Alison Littlewood ‘The Unquiet House’ Review

Posted on October 6, 2015 in Authors A-L // 2 Comments

Written by: Vitina Molgaard

The house was built for love, but love never came to fill it. Something else did… Mire House

A ghost story, one of my favorite kind of reads, lies within the pages of this delightful novel by Alison Littlewood. I realize there are those who enjoy more gore and graphic action but sometimes you just need the subtleties of a haunted house to creep you out.

Well, let us get a bit of an idea of what we can expect from The Unquiet House.

Emma Dean, a single woman finds herself inheriting Mire House, from a distant relative that she has never even met. Plenty of questions arise when she heads off to visit her new piece of property. It is somewhere far and isolated from other homes; run down and abandoned. As she assesses the house, with full intent of renovating and then putting it up for sale she finds herself involved very deeply within its secret charm and making plans for a wonderful life for herself there instead.

It is not long before she begins to discover that none of her dreams are to be a reality. In fact her reality is soon to be challenged as things become altered in her life. Emma has a visitor, Charlie Mitchell, the Grandson of Clarence Mitchell. The original owner who left the home to her. Throughout his visit there she is never quite sure if he is a friend or something entirely different. Something that only time will reveal.

Our protagonist here begins to experience meetings with various entities almost from the first page.

This is one excellent read. Alison Littlewood does an interesting switch in time with this book. She travels back and forth, first in 2013, where we meet important characters. Next the time is 1973 and we learn a bit of history. 1939 is revealing and an integral part of what is happening to everyone involved with the once fantastic house. Then she closes the story back in 2013 with a very nice conclusion.

I found the layout of the years to be a good way to share the horrors and also sadness of this entire story. If you like a good ghost story you should enjoy this one along with the definite surprise ending. I suggest you give it a go. You should enjoy that twisted ending.

Order it here.

Rating: 5/5