beneath the stairs book review

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Beneath the stairs by jennifer fawcett [book review].

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Title: Beneath the Stairs

Author: Jennifer Fawcett

Publisher: Atria Books

Publish Date: February 22, 2022

Genre: Mystery Thriller

My Rating: 3/5

Few in sleepy Sumner’s Mills have stumbled across the Octagon House hidden deep in the woods. Even fewer are brave enough to trespass. A man had killed his wife and two young daughters there, a shocking, gruesome crime that the sleepy upstate New York town tried to bury. One summer night, an emboldened fourteen-year-old Clare and her best friend, Abby, ventured into the Octagon House. Clare came out, but a piece of Abby never did. Twenty years later, an adult Clare receives word that Abby has attempted suicide at the Octagon House and now lies in a coma. With little to lose and still grieving after a personal tragedy, Clare returns to her roots to uncover the darkness responsible for Abby’s accident.

Two girls, Clare and Abby, entered a local house rumored to be haunted. Twenty years later, Abby has returned to the house to commit suicide. The house has effected many people over the years, and Clare returns to uncover the mystery of the house.

Beneath the Stairs is a debut novel that combines mystery thriller with paranormal elements. It is told primarily through Clare’s viewpoint and uses alternating timelines. This one took me a while to get into, but I ended up enjoying the story.

Beneath the Stairs is a slow-burning read for fans of mysteries and horror.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Books by Jennifer Fawcett

• Beneath the Stairs

2 thoughts on “ Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett [Book Review] ”

Definitely sounds interesting for those who enjoy this genre.

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Read Between the Spines

Beneath the stairs.

Jennifer Fawcett

Quick synopsis.

A woman returns to her hometown after her childhood friend attempts suicide at a local haunted house—the same place where a traumatic incident shattered their lives twenty years ago.

Publisher’s Synopsis

In this spine-tingling, atmospheric debut for fans of Jennifer McMahon, Simone St. James, and Chris Bohjalian, a woman returns to her hometown after her childhood friend attempts suicide at a local haunted house—the same place where a traumatic incident shattered their lives twenty years ago. Few in sleepy Sumner’s Mills have stumbled across the Octagon House hidden deep in the woods. Even fewer are brave enough to trespass. A man had killed his wife and two young daughters there, a shocking, gruesome crime that the sleepy upstate New York town tried to bury. One summer night, an emboldened fourteen-year-old Clare and her best friend, Abby, ventured into the Octagon House. Clare came out, but a piece of Abby never did. Twenty years later, an adult Clare receives word that Abby has attempted suicide at the Octagon House and now lies in a coma. With little to lose and still grieving after a personal tragedy, Clare returns to her roots to uncover the darkness responsible for Abby’s accident. An eerie page-turner,  Beneath the Stairs  is about the trauma that follows us from childhood to adulthood and returning to the beginning to reach the end.

Book Review

Beneath the Stairs is a debut horror novel about a creepy, dilapidated house deep in the woods where strange things have occurred in the past, including a family murdered. As teenage girls, a four friends fueled by curiosity and peer pressure enter the house… and two leave forever changed. Themes of guilt, grief, and friendship are woven into the storyline as well.

I am so happy to FINALLY have read a well-executed haunted house story. Beneath the Stairs is a suspenseful, atmospheric mystery. It takes a lot to creep me out and Jennifer Fawcett succeeded.

I found this book to be well-written. Beneath the Stairs is a bit more character-driven than your average suspense or horror book. It is told through four timelines – one for each of the house’s occupants, one for the protagonist’s childhood, and one for present day. Despite this, I found it pretty easy to follow. The story has some “coming of age” vibes without it feeling YA. While Beneath the Stairs is a slow-ish burn, it worked for me. I never lost interest and did not want to go to sleep before finishing it.

For a majority of this book, I planned on giving Beneath the Stairs five stars. However, the last 50 pages or so dropped the book to four stars. Instead of having a crisp ending once the mystery was solved, the book continued. Fawcett packs into the ending an unnecessary love arc and focuses on the characters, taking away from the otherwise spooky story. I found these things unnecessary and distracting.

