The Agony House by Cherie Priest (review)

Denise and her mother were driven out of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, and now they return from Houston, after years of barely making do without the man they lost in the flood. Mom has just remarried, and the new family trio is up to their collective necks in loans to restore an abandoned house and convert it into a bed and breakfast. There are two feuding resident ghosts with other plans, though, and just as soon as a plumber or electrician makes forward progress, another part of the house falls dramatically apart, threatening the lives of the new occupants. This is as classic a haunted house story as they come, but Priest judiciously selects from the standard list of tropes to fashion it into a tale that stands on its own merits. A mysterious death in the house decades ago? Check: Joe Vaughn, Golden Age comic-book creator, is not resting in peace. Ghost hunting friend? Check. Clues culled from old letters and articles in a university archive? Check. A wholesome, up-standing love interest? Check. But … Nobody-will-believe-me tension? No. Everybody hears these ghosts, and it doesn't help. Stepfamily drama? No. They all pull together, and that doesn't help either. Wise Black community elders spouting warning and insight? No. The neighbors know the place is haunted and mainly want gossip and a tour. O'Connor contributes sections of the fictional Vaughn's unpublished pre-Code comic (discovered in the attic, of course) that parallel the contemporary horrors occurring in the house in the text. This is no visual gimmick, but an effective narrative device that helps reveal how the self-censorship of the comic industry brought two individuals into lethal conflict. Teens who read Pam Smy's similarly formatted Thornhill (BCCB 07/17) with shivery pleasure will be equally pleased with this haunting. EB