Horror novels about horror has become a genre unto itself in recent years, self-aware stories are often popular. Novels like Grady Hendrix’s The Final Girls Support Group, Rachel Harrison’s Black Sheep, The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones, The Remaking by Clay McLeod Chapman. Now comes Christina Henry’s The House that Horror Built, in which a young mother finds employment as the housekeeper of a reclusive, acclaimed director of horror movies.
Harry Adams has always loved horror movies, so it’s not a total coincidence that she took the job cleaning house for movie director Javier Castillo. His forbidding graystone Chicago mansion, Bright Horses, is filled from top to bottom with terrifying props and costumes, as well as glittering awards from his career making films that thrilled audiences—until family tragedy and scandal forced him to vanish from the industry.
Javier values discretion, and Harry has always tried to clean the house immaculately, keep her head down, and keep her job safe—she needs the money to support her son. But then she starts hearing noises from behind a locked door. Noises that sound remarkably like a human voice calling for help, even though Javier lives alone and never has visitors. Harry knows that not asking questions is a vital part of working for Javier, but she soon finds that the sinister house may be home to secrets she can’t ignore.
Harry Adams is living paycheck to paycheck, trying to support her 14-year-old son Gabe. She takes odd jobs, anything that will pay, in order for him to have the best life possible. A professed horror film fan, she practices all of the self-restraint when she begins working for horror icon Javier Castillo as his housemaid. You see, Javier Castillo is a renowned director who began making small, independent horror films and worked his way through the Hollywood system and received an Academy Award. Set in Chicago, Castillo lives in a sprawling mansion named Bright Horses. He helps her clean, ensuring that she cleans his vast collection of film memorabilia. Castillo moved to Chicago when his wife Lena and son fled in the midst of a controversial death connected to Castillo’s son Michael.
Soon, Castillo invites Harry and her son for dinner, one night. Harry feels somewhat forced into the situation, especially when her son Gabe expresses so much excitement. Gabe has grown into quite the horror fan himself, taking after his mother. During that first dinner, Harry comes to realize that Castillo is lonely. The reclusive director is trying to surround himself with people who adore him, a feeling Gabe cannot hide.
Strange things have begun to happen in Bright Horses, sounds and movements Harry cannot explain. She’s hesitant to even share these experiences because these events happen only when she is alone. Is the mansion haunted? How haunted is Castillo himself?
Told in chapters that alternate between the present of Harry working for Castillo and flashing back to events and time snippets in both Harry and Castillo’s past, Christina Henry does a great job of weaving the events together. Through the character of Harry, Christina Henry examines class issues, the challenges of being a mother – especially a single mother, unsupportive parents, and the allure/veneer of celebrity. One thing that is clear through all of Harry’s challenges is the unwavering, unconditional love she has for her son Gabe. It is what drives her and inspires her.
The resonance between Javier Castillo and Guillermo del Toro is impossible to overlook and was most likely quite intentional. This novel is very much a love letter to horror, horror film and fandom. Henry manages to be judicious with the fanservice elements and the genre references (writers, actors, films, etc.), but also makes some of those elements, particularly the costume of a very popular creature from a move Castillo directed, integral elements to the story.
The House that Horror Built was a highly entertaining read, with some very thoughtful elements peppered throughout the narrative. My only real issue with the novel was how abruptly it ended. Throughout the narrative, there was a great, measured pace to the plotting. The character histories were revealed at the right points, the creepy/spooky elements were doled out quite well. But damn the story just end as if the brisk narrative hit a wall. I would have liked an epilogue or some other little bow to tie off the novel. I’ll bring my own bias here and say I don’t know that I’ve ever known a woman to go by the name of “Harry,” so that was a slight adjustment for me, too. Not a negative at all.
Sudden ending aside, The House that Horror Built met the high expectations I have for a book by Christina Henry, after having read her previous work, and she continues to be as a must-read author for me.
Recommended
© 2024 Rob H. Bedford
Paperback | May 2024
https://www.christinahenry.net/
Sneak Peek: https://www.christinahenry.net/?p=1363
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Berkley
