Until Death

I absolutely love books about haunted houses. This one fit the bill. It seemed as though the house was alive and watching Hope. The author captured those feelings of terror that Hope felt when strange occurrences began happening in the house. I believe that if these situations began while I was staying in a house, I would probably get put. As more and more things began to happen, you could feel Hope losing her grip on reality. Meeting Reed was a good thing for Hope. The author touched on some very touchy subjects and was able to write these situations with great care. A must read book for people that like great combinations of subjects to read.

A haunted house thriller to make you gasp out loud.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for providing this title in exchange for an honest review!

"Until death" (2023) by London Clarke is a dual POV horror-thriller novel about grief, love, and houses with scars. Hope Hendriks, our main protagonist, is trying to start a new life and move on from the shadow of her husband’s death by suicide, along with everything it dredged up about their lives. The last thing she expects when she moves into a shabby rental is having to deal with people getting into her house… because that’s the only explanation she has for the things that start happening. Then her husband starts showing up in her sleep and, despite her anger at him, Hope looks forward to it every night. Until, with the help of her neighbour Reed, she begins to question if the presence in her house is really her husband, or something else.

I really enjoyed the plot of this one! It felt very cinematic and had twists I didn’t think were obvious from the start. Overall fast-paced; I just wanted to keep going to find out what was happening. It even had some jump scares!

I liked both Hope and Reed, but I could have done without the romantic subplot and fade-to-black scene. It feels jarring and inauthentic to me for a character to want to have sex right after something unsettling just happened to them. I also thought it was way too soon for Reed to think that he *loved* Hope at the point that he did. They hardly know each other! I wish the characters had formed a connection that hinted at more towards the end, but that’s all. We don’t need romance in every genre!

I also liked all the secondary characters, especially Deanna.

There was a subplot of intimate partner violence towards Reed, our male protagonist. I was wary of how that could go, but I thought was handled with sensitivity, providing representation for IPV towards men and the different ways that might look like in a compassionate way. I’m glad the author didn’t listen to their betas about how to handle Porscha!

On the other hand, it was said that characters “committed suicide” - this is still a common way of referring to it, so it’s only natural that characters would use it, but it’s important to keep in mind that it has negative connotations, as it implies the person committed a crime. It’s suggested to say that characters “died by suicide” instead, so it would have been nice to see at least one character use that phrasing.

Two small things that bothered me:
- The story was set in 2011, and I don’t know why. I don’t think it’d make any difference if it was set today.
- Some of the dialogue felt stilted, like the letter at the end.

Give it a read if you’re looking for a creepy haunted house story!

cws: suicide, self-harm, addiction, death, domestic violence

Until Death
A haunting tale of love, betrayal, and obsession
by London Clarke
WOW. This book was a wild ride. Spooky house, supernatural, romance, and mystery. I was in the mood and needed to get on with this. There is no stopping or pauses. I Loved it from front to back.

I really enjoyed this book! I love how realistic the characters are and how great the mystery is. I would highly reccomend this book! Special Thank You to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy prior to publication.

Hope is forced to move to a new town after her husband committed suicide leaving her broke and penniless. But her new house has a history and when strange things start happening, she starts to lose her grasp on reality. A new friendship with her neighbor Reed seems to help, but he's suffering troubles in his own home.
This whole book has an undertone of menace as the house took on a life of its own. This book is full of surprising twists and paranormal surprises with a little bit of mystery and romance... and of course the creepy mannequins lol!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a fast and enjoyable read. I loved the haunted house and the the atmosphere. A really good mystery/haunted story with a lot of twists and turns.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing this ARC ebook.

Its never too soon to start the season off with a tight haunted house mystery. This one will not disappoint. Enjoy the wild ride.

In this haunting tale of supernatural suspense, love will be tested, secrets will unravel, and the dead will speak.

Newly widowed, broke, and needing to restart her life, Hope moves from CA to TN into a small home that is haunted by evil spirits. Will she be able to survive?

This woman is living my worst nightmare. Her husband is dead and she is uncovering all of his lies and secrets. Now that he is gone she is forced to live in a creepy dilapidated house
There is everything here: Paranormal romance, the history of a creepy house, relatable troubles, and drama.
Absolutely read this one.

Hope Hendriks has moved to Tennessee as she has been a widow for six months. She has a cousin who has helped her to get a job. Hope is renting a run-down house in a lake community. She is still in mourning. She can’t believe that her husband killed himself. Trying to get back on her feet, she unpacks only her clothes. She screams when she sees a woman in the closet. She asks her neighbor Reed to check her house. He comes over and finds nothing. That night she hears a crash. When se goes to investigate, she finds a box of nails had fallen off and landed on the floor. She doesn’t understand how that could happen. Strange, impossible things happen in the house scaring her. The only thing that helps her is her neighbor that lives with his girlfriend in the house behind her house. As time passes, she is invited to dinner with Reed and his girlfriend to the neighbors who live across the street (in front of her house). Reed’s girlfriend has a temper that explodes at Hope and Reed. She charges out from dinner.Hope doesn’t know what to say or do. When she finds out that her dead husband was involved with his brother who gamble beyond his means and in debt “way over his head.” She doesn’t know why her dead husband never told her.

The story captivated me and I found it difficult to stop reading. In the novel, the author has written characters that are realistic even though some are flawed. Supernatural events drain and confuse Hope. There is a sense of evil around Hope and continual tragic events that occur in the past and present time.

3.75 stars

This was a great haunted house book, perfect for the spooky season. London Clarke was able to covey the dread and emotions quite well. And the creep factor was great.
This author is in my sights now, and I can’t wait to read more.