Overall, I really enjoyed Beneath the Stairs and would recommend it. In fact, skip Riley Sager’s Home Before Dark , and pick Beneath the Stairs up instead. I promise it is 1,000 times better, unless you scare easily.

Overall Rating

Character development

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Genre Horror; Mystery/Thriller

Publication Date February 22, 2022

Storygraph Rating 3.83 stars

Goodreads Rating 3.88 stars

Related Reviews & Features

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Note: I received an advanced readers’ copy of this book from the publisher, Atria Books. Regardless, I always provide a fair and honest review.

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The Michigan Daily

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‘Beneath the Stairs’ doesn’t linger, but maybe that’s a good thing

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The haunted house is one of horror’s classic tropes; “Beneath the Stairs: A Novel” by Jennifer Fawcett reminds us why it endures. The novel follows a woman, Clare, who rushes back to her hometown after a miscarriage and a messy breakup to find her childhood best friend in a coma in the hospital. Her friend, Abby, had gone back to the Octagon House, a deteriorated specter over their childhood with a long history of terror and violence within its walls. Fawcett takes a risk by writing a haunted house tale — adding to a formidable canon of both classic novels like Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House” and campy takes such as the movie “Monster House” — but she does it with style and ease.

Fawcett’s debut novel stays true to its horror roots, including other beloved tropes like a creepy doll, a dark basement, whispering voices and a healthy dose of people getting a “bad feeling” they can’t quite explain. But Fawcett uses these efficiently — not as crutches, but as a way to propel the story forward and invoke extra creepiness. After all, tropes are tropes for a reason, and horror tropes are no different.

Despite (or perhaps because of) these classic haunted-house horror nods, “Beneath the Stairs” remains exciting and engaging to the end. The perspective shifts from a third-person young Clare to present-day first-person Clare, as well as to several of the house’s past owners from the ʼ30s and ʼ60s. These rotating narrations add dimensions of understanding for the reader as the past comes alive, while still focusing on the main storyline as most of the narration is Clare in the present. The result is a mystery the reader gets to piece together themselves in a way that is satisfying and keeps the narrative moving forward.

Under most horror runs a current of sadness; this book is no different. Clare struggles with the death of her mother when she was a child, the near-death of Abby, the breakup with her boyfriend and a miscarriage, among other things. A lot of the characters are haunted, not always by the supernatural. The Octagon House serves as a focal point around which feelings of guilt, paranoia, trauma, hurt, confusion and despair are centered. It is the rotting, barely-beating heart at the center of the story, and like most haunted houses, it is a symbol as much as it is a building.

This is a book I would easily recommend, not because it is life-changing or particularly beautifully written, but simply because it is monstrously engaging. I would describe it as a “beach read” for fans of horror — good to pick up and set back down, draws you back and makes you care, but doesn’t linger in the way some really disturbing horror does. Perhaps a reason for that is its relatively sunny ending, something rare in its genre.

“Beneath the Stairs” is a dark and moody book, but it is punctuated by moments of levity; it doesn’t feel oppressively sad. Maybe this is why the ‘happy’ ending was more acceptable. Usually, cynicism dismisses happy endings as unrealistic — when everything is tied up in a neat little bow, it doesn’t feel right. That holds for this book too. It is suspicious that after all this pain, the characters get a neat little epilogue. But here’s the thing: Although a happy ending is, paradoxically, less satisfying in this case than a more destructive ending, maybe it’s what we need. After several hundred pages of guilt and sadness wrapped up in mystery, adventure and intrigue, a relatively happy ending is what the characters deserve.

My horror-brain craves a loose end, an undiscovered clue, a gut feeling of wrongness at the end. But part of the reason this book is so engaging is because its characters really do feel, so we feel for them — and so, we feel that they deserve a break by the end. Most characters, especially in horror, don’t get that; we keep them suspended in fear or sadness or longing even after we close the back cover. Ultimately, Fawcett creates a novel that encapsulates its horror perfectly between its pages, keeping it safe and contained. It doesn’t spill out into our lives or the lives of the characters. They move on, so we can too.

