Book Review: The Haunting of Leigh Harker by Darcy Coates

 

Goodreads Summary: Sometimes, the dead reach back...
Leigh Harker’s quiet suburban home was her sanctuary for more than a decade until things abruptly changed. Curtains open by themselves. Radios turn off and on. And a dark figure looms in the shadows of her bedroom door at night, watching her, waiting for her to finally let down her guard enough to fall asleep.

Pushed to her limits but unwilling to abandon her home, Leigh struggles to find answers. But each step forces her towards something more terrifying than she ever imagined.

A poisonous shadow seeps from the locked door beneath the stairs. The handle rattles through the night, and fingernails scratch at the wood. Her home harbors dangerous secrets, and now that Leigh is trapped within its walls, she fears she may never escape.

Do you think you’re safe?

You’re wrong.

Goodreads Rating: 4.06 stars with about 200 ratings

Genre Listing: Horror, Fantasy, Paranormal, Adult, Mystery, Fiction, Ghosts, Thriller, Gothic, Supernatural

Goodreads Challenge: 35/50 

2021 Reading Challenge: #41 Read a book where the main character is elderly (find the complete challenge here)

Book Review:

Hello readers! I hope everyone is doing well. I'm off for the next few days while we deal with our move. Yay! I'm super ready both to be done packing and to be in the new house. I'm also super excited to not have to work for two days.

I've wanted to read more horror for a while, and I recently discovered Darcy Coates on Kindle Unlimited. The Haunting of Leigh Harker seemed pretty interesting, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I managed to pry it out of my hands the first night, and then the following night, I was up until 4 am reading it because "I've only got eighty more pages left." Man, that was stupid. I was so tired the next day! It was definitely worth the read, though. 

I really liked how this book started out creepy. There wasn't a slow build to gain suspense. From the first page, I was curious as to what was happening to Leigh, who she was, and why she was in the situation, she was in. Given that I stayed up until 4am reading it, I think it's safe to say that I never lost interest either. 

I cheated a little bit on where I put this on the challenge. Leigh is very much the main character, and she's not elderly. However, an elderly woman in the story is very much a pivotal character in the book. This story very much couldn't happen without her, and thus this book landed on #41. Plus, I didn't want to burn one of my last two free spaces. 

I really enjoyed the story, and I liked figuring out with Leigh what was going on and more about her. If you need all of the character's backstory upfront, this is not a book for you. Most of Leigh's story isn't fully explained until the end of the book. It is, however, under 300 pages, so it's not that long of a wait. I'm actually really impressed that this story was able to be told in so few pages. 

I felt like a lot of the ending was pretty predictable, but I still felt engaged with the story. If it had been anything else, it just wouldn't have made sense with how the book played out. There were some surprises mixed in, but the overall went how I expected. Sorry for being so vague. I'm trying really hard not to spoil everything. Many of the themes within this book were reminiscent of a very famous thriller movie from the late 90s.  I still think it's worth the read and would recommend it to someone who likes Horror and wants to be a little creeped out but not outright terrified. It's also good if you don't want to dedicate a lot of time to a book but still get a good story.