every year to do a series of posts related to horror. This year is no different. To kick things off, I thought I’d share a book/film list that features my favorite horror trope: haunted houses.

Haunted houses fascinate me to no end. There’s ample opportunity for developing atmosphere in a story (which I love) but more than that, the haunted house mirrors the human psyche. Shelter is a human need, but how we’ve constructed it is within human engineering and design. It’s planned. So when things don’t feel settled, it’s terrifying. Haunted house stories are about the fear of what’s inside that isn’t controlled nor understood — and it parallels and enhances an uneasy mind.

Also? It’s almost never about the house.

I lived in a dorm that was supposedly haunted back in college. I never had any weird experiences there, aside from a couple of bats roaming the halls, but I always think about what a perfect setting and back story this building has for a good horror tale:

This will be a very incomplete list of books — and films! — that tackle the haunted house. I’d love to know more, and I’m open across age groups. I think if you’re really going to make a display of titles related to haunted homes, it should cover a wide swath of teen and adult works. I’m fairly liberal in my definition of what a haunted house is. Essentially, the bulk of the story’s chills come from within the house or are related somehow to that house. I realize this is a huge space for debate, but I like it that way. I’m also keenly aware that a number of these books aren’t actually horror stories, but they do feature the haunted house trope in some capacity.

I’ve seen or read many, but not all, of the titles below. They are in no particular order, but I’ve noted where they are films, books, or have a film adaptation made from the book. Also, there may be a little fudging around with defining house to also include hotels.

All descriptions come from WorldCat.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (book and film — and they differ!): A solicitor sent to a small village to settle the estate of a dead
client fuels the wrath of a sinister, mysterious woman in black and is
driven to the brink of insanity. Arguably, this is way less about the haunted house, but it fits my definition.

Hell House by Richard Matheson (book and film): A group of four people enter Belasco House, known as the “Mount Everest of haunted houses.”

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe (book and film): Do you know how hard it is to find a description of this one? It’s a classic, and it’s a tale of madness. That should be enough explanation. 

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (book and film): An anthropologist conducts an unusual research project in a reputedly haunted house.

The Poisoned House by Michael Ford: As the widowed master of an elegant house in Victorian-era London
slips slowly into madness and his tyrannical housekeeper takes on more
power, a ghostly presence distracts a teenaged maidservant with clues to
a deadly secret.

Amityville Horror (book, film, and a remake of the original film): The Long Island colonial house on the river’s edge seemed perfect, but their new house soon becomes a hellish nightmare. The remake of this one was filmed at a house about 20 minutes from where I live.

The Shining (book and film): What of the penetrating cold terror of an old hotel, a haunted place of
seductive evil with a malevolent will of its own–and a five-year-old
boy of innocent beauty whose mind mirrors the nightmarish secrets of its
past?

The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian (book): In a dusty corner of a basement in a rambling Victorian house in
northern New Hampshire, a door has long been sealed shut with 39
six-inch-long carriage bolts. The home’s new owners are Chip and Emily
Linton and their twin ten-year-old daughters. Together they hope to
rebuild their
lives there after Chip, an airline pilot, had to ditch his 70-seat
regional jet in Lake Champlain after double engine failure. Unlike the
Miracle on the Hudson, however, most of the passengers aboard Flight
1611 died on impact or were drowned. The body count? Thirty-nine, a
coincidence not lost on Chip when he discovers the number of bolts in
that basement door. Meanwhile, Emily finds herself wondering about the
women in this sparsely populated White Mountain village, self-proclaimed
herbalists, and their interest in her fifth-grade daughters. Are the
women mad? Or is it her husband, in the wake of the tragedy, whose grip
on sanity has become desperately tenuous?

The Good House by Tananarive Due (book): Working to rebuild her law practice after her son commits suicide,
Angela Toussaint journeys to the family home where the suicide took
place,hoping for answers, and discovers an evil force that is driving
locals to acts of violence.

Frost by Marianna Baer (book): When Leena Thomas gets her wish to live in an old Victorian house
with her two closest friends during their senior year at boarding
school, the unexpected arrival of another roommate–a confrontational
and eccentric classmate–seems to bring up old anxieties and fears for
Leena that may or may not be in her own mind.

The Innkeepers (film): After over one hundred years of service, the Yankee Pedlar Inn is
shutting its doors for good. The last remaining employees, Claire and
Luke, are determined to uncover proof of what many believe to be one of
New England’s most haunted hotels. As the Inn’s final days draw near,
odd guests check in as the pair of minimum wage “ghost hunters” begin to
experience strange and alarming events that may ultimately cause them to be mere footnotes in the hotel’s long unexplained history.

