I’ve always been obsessed with houses: their different shapes and colors; layouts that couldn’t be seen from the curb. Maybe this curiosity started because I grew up in a boxy two bedroom apartment in Queens, NYC. Or because the very first chapter book I read was Nancy Drew’s The Hidden Staircase. Whatever the source, my fascination never wavered.
My debut novel, The Astrology House, is set in a giant Victorian home where every room has sweeping water views and suites named for the signs of the zodiac. I wanted the house to feel like a character in its own right, and that meant the house had to have secrets too.
The real life inspiration was the 1800s farmhouse my grandmother brought us to every summer of my childhood. You could feel the history in the air as soon as you stepped inside the house, and as a kid, adventure awaited around every corner. It had an intercom system riddled with static, hidden passageways for dumbwaiters, and a towering defunct lighthouse. There was a small three room cement bunker built into the ground separate from the main house where my cousins and I would escape the hot summer sun.
Each of these features were an absolute delight during the day, but tucked in my bed I wondered who was crawling around those passageways, who slept in that bunker and what ghosts might haunt that lighthouse, sending out signals we couldn’t see. That toggle between the fright and delight of an inanimate home is exactly what I wanted to capture in The Astrology House.
I’m not the first author obsessed with houses, nor will I be the last. Here are some of my favorite books with houses that hold as many secrets as the people in them, from classics to contemporary:
Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews
I re-read this novel in the pandemic and its darkness left a mark on me. The Dollanganger family—father Christopher, mother Corrine, 14-year-old Chris,12-year-old Cathy, and 5-year-old twins Carrie and Cory—endure a tragedy that sends them to the safety of Foxworth Hall, Corinne’s childhood estate. But they are not welcome there, and the children are locked away. Beauty and depravity co-existed in both the mansion and the people, and those dualities feed off of each other in this shocking and twisted story.
Bonus: sharing a name with a character was rare for me, and my namesake Corrine might be the origin story for my deep affinity towards messy women trying to break cycles of trauma.
The Shining by Stephen King
If you haven’t read Steven King’s 1977 novel, The Shining, it’s not too late. (And no, the movie doesn’t count for this one.) While not technically a house, The Overlook Hotel was the home to the Torrance family during the off-season. The opportunities to write and spend more time with his wife and son in this idyllic location are too good to pass up, but it’s not just the isolation that gets to Jack, there are supernatural forces gathering around five-year-old Danny. This suspenseful novel was concerned with domestic matters and intergenerational trauma before we had terms to describe what now fills an entire subgenre of thrillers.
When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole
Not only do these Brooklyn brownstones hold secrets, but the whole neighborhood has history that newcomers willfully ignore. Thankfully we follow Sydney as she clues ignorant tour groups in on the scientific and musical geniuses who graced these homes, not that they appreciate her expertise. As the novel progresses, the forces against Sydney move from ignorant individuals to something much more sinister and organized. Sydney’s insider knowledge of the neighborhood and its homes puts her way out ahead of those who want to silence her, but she’ll need to learn who she can trust before it’s too late. This New York Times bestseller and Edgar Award winner is a must read.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
I fell in love with the outspoken protagonist, Noemi, from page one. She presents as all glitz and glamor when Noemi parades around every fashionable cocktail party in town, but we get the sense that she’s got depth of spirit and resolve that hasn’t been put to good use in her sheltered life. That all changes when Noemi receives a frantic letter from her cousin saying that her husband is trying to kill her. Noemi storms off to High Place, her cousin’s newlywed home in the Mexican countryside. She isn’t there long before the house monopolizes her dreams, and she sees the warped practices of the inhabitants of High Place — but can she distinguish between what is real and what is not? With its secret rooms and creepy atmosphere, Noemi wants to escape the isolated mansion, but she cannot leave without the sickly cousin whom she came to rescue. This novel is a pitch-perfect Gothic adventure.
Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra
In a reversal of the norm, the house in Nightwatching represents comfort and safety while the danger and darkness comes from outside. The secrets of this New England antique colonial home are a godsend to the unnamed owner, a mother of two hiding from a cruel intruder looking to torment the family. Every creak, thump, and available crevice gives her an advantage, but as is so often the case in the battle of the genders, the deck is stacked against her. This Jimmy Fallon book club winner is the feminist thriller I had no idea I needed. I cannot recommend this read enough.
The Only One Left by Riley Sager
In this absolutely bonkers novel, we are offered the (fictional) story behind the unsolved (true) crime of the massacre of Lizzie Borden’s family. In Sager’s version, Lenora Hope was never convicted of a crime, but Lenora has been punished in other ways. She’s been confined to her home, aptly named Hope’s End, alone, with no family, for her entire life. She’s also a prisoner of her body after a series of strokes leaves her bedridden. When a new home health care worker enters the picture, Lenora is ready to reveal the truth about everything that went down in that house—all the while the structure precariously sits on a crumbling bluff, buckling under the weight of its secrets. Related tidbit: you can actually stay in the historic Lizzie Borden house in Massachusetts.
Night of the Storm by Nishita Parekh
The seed of the idea for Night of the Storm came to Parekh when she was trapped with her extended family at home in Houston during Hurricane Harvey. No one in her family ended up dead, but I can’t say the same for the fictional one in this locked-room mystery. We follow Jia Shah as she hunkers down at her sister’s fancy estate in Sugarland with her son and several generations of family. This novel delivers the mysterious dead body and rising tensions, but it is also a thriller with heart, including the challenges of divorce and single motherhood, as well as patriarchal issues and complicated family dynamics.
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