Review: The Farm House by Chelsea Conradt

My Thoughts:

The Farm House follows Emily and her husband as they move from San Francisco to rural Nebraska. This starts out as a peaceful change of pace for her as she has lost her mother in the last year and grief has been pulling her under. Things don't stay peaceful for her long as strange things begin to happen on the property. 

This book nails it with the suspense. I was on the edge of my seat wondering what could possibly be going on with the barn and the people that worked on the farm. I liked how eerie the barn was and how it seemed to always be moving - I thought the inclusion of Emily's running journal entries was really smart and really added to the suspense of it moving.  I liked Chelsea's writing style and I look forward to reading more of her work. 

Overall, this book would have benefitted greatly from being shorter. There are big gaps between action and in those gaps, we are stuck in Emily's head, and her spiraling makes for a long read. This book is also very gaslighting heavy, like her husband Josh is not on her side at all and constantly gaslights her about the things that she is experiencing. Between the gaps in action and the unsupportive husband, the ending just did not hit the way that it should have - it didn't have that satisfying feeling that I typically get once things are figured out in a mystery novel.

Synopsis:

When Emily Hauk's mother dies, it's time for her and her husband, Josh, to finally leave San Francisco. A farm in rural Nebraska is everything they want for a fresh start: clear skies, low costs, and distance from the grief back home. 

They should have asked why the farm was for sale. 

Three years ago a teenage girl went missing from the farm. Soon afterward, the girl's mother mysteriously died. The deeper Emily digs the more stories she uncovers of women connected to her new home who've met their own dark ends.

With each passing day Emily's sanctuary slips further away. The barn seems to move throughout her property as though chasing her. Her mother's favorite music drifts across the cornfield. She swears she saw blood in one of the farmhand's trucks. And the screams that wake her are not fox howls, no matter how many times her husband says they are. If she wants to claim this place as her own she'll have to find out the truth before whatever watches from the cornfield takes her, too.

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