Not all horror does this, nor should it — even just in the realm of haunted house narratives, “The Haunting of Hill House” by author Shirley Jackson stays with me because its horror curls around you as you read and gets inside you, just a little. The “Hill House” ending doesn’t allow you to just walk away when you finish. But “Beneath the Stairs” is a different kind of horror novel — not one that is disturbing, but one that ends with catharsis and closure. It hurts you and scares you and holds you, but then lets you go. And sometimes, that is just the kind of novel you need.

Daily Senior Arts Editor Emilia Ferrante can be reached at [email protected] .

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Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett Review

Few things intrigue me more than an interesting-sounding supernatural horror story. For whatever reason, I’ve always been both fascinated and worried by the unknown, including ghosts and what happens after we die. This doesn’t mean that I’m someone who necessarily thinks ghosts are real; I’m just intrigued, and don’t really know what to think. They likely don’t, but stories about them — both ‘real’ and fictional — never fail to be of great interest.

This is one of the main reasons why I asked to review Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett when I saw it appear on NetGalley. It had an interesting, attention grabbing, title, and its premise could be described the same way.

When I first started reading this debut novel from a fellow Canadian, I hoped for an incredible ghost story. After all, it had all of the trappings: a haunted house, troubled women who’d entered that house as teens, and something that keeps making at least some of them want to return. I really looked forward to reading it, but didn’t get around to doing that until the finished version became available at my local library, so that’s the version I read. Once it was available for pick-up, I made it a priority.

In the end, this story wasn’t everything I was hoping or expecting it to be, but I liked it nonetheless. Just not as much as I’d thought I would at the onset, or after devouring the first part very early one morning when I should’ve been sleeping.

Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett is the story of Clare, who rushes home to the village of Sumner’s Mills in Upstate New York after receiving an unsettling email from a former family friend. The person who wrote and sent said message isn’t someone forgettable, either, as she happens to be the mother of Clare’s childhood best friend, Abby. The two were inseparable after Abby moved to the small village, after becoming quick friends when Abby joined the same class despite being a year younger. The thing is that Clare hasn’t seen Abby in twenty years, and hasn’t spoken to her either. Not since one troubling summer, when they both entered the ‘haunted’ Octagon House.

During the summer of 1998, which happened to fall between the end of their last year of middle school and the beginning of their first year in high school, Clare, Abby and two other friends made a poor decision. After hearing a tale about an abandoned home nestled deep in the woods, they decided to venture there and explore the place as many kids would. Unfortunately for them, a childhood curiosity and a hint of anger led to Abby’s life spiraling out of control, or so it seems. After going inside the strangely shaped house one time, Abby found herself drawn to it, and its dark and rotten basement in particular. Clare feels guilty about this, because she played a prank on her bestie and slammed the basement door on her in order to get a little revenge.

According to Abby, there was something or someone down there, and that’s why she was so intrigued. Clare thinks that she saw something too, but isn’t sure what.

You may have guessed already, but the reason for Abby’s mom’s email isn’t an invitation to a birthday party or wedding. It’s much, much worse. You see, Abby decided to go back to the Octagon House, and wasn’t seen or heard from for three days before being found in its basement. In that time, she’d swallowed a bunch of pills, and was then placed into an induced coma within the local hospital. The doctors and nurses aren’t sure if she’ll ever regain consciousness.

As far as hooks and interesting premises go, this is up there, right? It’s not just me?

Of course, this is yet another book that takes place in more than one time period. In fact, it actually covers more than two, although the majority of it is told from both the summer of 1998 and modern day. The other period(s) delve into the history of the Octagon House, including its construction, the man who built it and the mysterious happenings there. You see, the place hasn’t been lived in since the later 1960s, when a family who had just moved to Sumner’s Mills was found dead inside. Well, that’s not entirely true. The husband was charged with murder for killing his wife and two daughters, despite his claims of innocence.

