I was a little disappointed by this book as I don’t like reading anything supernatural. I would have enjoyed it a lot better if it wasn’t for that reason. The characters were enjoyable, the story would have been great and the style of writing was perfect. I would recommend it to anyone who likes reading this genre.
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a honest review.

Something a bit different about this book and I wanted to know more

Loved getting to know the characters and their back stories.

Really felt for Blue and wanted her to find that missing something

This book was a great thriller, full of twists and turns. I really enjoyed the plot and couldn’t wait to find out what happened.

"The Grief House" by Rebecca Thorne is not your usual run-of-the-mill thriller as it has a supernatural element to it. Ex-tarot reader Blue goes to a grief retreat to get over her mother's death. Her abilities to see the dead and other things help and hinder her stay. All the residents are trapped in the house during a severe storm, who will make it out alive? What secrets will Blue uncover?

So good!
Thrillers with some horror twists, especially on the paranormal spectrum are quite tricky to create. There´s a danger that it will turn out to be silly, if not stupid. Especially movies. So to write something with a solid story, great characters, dense atmosphere that would keep the reader engaged all the time is a hell of a task! Well, Ms. Rebecca well done!
In this book, there is nothing, nothing! that I don't like. It´s almost perfect! The storyline is developing smoothly and well-timed. Yes, it's a bit predictable, but somehow I don´t mind. The main character Blue is interesting and likeable. The ending is open to interpretation, which is great because it brings new questions about the characters and the plot.
What I enjoy the most in this book is the language. I don´t think I ever read a thriller/horror-ish so beautifully written. All the smells, colors, and emotions are painted by a literary Van Gogh. The author masterfully creates every scene, and every moment using truly wonderful sentences. Nature here plays a key role in building the atmosphere and this is the very rare case when the author is capable of creating all of the above within one, maybe two short sentences.
I´m impressed and cannot wait for the next novel by Rebecca Thorne.

After having a bit of a reader's lull, I was looking for that next book that would capture my attention and boy this book certainly did!!

The book centres around Blue who has a special gift and how she is deemed to not be 'normal' throughout her life.

Blue also has a very unconventional relationship with her mother and when she tragically dies, Blue struggles to come to tems with her loss, so books herself into a retreat to address her grief. However things are not as they seem and Blue learns to accept her gift and believe in herself.

This book is a great page turner, full of mystery and suspense and the supernatural. A brilliant read!

Opening a ghost story set in a remote house with a quote from Shirley Jackson means you have a lot to live up to. Fortunately, The Grief House doesn't disappoint.

Blue is lonely and despairing when she books on a retreat aimed at dealing with grief. It’s her attempt to move on from her mother's death three years earlier.

Blue has led and unconventional life. From a young age she demonstrated psychic powers which were exploited by her mother and step-father to make their living. As an adult, Blue attempts to suppress these powers, but on the retreat everyone has their own secrets, and Blue can’t help but see them.

The Grief House uses the framework of a mystery and a ghost story to study loneliness and longing.

Strongly recommended.

Once you get over the fact that there are a lot of characters this book is great. Very spooky and very much a book you shouldn’t read before bed! I absolutely loved it. Not my usual genre but so good!

Incredibly atmospheric and full of the supernatural, this is an absolutely fantastic read.
The overarching theme is the very human feeling of grief and people struggling with this are on a retreat to a restoring and therapeutic get away house.
It turns out that the owners running the retreat have as many issues and as complex past lives as those using their services, perhaps more so.
I loved the connections with mediumship and the occult and the theme of one of the characters being gifted, the story also is a fabulously eerie and suspenseful ghost story as a standalone yet offers so much more.
The drama is intense and builds steadily band stealthily, connecting several threads of a story interweaving as perfectly as the connections and friendships developing between the characters. Pretty stunning really and entirely compelling. Recommend.

Thank you so much to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ), Raven Books for this ARC.

I didn't read too much into the plot of this book before being given access and I'm really glad I didn't. The book wasn't quite what I expected, as I didn't realise there was a supernatural element.

Blue was a fantastic main character. Seeing the story through her eyes, as she grew from a small child, allowed me to see things quite innocently, their true nature coming to light later on in the book.

I thought Blue's character was a fantastic insight into how we can idolise our parents, even though sometimes they might be awful people. I found myself incredibly angry and frustrated with Blue's mother from the beginning, an achievement for the author.

Other characters in the book were also brilliantly-crafted. Molly, in particular, fascinated me all the way through. Such a strange psychology!

I would recommend and plan to buy this book for others who like mystery and thrillers. It was a fantastic read and I can't wait to read other books by Rebecca Thorne.

I found this to be the perfect mix of thriller and horror as it mixes the mystery element with clairvoyance. The plot of this was good, I enjoyed the split timeline but it could be difficult to follow as there are a lot of characters involved.
Overall I think this is a good thriller book that has a somewhat happy ending but leaves it open to interpretation as to what happens to the rest of the characters.

The novel to me has similarities to The Ghost Whisperer TV series. So if you enjoyed that show in the early 00s then I'd recommend reading The Grief House.

Blue (short for Bluebell) books a stay at a country house for a ‘grief’ retreat. Molly and Joshua gather a group together for mutual support and distracting activities like yoga, art, meditation. The weather changes dramatically and they become stranded. We have Blue’s back story- she is clairvoyant. She had been exploited by her mother to perform while growing up, her mother is now dead. Strange things start to happen (no spoilers!) I wasn’t completely convinced by some of the characters, kept having to remind myself who was who. (The story jumps back and forth in time and characters are fleshed out.) A thriller not a horror story.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a prepublication ebook.

I loved this book.

I have been waiting for a book that is the right mix of thriller and horror for my taste and I found it in The Grief House.

