Review of “The Dead House” by Dawn Kurtagich. February 2, 2016
From the book cover, to the description, to my peek inside to see in the middle of the book to see if the writing was worth reading, (yes that’s a terrible habit I have. Especially when I get back to said peeked at place and say “Well I’ll just skip this because I read it 6 months ago in the bookstore when I bought it because I didn’t have Indie books to review,” and then realize, was this the one that had the snuffalupagus in roller skates or the mad hatter serving everyone arsenic??? Maybe I should stop that. Yet, as always, I digress.) I will say I have been beyond excited to read this book and it absolutely did not disappoint me!
This book is a delightfully creepy novel that is told in the fashion of diary entries, post it notes, psychiatric records, and police investigation notes from the view point of “Kaitlyn,” or is it “Carly” whose haunted voice I still hear ringing in my head a few days after being finished. In the telling of the story the character “Carly is who gets the daytime. The warmth and comfort of the sun and what we all proceive as the “normal” part of the day, while Kaitlyn gets the night with all its back alleys and shady people. The part of our society and our own lives that we awe afraid of. The night is the boogie man’s time, the night is for Satan and evil, the night is where we all walk just a little faster, while looking behind us for “what was that noise?” The night is for Kaitlyn. The author, Dawn Kurtagich,” pulled an amazing plot twist which I never saw coming and that’s very unusual for me.
There is the background of an accident, and accident that claims the lives of her parents, but leaves Kaitlyn and her little sister Jaime alive, but broken. The story is set in a school meant for recovering, troubled kids that are just coming out of institutions before going home. I just can’t give away spoilers as I HATE when I have that happen, so what I will say is there is murder and mayhem, people disappearing, the body count is almost as high as the characters we are introduced to, and there is love and psychosis. Those are always a GREAT combination as well as black magic and the peril of many souls are at stake.
The uniqueness of this book is that once you start it you are reading newspaper articles, then journal entries. The pages appear burned and as if something horrible has happened. The more you turn those fabulous pages the deeper you delve into the world of Kaitlyn, and her world of madness. This alone causes people to shudder. Are we all afraid that madness might be catching?
This book for me was creepy, compelling and I definitely felt compulsed to continue reading the book. (So I will admit being up almost 48 hours because I didn’t want to put it down!) What a dark and twisted story telling world lives within the author, Dawn Kurtagich, and I am in love with it! I hope to find more wonderful books by this author! So without ado….
“The Dead House” by Dawn Kurtagich was such a fantastic read that I will break my own rule on reviews and give it 5 parachutes out of 5 parachutes from this humble book reviewer. (And Dawn, should you ever read one of my reviews, especially this one, I would love to swap stories with you. This humble emergency nurse and tender to broken souls and those in need of rescue felt amazing that you tackled mot only psychosis and our growing mental health population, you did it with class and in a horror story. In my book you are one amazing author! I wish you best journeys in your career! ~~ J, the Emergency RN.)
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