Hope Hendricks is a newly grieving widow struggling to find answers to her husband's sudden and unexpected death that has left her reeling in sorrow and anger. Hope keeps discovering things about her husband that prove he wasn't the man he had led her to believe he was while keeping many secrets and lies that have now left her homeless and in severe debt. She moves into a undesirable rental home that has been vacant for quite some time but it was very cheap so Hope couldn't pass it up since she needed a place to live very quickly or possibly end up living in her old beaten down car. All the details of this house are shrouded in mystery since the family who once lived there decades ago all died by mysterious means within several months of one another. Hope knows some of the house history but she doesn't believe it ghosts or the supernatural so isn't bothered by the thought of it being haunted as so many others seem to believe about the stories but which she will soon find out.

The first night Hope sees a woman in her bedroom closet but she disappears almost immediately and she keeps hearing noises and footsteps throughout the house. She runs to her neighbor (Reed) who checks out the house and of course no-one is inside, yet Hope is still quite shaken. Each day that passes bring more spooky and eerie disturbances where Reed is called to search the house over and over and Hope is beginning to think she's beginning to lose her mind. She also has nightly dreams in which her husband is coming to visit and be with her in these dreams that feel wonderful even though she's frightened by other things that go bump in the night.

Soon the dreams take a dark turn when the following mornings Hope will find words carved into her body that she can't remember happening in her sleep and doesn't understand why her gentle husband would hurt her that way although the messages he is sending her in her dreams seem to want her to join him in the afterlife so they can be together for eternity. Nothing about the bizarre occurrences make any sense to Hope so she starts investigating on her own about the lives of the family who once lived in the house and wishes she never heard of this house of horrors. Hope must get out of the house and with Reed's help they make a plan that backfires almost immediately and Hope knows now the house won't let her leave and tonight she will become another unwilling victim of so many untold horrors that have been secreted within it's walls.


This is truly a very spooky and entertaining haunted house story. The eerie atmosphere if the house is perfect for the chills and thrills that start almost immediately which I loved. So many haunted house stories make you wait a long time before any action begins to play out but not this book! Every chapter is filled with scares and creepiness jumping out unexpectedly (so much fun) where I couldn't turn the pages quickly enough. The combination of Hope's obsession over her deceased husband visiting her at night and the ugliness of the history of the family who once lived in the house made the hauntings easy to imagine happening. This book was so enjoyable with a contemporary spooky setting instead of the dark gothic styles that I'm so used to reading. I quickly became a fan of this author (London Clarke) after reading her last book "The Neighbor" which I highly, highly recommend to all horror readers so I had big expectations for this book which it certainly didn't disappoint. I can't wait to see what this terrific horror writer comes out with next since I will be impatiently waiting at the front of the line.

I want to thank the publisher "Booksgosocial" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital edition and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given this terrifying book a rating of 4 FURIOUSLY FRIGHTENING 🌟🌟🌟🌟 STARS!!

Very enjoyable book. A multi layered story with a real heart that will keep you reading until the very end.

A haunted house story with a touch of romance and a whole lot of creepy!

I really enjoyed this one. If you’re looking for a spooky scary read that’s also romantic and a bit cozy, then look no further, this will be right up your alley. A great Halloween read if you’re in the season!

Okay. I like nightlights. I jump at strange noises. So why do I read horror novels? Because I would miss truly great books like Until Death. Wow! Just a truly amazing read filled all the elements of creepy horror novel. This was so good. Admittedly, a book has to be terrible for me to say it wasn't good, but seriously. Husband commits suicide. You move into a run-down rental and strange occurrences begin. It could be her imagination, but she asks her neighbor to check things out just to make sure. This is the beginning of the quest to uncover what is going on who or what might be behind it. This is a great read. Loved every detail. First book by this author, but will definitely look for more. You won't be disappointed by Until Death.

Thanks to NetGalley and Carfax Abbey Publishing for an e-arc in exchange for an unbiased review.

Wow! I finally was able to read this book and glad that I did. Goosebumps! This is a story about a woman who loses her husband and is trying to find answers surrounding his death. Hoping to rebuild her life she moves to another state into a (haunted?) house that has seen better days! What she finds will give you goosebumps! If you like paranormal, mystery, spooky…. You’ll love this.

In the Until Death book, you accompany Hope, young widow who lost her soulmate. She not only loses the husband, but everything what she created and had with him. The debts where that high that she has been left with nothing. Was this all only a lie she believed in? She doesn't have any family, their friends turned back to her, she has been left alone. In this situation there is nothing else left like opening a new chapter somewhere else. London Clarke shows how deep the wife’s grief could be, where the sadness in undescribed, where loneliness is so hard to bear and how hard it is start from the scratches.
Until Death is not a usual drama story - you will discover how dangerous the haunted house could be. Where the ghost can interfere so easily in the human life, where is hard to judge if the marks left on Hope's skin are the self-harm injuries or what is harder to believe to be the marks left by her late husband. You get a feeling it is the horrible trap, and you cannot run out of it. The new friendship with the neighbour could save her, but is it the right direction?
It is not an easy haunted story, you will get much more from London Clarke - description of the emotions which accompany Hope through the grief process, all the questions she will have, the answers she finally found. These all mixed with the ghost story is brilliant. Additionally, the plot with the mannequins was so scarry - Clarke made them so creepy, so real, I was really afraid of them and their next moves. This all keeps me captivated till the last moment. I like the ending, which is what we secretly looking for.
Another great book, highly recommended to all fans of paranormal stories.
Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for ARC copy of this book for providing the honest review.