The main character Blue was relatable and I found myself on her side and wishing the best for her. Blue has a gift, a psychic gift and has known since early childhood that she was different. Her story is one of neglect, fear and a complicated relationship with her Mother.

All the characters were so well done and I was really gripped by their stories and found myself getting attached to so many of them, which is rare for me in a multiple pov story. I couldn’t put this book down.

The horror side of the book was a good old fashioned ghost story and it kept me the right amount of creeped out to want to keep reading. A few times I gasped out loud while reading the creepier pages of the book.

I highly recommend this if you like anything supernatural. Will be following this author to see what’s to come next.

This genre of book is not one I would normally read. I am glad that I did though! The main character was fascinating and had so many issues to deal with on every level imaginable. Not that the other characters got it easy!

The plot was complex and jumping back in time helped the reader appreciate how the current circumstances came about. I just loved the ending - a nice thought that goodness can persevere.

4.5 Stars! No spoilers!
Triggers - grief, death, child loss, neglect

This is the first ARC i have ever read and reviewed and I'm glad I ended up with such an amazing one to start with.

This book was just the thing I have been looking for. The perfect mix of thriller, a little horror and the supernatural. The story was absolutely incredible, starting off as a story of heartbreak and people coming to terms with their losses, however there is an undercurrent of eeriness, a feeling that things are not quite right and just when you think you've figured it out, there is another twist that kept me hooked throughout.

I'll be honest the first few chapters were a bit of a struggle and I was a little confused of the time line and who's 3rd person point of view some of the scenes were coming from. Some of the writing was a little janky and there are a few, what I assume to be, typos and grammar errors, the persons name being overused when it didn't need to be rough example "Blue was thinking X, Y and Z and thought X & Y in Blues mind" (her mind would have been better here) or "Bridget was wondering what would happen, who would look after Bridget" (again just a her would have done, we know it's Bridget we are talking about right now" - these are just very little things that stood out to me with the writing HOWEVER these things did not take away how spectacular this story was and at around 35-40% of the way through the story had me in a choke-hold. It almost feels like the author really started to get going with the story with the writing really improving from this point on , that or I was so invested in the story I got used to the little irks I initially had. For me It would have been a 5 star without these issues within the writing itself which was not BAD just a few little tweaks needed I feel.

The description of characters and the different scenes and areas helped me really immerse myself in the story, I could picture it perfectly in my minds eye and at times I almost forgot I was reading. Each characters personality really shone through and were done extremely well and their visual descriptions too, I can still picture them how I envisioned them now, how they look, their mannerisms and quirks. I did not put this down all day, reading 90% yesterday and finishing it this morning.

Throughout there was an eeriness that kept me on edge, wanting to frantically turn the pages to see what happens next, you start to get an inkling of what is going on and as the story starts to piece together it makes it all the more exciting and gripping. So many things I really didn't see coming and a few that gave me the thrill of figuring out for myself as it all starts to become clearer.
The way the story started to piece together, giving you those "Ahhhhh!" moments that I've always loved remind me a lot of the works of Kazuo Ishiguro. I was also reminded a lot of Stephen King and his incredible thrillers/horror.

Overall this book was not what I was expecting and I mean that in a good way. It was everything I could have wanted in a story. The twists, the thrills, the adrenaline, the emotions, at one point I shed tears. I hope to read more by this author especially if she continues to create stories that grip like this!

Excellent story. Lots of action and twists and turns. Well worth reading.
Scary in that people trying to help may not be all they seem.....


Looking forward to more from Rebecca Thorne
Many thanks to the author and publisher for the ARC and opportunity to enjoy this wonderful book

I found this difficult to get into. Mainly as I found Blue hard to relate to. The precise is good, the story well written and plotted and the characters interesting. Brooding and dark, this so called grief retreat will give plenty of distractions from personal misery and create trauma and strife of all sorts as an alternative. The twisty, turny plot, which is a supernatural thriller with darkness lurking begins with a vanishing guest and menacing weather. The tension builds and the situation at the retreat takes a sinister turn. Fascinating, thrilling and very much unexpected!

Hard to give this a star rating as I only made it to 37% after which I gave up. I just couldn't come to terms with the characters and was downright confused from chapter to chapter. One time there are the main characters in the retreat house with Blue, a young woman trying to deal with family bereavement but also having some sort of spiritual 'otherness'; the next is Blue as a child with mother and siblings and a lot of tarot readings; the next James and so on. Nothing made sense. Can Blue escape with her life and her sanity? Sadly I neither found out nor cared. The writing itself was fine, just the story not for me. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

The Grief House by Rebecca Thorne is a thrilling read that has mixed genres of horror, thriller and supernatural.

It starts off with Blue who has come to the grief house to mourn and to heal the loss of her mother. She was a tarot card reader and can see the supernatural, those who have been murdered. I went into this book thinking it’d be a certain way but it surprised me and blew me away. The storyline, the characters, setting and overall read of this book was amazingly done.

You get sinister feels vibes, the horror and thrill aspects keep you entertained and wanting to read onwards. The beginning of the grief house though starts off with more thriller vibes but as the book goes along that is when the true horror kicks off.

The plot is original and well written that will have readers wanting more. I was engrossed throughout the whole reading process and really enjoyed it. Would recommend to fellow book readers who enjoy a thriller/horror book, the grief house checks off all these genres and will not disappoint.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for the copy of this arc in exchange of an honest review.

This seems to cover several genres, mystery, horror, supernatural searching for what?

Excellent storyline, I thought I knew where it was going, but sadly mistaken. Descriptions of the places and surroundings were excellent, really felt at times as if you were there with them.

Unusual plot riveting. Read this whilst in hospital and was so engrossed forgot to take my medication.

New author for me to follow Thank you for letting me read this book.