If it sounds confusing, please know that’s just because of me. Truth be told, Beneath the Stairs is very easy to follow, even though it obviously has twists and turns. I had no problem following the story, and appreciated that only two time periods were predominantly used. Clare was also a good main character and (primary) narrator, with a nice amount of depth and a relatively interesting back story including a lost parent, wanting to belong and childhood ignorance.

The result is a solid horror novel that is part haunted house story and part coming of age tale, as a girl and her best friend enter one of the most chaotic times of their lives. It has themes of friendship, love, loss, puberty and the rest of teenage-hood. In all honesty, that’s one of the things I enjoyed most about it, because it wasn’t as scary, unique or dark as expected.

Don’t get me wrong — there were some scary scenes, and the opening truly hooked me. It’s just that the house was referenced more than it was used as a setting, and the big reveal (regarding its haunting and its pull on people) was somewhat underwhelming. More often than not, it was just referenced, and past experiences there were brought up. Despite this, it was still effectively creepy until its end.

As mentioned above, I waited until this book was published before reading it. I would never take points off for issues with an uncorrected Advanced Reader’s Copy or digital version, but I do sometimes worry that things will be changed before publication. As such, it was nice to read the edited, printed and published first edition, although I feel bad for having taken so long to complete this review.

There are usually spelling errors in first editions, despite editors’ best efforts. We’re all human and things somehow always slip by. I know that happens with me. However, Beneath the Stairs didn’t have much in the way of spelling or grammatical errors. It was well written and edited, and I have nothing to complain about there, which I’m happy about.

At the end of the day, Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett is worth your time and energy, but isn’t the standout classic or absolute must read that I was hoping it’d be. Although its ending was somewhat predictable and slightly disappointing, I still enjoyed my time spent reading it, but must admit that its first half was my favourite of the two.

I look forward to reading more from this new voice in horror, as she’s a talented writer.

This review is based on a copy of the book that we were provided. Receiving it for free did not sway our opinion.

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• About the Book

In this spine-tingling, atmospheric “nail-biter of a novel” ( Shelf Awareness ), a woman returns to her hometown after her childhood friend attempts suicide at an alleged haunted house --- the same place where a traumatic incident shattered their lives 20 years ago.

Few in sleepy Sumner’s Mills have stumbled across the Octagon House hidden deep in the woods. Even fewer are brave enough to trespass. A man had killed his wife and two young daughters there, a shocking, gruesome crime that the sleepy upstate New York town tried to bury. One summer night, an emboldened 14-year-old Clare and her best friend, Abby, ventured into the Octagon House. Clare came out, but a piece of Abby never did.

Twenty years later, an adult Clare receives word that Abby has attempted suicide at the Octagon House and now lies in a coma. With little to lose and still grieving after a personal tragedy, Clare returns to her roots to uncover the darkness responsible for Abby’s accident.

A “spellbinding horror story, where the terror comes not from ghosts, but from the haunted places we find within ourselves” (Elizabeth Brundage, author of THE VANISHING POINT ), BENEATH THE STAIRS is perfect for fans of Jennifer McMahon, Simone St. James and Chris Bohjalian.

Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett

• Publication Date: March 28, 2023
• Genres: Fiction , Horror , Suspense , Thriller
• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Atria Books
• ISBN-10: 1982177160
• ISBN-13: 9781982177164

Where Geeky Makes Sense

Book Review: Beneath the Stairs |  Jennifer Fawcett

📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚 Beneath the Stairs

AUTHOR:   Jennifer Fawcett  @jenniferfawcett_author

Publisher: Atria Books

Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ + 🐢

Published: February 22, 2022

The Review 📚 Beneath the Stairs

✨ The Title/Cover Draw:

• The summary made it sound like a different kind of haunted house book, which it definitely was. Thanks to @this_is_edelweiss and @atriabooks for allowing me to read this ahead of publication.

💜 What I liked:

• The story is told in 4 different time periods: the 1930’s, 1965, 1998, and the present. The stories are linked by the house. And let me just say that this book is truly creepy. Most of this story is really propelling you forward to figure out what is really going on. Even in the dreams of the main characters, the house doesn’t leave them. 