The Turn of the Screw (book): The story starts
conventionally enough with friends sharing ghost stories ’round the fire
on Christmas Eve. One of the guests tells about a governess at a
country house plagued by supernatural visitors. But in the hands of
Henry James, the master of nuance, this little tale of terror is an
exquisite gem of sexual and psychological ambiguity. Only the young
governess can see the ghosts; only she suspects that the previous
governess and her lover are controlling the two orphaned children (a
girl and a boy) for some evil purpose. The household staff don’t know
what she’s talking about, the children are evasive when questioned, and
the master of the house (the children’s uncle) is absent. Why does the
young girl claim not to see a perfectly visible woman standing on the
far side of the lake? Are the children being deceptive, or is the
governess being paranoid?

The Turning by Francine Prose (book): A teen boy becomes the babysitter for two very peculiar children on a
haunted island in this modern retelling of The Turn of the Screw. Admittedly, this one is a bit of a stretch in the category, but because it is a retelling of the James story, I’m including it.

Tighter by Adele Griffin (book): Based on Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw,” tells the story of Jamie
Atkinson’s summer spent as a nanny in a small Rhode Island beach town,
where she begins to fear that the estate may be haunted, especially
after she learns of two deaths that occurred there the previous summer.

The Others (film): Grace, a devoutly religious mother, has moved with her family to a
mansion on the English coast, awaiting her husband’s return from the
war. Her two children both suffer from a rare photosensitivity disease
that renders them extremely vulnerable to sunlight, prompting the rule
of having only one door open in the house at a time. When one of the
children claims to see ghosts, Grace at first believes her newly-arrived
family of eccentric servants to be responsible, but as events become
stranger, she begins to wonder if something supernatural is indeed going
on.
   

The Changeling (film): A man becomes the unwilling instrument of a ghost’s revenge. This is a Jensen household favorite because it’s legitimately scary.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (book): One dusty postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, Dr.
Faraday is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall, the residence of
the Ayres family for more than two centuries. Its owners, mother, son
and daughter, are struggling to keep pace with a changing society, as
well as conflicts of their own. But the Ayreses are haunted by something
more sinister than a dying way of life.

Dark Water (film): Yoshimi Matsubara fights to gain legal custody of her five-year old
daughter while the two live together in a dark sullen and musty
apartment building.

Stir of Echoes (film and book): After Tom is hypnotized at a neighborhood party, he changes. He sees
things he can’t explain and hears voices he can’t ignore. As the visions
intensify, he realizes they are echoes of a crime calling out to be
solved.

White is for Witching (book): As a child, Miranda Silver developed pica, a rare eating disorder that
causes its victims to consume nonedible substances. The death of her
mother when Miranda is sixteen exacerbates her condition; nothing,
however, satisfies a strange hunger passed down through the women in her
family. And then there’s the family house in Dover, England, converted
to a bed-and-breakfast by Miranda’s father. Dover has long been
known for its hostility toward outsiders. But The Silver House
manifests a more conscious malice toward strangers, dispatching those
visitors it despises. Enraged by the constant stream of foreign staff
and guests, the house finally unleashes its most destructive power.

The Grudge (film): Karen is an American nurse living and working in Tokyo who agrees to
cover the shift of another nurse. When she enters the assigned home, she
discovers an elderly woman who is lost in a catatonic state. As she
tends the woman, Karen hears scratching sounds upstairs and goes to
investigate. Within this house is a chain of terror more terrifying than
she could ever imagine, resulting from a terrifying evil that was
born years before. As more people die, Karen is pulled into the cycle
of horror and learns the secret of the vengeful curse. Now she must stop
it before it’s too late.

Thirteen Ghosts (film): After a tragedy strikes, a family discovers that the home they’ve
inherited from an eccentric uncle is inhabited by sinister phantoms.
Once the 12 ghosts are unlocked from the basement of the house, there is
only the need for one more fresh ghost to fulfil an evil prophesy.
Which member of the family will it be?

House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski (book): Johnny Truant, wild and troubled sometime employee in an L.A. tattoo
parlour, finds a notebook kept by Zampano, a recluse found dead in a
flat. Herein is the heavily annotated story of the Navidson Record.

The Intruders by E. E. Richardson (book): When soon-to-be stepbrothers, Joel and Tim, start having the same
nightmare after moving into a old house, they decide to investigate its
source and the many other strange occurrences in their new home.

I could probably highlight a million more movies this way, but in an effort to keep this list manageable, I’ll just offer up a few more: A Haunting in Connecticut, 1408, Poltergeist (I debate whether or not this is a haunted house story but if I didn’t include it, I’m sure I’d never hear the end of it), The Orphanage, Paranormal Activity, and Silent House (again, debatable, but seeing how much I disliked the original may be my bias).

I’m curious of more books fitting the theme, so if you’ve got any, leave a comment!