Danielle Vega

Hendricks Becker-O'Malley is new in town, and she's bringing baggage with her. With a dark and wild past, Hendricks doesn't think the small town her parents moved her to has much to offer her in terms of excitement. She plans on laying low, but when she's suddenly welcomed into the popular crowd at school, things don't go as expected. Hendricks learns from her new friends that the fixer-upper her parents are so excited about is notorious in town. Local legend says it's haunted. Hendricks doesn't believe it . . . until she starts hearing voices late at night. Until doors start locking on their own. Until her baby brother is rushed to the hospital-hurt by someone or something inside the house. With help from the mysterious boy next door, Hendricks makes it her mission to take down the ghosts . . . if they don't take her first.

The Haunted

ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY'S "BIGGEST AND BEST YA BOOKS OF THE SUMMER" From Danielle Vega, YA's answer to Stephen King, comes a new paranormal novel about dark family secrets, deep-seated vengeance, and the horrifying truth that evil often lurks in the unlikeliest of places. Clean slate. That's what Hendricks Becker-O'Malley's parents said when they moved their family to the tiny town of Drearfield, New York. Hendricks wants to lay low and forget her dark, traumatic past. Forget him. But things don't go as planned. Hendricks learns from new friends at school that Steele House--the fixer upper her parents are so excited about--is notorious in town. Local legend says it's haunted. But Hendricks isn't sure if it's the demons of her past haunting her ...or of the present. Voices whisper in her ear as she lays in bed. Doors lock on their own. And, then, one night, things take a violent turn. With help from the mysterious boy next door, Hendricks makes it her mission to take down the ghosts . . . if they don't take her first.

Ariel

Not scary, dragged a lot but it's ok overall ig, might pick up the next be since the ending ended on a cliffhanger not sure why the "romance" with Connor was necessary.

Lacy W

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I won this book in a goodreads giveaway. 

tw: bullying, murder, suicide, torture, mentions abusive and controlling relationships, intense stalking, death, descriptions of panic attacks

I’ll preface this by saying that I absolutely believe in ghosts, spirits and the like. I am a huge horror buff. I watch pretty exclusively horror games and horror movies. I have yet to read horror books but that is a discussion for a different day. For me, there is no way that something doesn’t get left behind after someone dies tragically or violently. There is just no way that can’t be.*shrugs*

Supernatural entities, ghosts/possessions/demons are my favorite subtype in the horror genre. At least 5 (five) of my top 10 favorite horror movies have to do with ghosts. There is just nothing spookier than a haunted house or someone getting possessed by a demon. This is one of the reasons I was so drawn to Danielle Vega. She reminds me of a diet Stephen King and I mean that in the best possible way. When I read The Merciless, I was hooked. Teenagers trying to do an exorcism? Count me in! 

So when I saw Goodreads was doing a giveaway for this book and I saw what it was about (a haunted house), I was stoked. I was even more excited when I won. But now I’m not as excited after I have finished reading this book. This book was okay but it was not great, like I thought it was going to be. 

I think my main complaint about this book is that I wanted to be scared and I wasn’t. I wanted the tension that comes with those haunted house stories and the feeling of not knowing what the house was going to do next. I wanted to fear every single page turn. But that didn’t happen. Reading this book was like watching the Vatican Tapes. Sure, some parts were scary but I was mostly just bored and could predict a lot of what was going to happen. After seeing so many horror movies/games, I’ve come to be able to predict a lot of what is going to happen just based on context clues and by how many horror movies/games I’ve seen. 

One of the positives about this book was how well I related to the main character, Hendricks. What she went through with her ex boyfriend was very similar to what I went through and I’m sure what lots of young girls go through in relationships. It helped me to get into her head a little more but unfortunately I still didn't feel the fear that she felt with her house being haunted. But I did enjoy her as a main character for most of the time. 

Ultimately, I think the problem was me and not the book. I have been incredibly spoiled by horror movies featuring haunted houses like the Conjuring and Insidious (although that really isn’t about a haunted house), that it just didn’t scare me in the end. But I can still say that someone would still be scared by this book if they are just starting with horror. However, I will still commend this book and the author. Danielle Vega is a great writer and she's the perfect author if you want to get into horror but don’t want to jump right into Stephen King or Dean Koontz.

Amanda Autumn Berrey

four stars 

i always love Vega’s books so i had a feeling i would like this one as well and i definitely was not disappointed

Tiffany Robinson

** spoiler alert **
            The Haunted follows Hendricks and her family who move into a new town. The story is that her family flips houses and that is why they are there, but there is something dark in Hendricks past that motivated the move. When she starts her new school she starts to run with the popular crowd and from them she learns that the new run down house they moved it to has a dark past of it's own. When strange things start to happen to her and her family she gets help from the boy next door who also seems to be hiding something. 
I was super excited to read this book because plot of the book sounded amazing and I am always down for a scary tale. And it's billed as a Stephen King for teenagers so how can it not be great? Well great it is not. For a book that had a lot of action going on it sure was boring. All the twists were not all that shocking and you could see most of them coming. I felt like all the characters were one dimensional and were introduced just so they could perish later on. Also the romance in the book felt forced. 
In conclusion while this book was a fast read it was a a book that I could have done without reading.

I received an ARC of this book.

The Haunted

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