😱 What I didn’t like:

• There are a lot of open-ended questions after reading this book. And while this probably makes the house that much more creepy, if you need problems to be buttoned up beforehand, this book will not give you that. But I recommend just reading it anyway and being prepared because it is worth it.

🚦 My face at the end: 🤪

💭 4 Reasons to Read:

• 1. Mysterious house
• 2. Nightmares
• 3. Generations of terror
• 4. Sounds at night

🕧 Mini-Summary:

• Clare and Abby explored a house when they were young, and it still follows them into adulthood. What has happened in this house and how can they return to a peaceful headspace?

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Received from Edelweiss.

💯 For more details on the books we read, be sure to follow me on TikTok (@zaineylaney) or check out our Podcast – Elated Geek!

📘 Summary 📚 Beneath the Stairs

A woman returns to her hometown after her childhood friend attempts suicide at a local haunted house—the same place where a traumatic incident shattered their lives twenty years ago.

Few in sleepy Sumner’s Mills have stumbled across the Octagon House hidden deep in the woods. Even fewer are brave enough to trespass. A man had killed his wife and two young daughters there, a shocking, gruesome crime that the sleepy upstate New York town tried to bury. One summer night, an emboldened fourteen-year-old Clare and her best friend, Abby, ventured into the Octagon House. Clare came out, but a piece of Abby never did.

Twenty years later, an adult Clare receives word that Abby has attempted suicide at the Octagon House and now lies in a coma. With little to lose and still grieving after a personal tragedy, Clare returns to her roots to uncover the darkness responsible for Abby’s accident.

Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett

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danireyne 's review

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amdey 's review

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

jewelj 's review

_mox_ 's review.

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

duchessofreadin 's review

Itputsthebookupontheshelf 's review, tparks 's review against another edition.

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

kiracat13 's review

Gryndlepuffpaste 's review, delslibrary1313 's review.

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but books are better

Thursday 3 march 2022, book review: beneath the stairs by jennifer fawcett.

Title:   BENEATH THE STAIRS

Author:   Jennifer Fawcett

Publisher:   Atria Books

Read:  February 2022

Expected publication:  out now

My Rating:  🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

A woman returns to her hometown after her childhood friend attempts suicide at a local haunted house—the same place where a traumatic incident shattered their lives twenty years ago.

What attracted me to this book:

Count me in for all the haunted house books!

My musings:

As soon as I heard the premise of Jennifer Fawcett’s book BENEATH THE STAIRS, I knew I had to read it. And Fawcett’s Octagon House is as creepy as it gets. Just from the author’s descriptions of the house you would not get me anywhere near there, especially at night, but of course true to any character in a horror film or a creepy story, the people in this book are inexplicably drawn to the place. You may reason that if a door that opens and closes at will and an unlit, dank basement doesn’t scream “run for your life!” at you, then you may not be cut out for the natural selection process – but then we wouldn’t have the opportunity to watch these characters stumble headlong into disaster.

Whilst the story presents itself in four separate timelines and various POVs, our main character is Clare, who reluctantly returns to her childhood home of Sumner’s Mills to offer support to her childhood friend Abby who is in hospital after a suicide attempt. Clare knows some of the demons that have haunted Abby for most of her adult life, because she was part of the events that started Abby on this slippery path of trauma and obsession. Whilst Clare has been able to block out the events from twenty years ago, she knows that it is all connected to the creepy house in the woods, Octagon House – the site of a child’s disappearance and a family’s murder long before Clare and Abby were born. To help her friend, Clare knows she must finally confront the demons from their childhood ...

BENEATH THE STAIRS was a creepy story that gripped me very quickly and kept me up at night. However, I felt that it got a bit bogged down in the middle with detail that added little to the mystery (all those teenage friendship dynamics could have been cut short), and then wrapped up the ending so quickly that many of my questions remained unanswered. I’m still not sure if I missed something crucial or if the story had skipped over some of the detail that would have linked all the threads together in a satisfying whole. Apart from the characters making questionable decisions – after all, that is the essence of any horror story – I felt that someone along the way would have called the police and saved themselves a whole lot of trauma.

