Name: Kristen Claiborn's review of Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett
Item: Beneath the Stairs
Rating: 3
Author: Kristen Claiborn

Jennifer Fawcett

“An enthralling debut by a gifted storyteller!” —Wendy Walker, author of Don’t Look for Me In this spine-tingling, atmospheric debut for fans of Jennifer McMahon, Simone St. James, and Chris Bohjalian, a woman returns to her hometown after her childhood friend attempts suicide at a local haunted house—the same place where a traumatic incident shattered their lives twenty years ago. Few in sleepy Sumner’s Mills have stumbled across the Octagon House hidden deep in the woods. Even fewer are brave enough to trespass. A man had killed his wife and two young daughters there, a shocking, gruesome crime that the sleepy upstate New York town tried to bury. One summer night, an emboldened fourteen-year-old Clare and her best friend, Abby, ventured into the Octagon House. Clare came out, but a piece of Abby never did. Twenty years later, an adult Clare receives word that Abby has attempted suicide at the Octagon House and now lies in a coma. With little to lose and still grieving after a personal tragedy, Clare returns to her roots to uncover the darkness responsible for Abby’s accident. An eerie page-turner, Beneath the Stairs is about the trauma that follows us from childhood to adulthood and returning to the beginning to reach the end.

A Novel

Beneath the Stairs

Sunyi Dean

         Every year I arrogantly decide I’m going to complete more than one reading challenge.  I attempt the Popsugar Reading Challenge every year since it’s inception, and a few years ago I picked up a couple more, like the 52 Book Club reading challenge, and the Read Harder challenge.  I added a couple more this year, so I’m up to six reading challenges for 2024.  I don’t preplan the books, I read a book and hope it fits into one or more of the challenges.  Full disclosure:  I’ve never covered every prompt in any of the reading challenges.  I’m a reading challenge failure.  Yet here I am, doing it again.  This time I have actively sought out books to complete prompts, which is where this book comes in. 

            The Popsugar reading challenge includes a prompt that says: a book written during NaNoWriMo.  It’s been on their challenge for years, and the first time I ran across it I had no idea what NaNoWriMo was, so I sped on over to Google University and discovered that NaNoWriMo means Nation Novel Writing Month.  Every November, millions of people plant themselves in front of their computers, or notebooks, or whatever they prefer to write with and on, to draft a novel.  According to the website, you don’t even have to have an idea for a novel to get started (though that might make writing a novel difficult).  This is a NaNoWriMo book from 2022 and since I love horror, I decided to use this one for that prompt this year (last year I used a SciFi…it was bizarre and I didn’t love it). 

            As a book that is billed as horror, it’s pretty tame.  It’s essentially a haunted house story with a serial killer and some mental illness sprinkled in.  It has the elements necessary to be called a horror, but it just falls short of being satisfying.  Clare’s best friend, Abby, is haunted by an experience they had in the house when they were kids, and Clare decided that she was going to solve the mystery of the haunting and end it once and for all.  The back and forth timeline adds to the suspense of the story, but the whole thing is as watered down as a mixed drink at a college bar.  While Abby appears to be the victim of a vengeful ghost, the reality is both more and less sinister (mental illness is brutal).  Truths are revealed and none of them are particularly shocking, and none of the characters are all that dynamic.  It’s just a middle of the road kind of book. 

            Now that I’ve judged this book mercilessly, I do want to acknowledge and appreciate those who do finish a novel.  I would say I’ve aspired to be a writer since I was a little girl, but the reality is I’ve been a writer for years.  I’ve been writing reviews of this, that, or the other thing for over a decade.  I primarily write book reviews, and I even get paid for some of them, so technically, I am a writer.  However, I’ve never written a novel (I do have an interesting collection of short stories though), despite having had an itch to do so since 2019…I even have a great idea!  I just don’t know where to start.  Those who are capable of completing a novel are my heroes, because not only have you done something amazing, you’ve also provided me with my greatest passion, and I will be eternally appreciative.  Thank you. 

Kristen Claiborn

         Every year I arrogantly decide I’m going to complete more than one reading challenge.  I attempt the Popsugar Reading Challenge every year since it’s inception, and a few years ago I picked up a couple more, like the 52 Book Club reading challenge, and the Read Harder challenge.  I added a couple more this year, so I’m up to six reading challenges for 2024.  I don’t preplan the books, I read a book and hope it fits into one or more of the challenges.  Full disclosure:  I’ve never covered every prompt in any of the reading challenges.  I’m a reading challenge failure.  Yet here I am, doing it again.  This time I have actively sought out books to complete prompts, which is where this book comes in. 

