Name: Ryan Mateyk's review of The Invited by Jennifer McMahon
Item: The Invited
Rating: 3
Author: Ryan Mateyk

Jennifer McMahon

A chilling ghost story with a twist: the New York Times bestselling author of The Winter People returns to the woods of Vermont to tell the story of a husband and wife who don't simply move into a haunted house--they build one. . . . In a quest for a simpler life, Helen and Nate have abandoned the comforts of suburbia to take up residence on forty-four acres of rural land where they will begin the ultimate, aspirational do-it-yourself project: building the house of their dreams. When they discover that this beautiful property has a dark and violent past, Helen, a former history teacher, becomes consumed by the local legend of Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who lived and died there a century ago. With her passion for artifacts, Helen finds special materials to incorporate into the house--a beam from an old schoolroom, bricks from a mill, a mantel from a farmhouse--objects that draw her deeper into the story of Hattie and her descendants, three generations of Breckenridge women, each of whom died suspiciously. As the building project progresses, the house will become a place of menace and unfinished business: a new home, now haunted, that beckons its owners and their neighbors toward unimaginable danger.

The Invited

Kaylah Rodriguez

A chilling ghost story with a twist: the New York Times bestselling author of THE WINTER PEOPLE returns to the woods of Vermont to tell the story of a husband and wife who don't simply move into a haunted house, they start building one from scratch, without knowing it, until it's too late... In 1924, a young mother, Hattie Breckenridge, is hanged from a tree in her yard by the town mob, accused of a crime that was actually committed by her daughter. Nearly a century later, a young married couple, Helen and Nate abandon the comforts of suburbia to begin the ultimate, aspirational do-it-yourself project: building the house of their dreams on the same forty-four acres of rural land where Hattie once lived. When they discover that this charming property has a dark and violent past, Helen, a former history teacher, becomes consumed by Hattie's story and the tragic legend of her descendants, three generations of "Breckenridge women," each of whom died amid suspicion, and who seem to still be seeking something elusive and dangerous in the present day.

Ryan Mateyk

This is a unique and interesting twist on the haunted house trope.  The distinctive approach gave the book some unpredictable twists.  The missing person mystery also added several good curves to the story.

shellybn

A chilling ghost story with a twist: the New York Times bestselling author of The Winter People returns to the woods of Vermont to tell the story of a husband and wife who don't simply move into a haunted house--they build one . . . In a quest for a simpler life, Helen and Nate have abandoned the comforts of suburbia to take up residence on forty-four acres of rural land where they will begin the ultimate, aspirational do-it-yourself project: building the house of their dreams. When they discover that this beautiful property has a dark and violent past, Helen, a former history teacher, becomes consumed by the local legend of Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who lived and died there a century ago. With her passion for artifacts, Helen finds special materials to incorporate into the house--a beam from an old schoolroom, bricks from a mill, a mantel from a farmhouse--objects that draw her deeper into the story of Hattie and her descendants, three generations of Breckenridge women, each of whom died suspiciously. As the building project progresses, the house will become a place of menace and unfinished business: a new home, now haunted, that beckons its owners and their neighbors toward unimaginable danger.

A Novel

Janice Hopper

This is mostly a ghost stories (or ghosts story, TBH). It's not too creepy or scary, but there are a couple of bad deaths (not really described too graphically).

The heroine goes out of her way to find objects related to people who had history in the area of the house she and her husband are building. Things like a mantel made from the tree where a woman was hanged, for instance. Then she's terrified to find that the presence of such a thing means a ghost shows up!!

Then she does it again. OMG, another ghost shows up, and she's scared AGAIN. Jeezopete, lady, slow learner much?

That said, it's not bad. I did a little eye rolling when she kept buying ghost-related historical objects and was then freaked out by ghosts, lol. But there's a spunky middle-school girl who's lost her mom in the story, and a white doe that may ALSO represent a ghost, and some weird townspeople. It was fine. I listened to it pretty much straight through.

Madhuri Sridhara

** spoiler alert **
           I've got a lot of things to say. The premise of the book is spooky and it hooks you. The characters, the woman: everyone from Hattie to Olive are so great. It takes time to warm up to some of them but I found them to be relatable and someone you can just understand even when they're making stupid mistakes (they tend to do that) or being in bizarre situations. The book was predictable in some ways but I didn't see one of the more obvious twists coming. 

