Harmony House

Gr 8 Up—After Jen Noonan and her father, Anselm, are emotionally destroyed by the death of Jen's mother, her father relocates them to a dark, abandoned mansion called Harmony House. Formerly a home for unwed mothers run by the Catholic church, Harmony House, with its sinister presence, drives Jen's father deeper into religious fanaticism and causes Jen to have terrifying nightmares and visions. The book begins with a prologue, set at Harmony House in 1867, describing the unexplained pregnancy of a teenager named Cornelia (the unborn child was possibly fathered by the devil) and her subsequent dramatic suicide. Disappointingly, Cornelia is absent from the remaining narrative, though Jen (in the present) has a terrifying vision of Cornelia, and a new friend is haunted by the vision as well. Creepy cadence and Jen's increasing paranoia propel the narrative forward, along with strange plot points like an earthquake and another unexplained pregnancy. Very strong language and adult themes of sex and religion keep the story entertaining and creepy but can sometimes feel gratuitous. An underwhelming and decidedly weak resolution feels less like a sigh of relief and more like a sigh of disappointment. Horror buffs will recognize the various nods to classic films, such as The Exorcist, The Shining, Rosemary's Baby, The Haunting, and Psycho, but may feel left in the dark by the overstuffed tale and some of the dead-end plot points.