            The Popsugar reading challenge includes a prompt that says: a book written during NaNoWriMo.  It’s been on their challenge for years, and the first time I ran across it I had no idea what NaNoWriMo was, so I sped on over to Google University and discovered that NaNoWriMo means Nation Novel Writing Month.  Every November, millions of people plant themselves in front of their computers, or notebooks, or whatever they prefer to write with and on, to draft a novel.  According to the website, you don’t even have to have an idea for a novel to get started (though that might make writing a novel difficult).  This is a NaNoWriMo book from 2022 and since I love horror, I decided to use this one for that prompt this year (last year I used a SciFi…it was bizarre and I didn’t love it). 

            As a book that is billed as horror, it’s pretty tame.  It’s essentially a haunted house story with a serial killer and some mental illness sprinkled in.  It has the elements necessary to be called a horror, but it just falls short of being satisfying.  Clare’s best friend, Abby, is haunted by an experience they had in the house when they were kids, and Clare decided that she was going to solve the mystery of the haunting and end it once and for all.  The back and forth timeline adds to the suspense of the story, but the whole thing is as watered down as a mixed drink at a college bar.  While Abby appears to be the victim of a vengeful ghost, the reality is both more and less sinister (mental illness is brutal).  Truths are revealed and none of them are particularly shocking, and none of the characters are all that dynamic.  It’s just a middle of the road kind of book. 

            Now that I’ve judged this book mercilessly, I do want to acknowledge and appreciate those who do finish a novel.  I would say I’ve aspired to be a writer since I was a little girl, but the reality is I’ve been a writer for years.  I’ve been writing reviews of this, that, or the other thing for over a decade.  I primarily write book reviews, and I even get paid for some of them, so technically, I am a writer.  However, I’ve never written a novel (I do have an interesting collection of short stories though), despite having had an itch to do so since 2019…I even have a great idea!  I just don’t know where to start.  Those who are capable of completing a novel are my heroes, because not only have you done something amazing, you’ve also provided me with my greatest passion, and I will be eternally appreciative.  Thank you. 

Denaiir

ok maybe it's my bad for picking up a supernatural thriller, which I don't like, but I didn't think it was one. It was messy, confusing and I didn't really understand what was going on in the end. Was it actually supernatural? Was it a fever dream? The main character made bad choice, and the romance aspect was not needed. The characters were not great overall and it felt like nothing happened, it was quite boring and confusing.

haley kendall owen

A great debut for Jennifer Fawcett!! 

My favorite thing about this book was the complexity. It wasn’t just a horror story or a haunted house fiction, it had a lot of character development, depth, and ways that the characters relate to each other that I thought were very unique.

The climax was a little disappointing, as things were wrapped up pretty quickly and left some key details out that would’ve been helpful to fully understand the story. I don’t want to share them, because that would give some spoilers.

Overall, I thought this was a wonderful book. I just had to read it during the day and not at night, or else I had trouble sleeping. 😬

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the advanced reader copy!

Leah | @LeahsLittlePleasures

"I see a woman who went back into the darkness and emerged alive."

I really enjoyed this! Beneath The Stairs is a spooky, layered mystery with a touch of haunting reminiscent of Hill House and Bly Manor. It's set in a small northern town and the story is told through a unique multiple timeline progression in several POVs where we get glimpses into past events surrounding the mysteriousness of the chilling Octagon House.

Clare returns to her hometown after her childhood best friend, Abby, tries to take her life at a local haunted house—the same place where a traumatic incident shattered their lives twenty years ago.

With a rich back story, curses, ghosts, secrets uncovered, and a smidge of spicey and second chance romance, I couldn't put it down. I had to figure out the mystery of the ominous and oh-so-creepy Octagon House!

READ THIS IF YOU LIKE:
— ghost stories and mysteries
— people haunted x spooky manors
— back stories x multiple timelines
— second chance romance
— childhood friends and bonds
— now and then chronicle
— small towns with secrets
— supernatural thrillers

"I've learned well how wrong it is to try to cover up frightening things."

SPOOK FACTOR: whatever you do, if you can resist the pull, the urge, the force of will, don't go near the basement...

CW: haunting, ghosts, death, cancer, miscarriage, domestic abuse, serial killer, suicide, mental illness

Thank you to the publisher for my advanced copy!

Sunyi Dean &
Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett

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Sunyi Dean &Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett

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Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett