📖 What Happened at Hawthorne House by Hadassah Shiradski

Unfortunately, this one wasn’t for me. While the premise sounded intriguing—a childhood game spiraling into a dangerous power struggle—the execution left me wanting more.

I struggled to connect with the characters, and the pacing felt off. The dark themes had potential but didn’t quite deliver the depth or tension I was hoping for.

If you’ve read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts—did it work better for you?

✨ #BookReview #WhatHappenedAtHawthorneHouse #NotEveryBookIsForEveryone #HonestReview #Bookstagram

Thank you to the author and Brigids Gate Press for allowing me to access a copy of this via Netgalley!

Summary: this book is a short, spooky novel about a group of orphans who are involved in a tragic accident in the orphanage.

What I liked:
- this book really explored the development of children without parental figures who are around toxic & abusive adults
- it’s a great paced novel that is short and very easy to read
- this is a book that you cannot stop thinking about after reading it
- the atmosphere is creepy

What was missing:
- I would have loved to have had more background to the characters. We get some information about their history but it’s brief

Rating: 4/5 stars (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

This was by far one of my favorite arcs to receive. It’s very rare to find a gothic novella that is as captivating as it is spooky. The author does a terrific job of creating a spine tingling atmosphere throught the entire book. This will be one for the reread pile for sure!

Loved this! Very spooky, and time shift midway was fun and welcome. I do wish the unreliable narrator element with Rosalyn was more fully explored- the set up with the first half being through her perspective and the second zooming out gave the opportunity for more reveals or at least more hints towards an alternate account, which would have been richer and more interesting imo.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hadassah Shiradski for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for What Happened at Hawthorne House. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. It was shorter than I thought it would be, but I thought this was a really interesting novella. I love gothic historical fiction. I thought the characters were good and well-rounded given how short the story was. I definitely wanted more. I would definitely read more books by this author.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys gothic stories!

Set in a girls orphanage where a game goes disastrously wrong, this creepy ghost story is a really good read.

I loved the plot and how the story unfolded, and as it is a shortish read it was perfect to read late at night.

recommended read..

"What Happened at Hawthorne House" is an eerie, short ghost story about what happened to the girls at the Hawthorne House orphanage. We are thrown right into the story, and it took me a few pages to understand where we were and what was happening.

The story features an interesting cast of characters who felt very believable. It was fascinating to understand the dynamics between the girls at the orphanage and see how their play evolved into a power struggle.
The first part was a bit difficult to follow, and I had to concentrate to catch all the details. The second part was easy to read and captivating. This was a good ghost story that can easily be read in one evening.

Thank you Netgalley for this eARC. The descriptions and atmosphere that the author created was great, however I was confused in the first part with who was princesses and queen but I guess that made sense as the novella went on. Wish it would have been longer with some more explanations about things that happened.

Well this was so unnerving, creepy and just completely hostile.

This is a short story that really proves children can go too far and that games can start out innocent, but the stakes can take a dark turn. I felt so creeped out and just felt sorry for each of the girls at different points because the suffering was real.

Rating 2.75 rounded to 3.0, it had atmosphere.

The book is about a game where the girls pretend to be royals, where to be queen you have to trick the other players and get them in trouble, until something happens as Rosalyn tries to take the throne.

I would have liked for the ending to have been more creepy. I also want to know more about the game, particularly at the end and an explanation as to why the girls behave like that towards each other.

I enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to readers who like horror and are not affected by violence.

If you are going to read this book be prepared to not be able to stop reading until you finish it. As you accompany the orphans in their daily lives you will see how the queen and the hierarchy change. Before reading this book, readers should read the content warnings.