I do feel I'm left with a lot of questions though. About the treasure, about the saltbox, Nate and Helen's future in the house, the fate of the ghosts of all those women, Nate's side of the story, what Mike's story is and so on. But I'm not sure whether a sequel would help or hurt as this is a precarious story and adding any more could throw off the whole thing.

Paola C

Finally a thriller that didn't disappoint me or make me aggravated! This book had me hooked, wanting more and it delivered. While I was reading, I felt like I predicted a bit of the plot, however I didn't expect the ending, which is always nice. 

The Invited follows Helen and Nate as they move to Vermont and they decide that they want to build their own house. The land the chose to build the house has a past to it, it was the land of a witch called Hattie, who was hung in a tree by the land's bog. Because of this the locals say that the land is haunted. Helen decides that she wants to learn more about Hattie and discovered and proceeds to buy a beam that was made from the tree that Hattie was hung at, and uses it for the house they are building. In doing this Helen gets to see the ghost of Hattie, and she is sending her a message. 

We also follow Oliver, or Ollie. Ollie is a local from the area and is in search of the rumored treasure that Hattie left behind. She thinks that by finding the treasure, it will make her mother come home.

Samantha Patton

This book definitely had the creepy vibes.

Anastaciya

3.5 ☆ not what I expected judging by the title, yet quite an enjoyable read. Do like me a ghost story. Even a predictable one 🤷🏻‍♀️

Megan Leprich

WARNING: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK AT NIGHT BEFORE YOU GO TO SLEEP!

I'm a sucker for ghost stories, I love to be scared and I'm a horror movie junkie. Not many books can creep me out and make me sleep with the lights on while I hear noises coming from my closet that I'm too scared to get up and investigate (damn cats) but this one did it for me! I have never read anything by Jennifer McMahon but this was excellent!

Helen and Nate have just bought land in Vermont and are starting construction on their brand new house. Helen is a history fanatic and has no idea what stories there are about their land, which could be why they got it pretty cheap. As they start building Helen starts hearing and seeing odd things, then she finds out about Hattie Breckenridge, the supposed witch that lived on and was hung on the land. Helen immediately becomes obsessed with finding pieces that she can incorporate into their new house to hopefully bring the spirits back so she can communicate with them. She then meets Olive and her Aunt Riley who help with the house also, Helen just doesn't realize how much the two of them are actually tied to the land and the old stories.

I loved how the chapters were broken into Olive and Helen's different perspectives and I loved both of their characters so much. I felt so bad for Olive at first, her Mom went missing and her Dad is obsessed with fixing up the house in hopes that his wife will come home, he becomes frantic about it. I loved how even though Olive was bad towards Helen and her husband Nate they still took her under their wing and let her help with construction on their new house. 

Not only did I love the characters in this book but I really REALLY loved the creep factor. Jennifer McMahon did fantastic at giving the back story of Hattie and her daughter Jane and her ghost scenes were amazing, I had goosebumps and chills for a good majority of this book. I don't know if her other stories are comparable to this one but if they are as creepy I will definitely be reading them!

Kelsey Holtaway

2.5 rounded up.I think if you like Stephen King, you'll like this, but for me this was too much of a marital drama. 

This is more of an unsettling book (vs horror) with a slow build, and I struggled with the emphasis of the story centering around marital problems. I appreciate that the author was trying to create a tense atmosphere, but I would have rather seen that through the actual hauntings than the couple's domestic quarrels. 

We had a couple good scares but I was ultimately left wanting more, and not in a great way.

Laura Springall

This isn’t at all what I expected, but I’m pleasantly surprised! I thought this was going to be your typical “angry ghost trying to murder the new people in their house” kind of story, which I was so here for. I didn’t anticipate this being what it was, but I really liked the direction it took! It was a unique take on the haunted house story, and I thought it was really well done. I did have some minor issues, like I found some of the characters to be kind of flat (mainly Nate), and the timeline was a little confusing at time. But otherwise was a fantastic read!

Krystal Pollock

The invited was ok for me. It was a great story and finding out all the history of Hattie was intriguing but the story was so slow of a read for me.

Jolie

Helen and Neal are living the dream. After inheriting money from Helen’s father, they decided to build their own house in Vermont. Shortly after they start building, Helen hears about the legend of Hattie Breckenridge. Her obsession begins when Hattie manifests in the new home. While she is out collection materials that were involved with each descendants death, Nate is obsessing over a white deer. What is the connection? Will the secrets that the town has long suppressed come back to haunt the people? Who is willing to kill to keep them that way? And how does Helen figure into all of this? Who is she supposed to save and why?

