JANUARY 2021 - AudioFile
Narrators Taylor Meskimen and Ozzie Rodriguez portray teenagers who are having an unforgettable—and terrifying—summer romance. James and Amelia, both 17, go canoeing on their first date. They paddle to an unexplored lake where, under the water, they discover a house that is fully—impossibly—intact and furnished. In the following weeks, the couple form an intense bond while exploring the mysterious house. However, a foreboding presence looms within it and threatens to drive James and Amelia apart. Meskimen and Rodriguez perform chapters that alternate between James’s and Amelia’s points of view. Each narrator crafts memorable characters while evoking the excitement and yearning of first love. While there are occasional scares to be had, the tender relationship between James and Amelia forms the beating heart of this audiobook. A.T.N. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
09/28/2020
Bird Box author Malerman leaves readers with more questions than answers with this eerie, atmospheric horror novel. Teenagers James and Amelia spend their first date getting acquainted while winding their way through two idyllic lakes in a canoe. They discover a secret passage through a rocky tunnel to an uncharted third lake that seems to be untouched by humanity—save for the fully intact house they spot at the bottom of its depths. Intrigued, they make plans to return with scuba gear to explore. Diving deep into the building’s depths, James and Amelia learn more about both the house and themselves while embarking on a whirlwind romance. Malerman masterfully builds tension, balancing the exuberance of first love with the foreboding mystery of the house. The uncanny elements and strange, evocative setting will keep readers flipping pages, but the atmosphere never gives way to more visceral scares and the underwhelming resolution leaves the mystery dangling. Readers shouldn’t expect any concrete thrills, but fans of Malerman’s precise prose will be pleased to explore this new and unsettling world. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
An intimate dive into eerie, ethereal . . . waters.”—Dread Central
“Never has something so scary been so much fun.”—Dark Moon Digest
Library Journal
07/01/2020
In a stand-alone novella previously issued by a small press, Bird Box phenom Malerman envisions a first date by a shimmering lake, with 17-year-olds Jim and Amelia captivated by a house they spot at the lake's bottom. What's more unsettling, a voice from within the house is beckoning them to come home. Gurgle.
JANUARY 2021 - AudioFile
Narrators Taylor Meskimen and Ozzie Rodriguez portray teenagers who are having an unforgettable—and terrifying—summer romance. James and Amelia, both 17, go canoeing on their first date. They paddle to an unexplored lake where, under the water, they discover a house that is fully—impossibly—intact and furnished. In the following weeks, the couple form an intense bond while exploring the mysterious house. However, a foreboding presence looms within it and threatens to drive James and Amelia apart. Meskimen and Rodriguez perform chapters that alternate between James’s and Amelia’s points of view. Each narrator crafts memorable characters while evoking the excitement and yearning of first love. While there are occasional scares to be had, the tender relationship between James and Amelia forms the beating heart of this audiobook. A.T.N. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2020-09-16
In the throes of first love, two teens have their romance tested after discovering a mysterious house in an abandoned lake.
James and Amelia, both 17, are good kids. After becoming instantly attracted to each other in his father's hardware store, they go on a canoe outing on a lake where James' uncle has a place. With kids shrieking in speedboats, James decides to paddle to a second, quieter lake—and then, on a whim, through a graffitied tunnel to a smaller third lake he never knew existed. The water is murky, smells funny, and "felt inhabited." But after getting over the shock of discovering a house below the surface, the adventuresome couple works up the courage to dive down and explore it—first without breathing equipment and then, when they return, with diving gear. Though dresses float through space as if self-animated and there's an indoor pool "with water all its own," there's nothing superscary about the house. But after the couple gets physically intimate in the pool and hears footsteps from the second floor, their lives are forever changed. Originally published in the U.K. in 2016, this short novel was Malerman's first following Bird Box (2014), which was adapted by Netflix in 2018. A spare, unrushed effort, the book has a tingly appeal. But while it succeeds as an endearing study of young love and a dark exploration of the fear of sex, the house never lives up to its promise as a scare vehicle. Malerman, usually a big risk taker, plays things too close to the vest.
An enjoyably tenderhearted novel but one that fails to make the most of its spooky premise.