TITLE: Do Not Go in That House
AUTHOR: Ruth Anna Evans
GENRE: Horror
AGE RANGE: Adult
PAGES: 83pg
PUBLISHER: Gloom House Publishing
When a true-crime podcaster uncovers the cold case of a child murder, she thinks she’s found her next big story. But the gruesome tale triggers a bipolar episode, and Maggie just can’t stay away from the house where the heinous crime took place. A few bad decisions later, Maggie finds herself trapped at the scene of the crime, hallucinating the murdered child’s ghost. It may not just be her mania keeping her there, though. It may be something truly evil.
This was another fantastic story from Ruth Anna Evans that reminded me of how well she can keep me entertained and wreck me emotionally.
Do Not Go in That House follows a podcaster named Maggie who desperately wants to go viral and thinks she might have found her ticket when she has the opportunity to dive into a cold case about a terrible, brutal child death from a decade earlier.
The premise is worrisome enough on its own, but we quickly learn that Maggie has been off of her mental health medications for a bit and mania is setting in hard. Not only does her mental illness add a layer of complexity to Maggie’s character, but her mania symptoms and history also go a long way in helping us to understand why she powers through red flags that many people might have ran screaming from.
(As a side note, I don’t have bipolar disorder and don’t experience mania the way Maggie does, but I have numerous other mental health disorders and a lot of experience with close loved ones’ experiences with unmedicated bipolar disorder; for what it’s worth, I thought Ruth Anna Evans handled the portrayal very lovingly and honestly!)
All in all, I really enjoyed this story — it might even be my favorite of this author’s works so far! The setting was truly unsettling and I enjoyed Maggie as a character. No spoilers, but this story ran my heart through the wringer in the best way, and I can’t wait to read more from this author soon!
Thank you to the author for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.
WARNINGS (click to expand):
unmedicated mental illness, mania, depression, intrusive thoughts, suicidal ideation, thoughts of self-harm, brief mention of hospitalization, description of child death, violence, gore, endangerment of a pet cat, ableism
Maggie has bipolar disorder
— destiny ♥