I was intrigued by a thriller set in Vermont. I can count on one hand how many books I have read that took place there. Out of all of those books, zero were thrillers. Which was the main reason I decided to request the book. I am happy to say that the author did pull it off.

The main plot line of The Invited was an interesting one. I haven’t read a book where the haunted house was built. Every other thriller that involves ghosts, the house were already built. It was a refreshing change.

The plot line with Helen and her obsession with finding Hattie’s descendants was written beautifully. I agreed with Nate at one point in the book. I thought that it was morbid that Helen was bringing in items that were present during a violent death to put in their new house. But at the same time, I got why Helen was doing it.

I thought I figured out Olive’s story line reasonably early in the book. Yeah, word to the wise, don’t do that because it came back to bite me in the butt. I was thrown for a loop not once but twice. I will say that I thought Olive would have made a great detective. I am not going to say much more than that.

I liked that I got to see what Hattie, Jane, Ann, and Gloria went through before their deaths.Out of all of the story lines, I was surprised by Jane’s. I was surprised at what she revealed.

I thought that the characters in The Invited were well written and well rounded out. The author did a great job of giving them depth. Their stories pulled at my heart: Olive’s, the most. Even the characters I didn’t like were well written.

The Invited fit well with the thriller genre. There were times in the book where I didn’t know what was going to happen or who it was going to happen too.

I loved how the paranormal angle of the book was written. It wasn’t overpowering. There was just the right amount of ghosts in the book. Which is something I never thought I would say. Plus, Hattie never harmed anyone. She manifested only to Helen.

If I liked the book so much, why the 3.5-star rating. I didn’t like how Riley’s story line turned out. I don’t like it when a character does a sudden 180, which Riley did. It baffled me.

The ending bothered me. Why reveal what it revealed then? Why to the person it was shown to? I don’t get bothered by endings, but this one got to me. There were too many whys, what ifs and a wth on my end.

I would give The Invited an Adult rating. There is no sex. There is violence. There is language. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread The Invited. I would recommend this book to family and friends.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

I would like to thank the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review The Invited.

All opinions stated in this review of The Invited are mine.

Have you read The Invited?

What are your thoughts?

Do you believe in the paranormal?

Let me know!!

Jessica Nottingham

My thoughts about this book are jumbled mess. I've been holding off on writing a review because, truth me told, I just couldn't pinpoint what about this story it was that didn't resonate with me. This isn't a poor story, by any means. It has a gorgeously rendered setting, and characters that feel like real people. The Invited even has a mystery that was complex enough to keep me guessing for a good portion of the story. Still, this book and I didn't really ever mesh and that was a pity.

Although Helen and Nate were excellently rendered characters, I had a hard time falling for them. They drove me a little bit crazy with their incessant bickering and wild spending habits. Helen especially grated on my nerves at the beginning. I know it's probably just me, but I have a hard time with a character who constantly overreacts. She did grow on me as the book progressed and, in fact, as the mystery started to unwind I found myself drawn more and more to this couple. I definitely appreciated that they cared so much about their new home, and the nature that surrounded it. The fact that the home that they were building was also steeped in such terrible history had me rapt. 

As I mentioned above, the mystery was actually fairly well structured also. There were just enough clues peppered throughout to really keep me guessing as to what the ending would be. Unfortunately I did figure out the twist about halfway through and, after that, I was more just reading for the glimpse of any haunted happenings. I love stories that have rich atmosphere, especially when there are ghosts involved. In this case, all the atmosphere was there. The potential for a really excellent ghost story was just in sight. It just never panned out the way I hoped it would. This story meandered, and lacked the bite that I desperately wanted.


I suppose that the fact of the matter is that this story just wasn't for me. I love ghost stories. I love horror. The Invited doesn't really meet either of those marks, in my opinion. This is honestly more like a really well written mystery that happens to have a ghost as part of the plot. There's a lot to love here, and I know that there are plenty of readers out there who are going to adore this book. I'm unfortunately just not one of those people. For a lovely setting, well written characters, and the fact that I did indeed finish it, I'll happily give this three stars.

Kaylah Rodriguez &
The Invited by Jennifer McMahon

Reviews

Join the club

Kaylah Rodriguez &The Invited by Jennifer McMahon

Reviews

Join the club

Kaylah Rodriguez &
The Invited by Jennifer McMahon