All in all, I felt very divided about this book. On one hand I loved the creepy, Gothic atmosphere and the haunted house setting, which I could visualise vividly. On the other hand, I felt that the story lost its way a bit with too many timelines and POVs and backstory, which never quite came together in the end. I feel that the author wanted to pack too many element into this book, which sadly only worked to dilute its creep factor. However, as far as creepy house settings go, this one was atmospheric and nightmare inducing and made for a fantastic backdrop to a ghost story.

Thank you to Atria Books for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

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Jennifer Fawcett

Beneath the stairs.

In this spine-tingling, atmospheric debut for fans of Jennifer McMahon, Simone St. James, and Chris Bohjalian, a woman returns to her hometown after her childhood friend attempts suicide at a local haunted house—the same place where a traumatic incident shattered their lives twenty years ago.

Few in sleepy Sumner’s Mills have stumbled across the Octagon House hidden deep in the woods. Even fewer are brave enough to trespass. A man had killed his wife and two young daughters there, a shocking, gruesome crime that the sleepy upstate New York town tried to bury. One summer night, an emboldened fourteen-year-old Clare and her best friend, Abby, ventured into the Octagon House. Clare came out, but a piece of Abby never did.

Twenty years later, an adult Clare receives word that Abby has attempted suicide at the Octagon House and now lies in a coma. With little to lose and still grieving after a personal tragedy, Clare returns to her roots to uncover the darkness responsible for Abby’s accident.

An eerie page-turner, BENEATH THE STAIRS is about the trauma that follows us from childhood to adulthood and returning to the beginning to reach the end.

"This character-driven read is a wild ride … a horror-thriller blend that promises an adrenaline rush while also touching upon real-life nightmares such as abuse, PTSD, and mental illness.” —Booklist

“This novel reminds readers how easily a thought becomes a truth, how quickly a dream becomes a nightmare, and how unknowingly we ourselves can become haunted houses… Fawcett’s debut is both incredibly suspenseful and immersive.” —Library Journal

" Beneath the Stairs,  the first novel from playwright Jennifer Fawcett, is hard to categorize: Is it a horror, a mystery, or a literary-thriller? It's all of those, with a psychological exploration of adolescent trauma ... [A] spooky ghost story twists into a very credible and terrifying mystery. [A] nail-bitter of a novel." —Cheryl McKeon,  Shelf Awareness

“A spell-binding horror story, where the terror comes not from ghosts, but from the haunted places we find within ourselves. A thoroughly engrossing and compulsive read.” —Elizabeth Brundage, author of The Vanishing Point

“Jennifer Fawcett’s Beneath the Stairs had me from the very first page. Tense, surprising, and utterly gripping, I loved this book!” —Karen Dionne, author of international bestsellers The Marsh King’s Daughter and The Wicked Sister

“A poignant haunted house tale about guilt, grief, and the nightmares of adolescence that follow us into adulthood. Fawcett delivers genuine scares in this chilling, mesmerizing debut.” —Rachel Harrison, author of The Return

“A thrilling, thoughtful, character-driven crucible that reveals the ways childhood fear clings to us, shapes us, but can also show the one way out of our adult darkness.” —Andrew Pyper, author of The Residence and The Demonologist

“Beneath the Stairs is an audacious debut. With plotting as intricate and wild as the Hill House adaptation, it'll keep you guessing until the very end.” —Sarah Langan, author of Good Neighbors

“A novel brimming with menace and secrets, a haunting story of friendship and old betrayal that I devoured in one sitting. . . Atmospheric, cleverly constructed—the past meets the present in this gripping debut.” —Karen Brown, author of The Clairvoyants and The Longings of Wayward Girls

“An enthralling debut by a gifted storyteller!” —Wendy Walker, author of Don't Look for Me and All Is Not Forgotten

"Author Jennifer Fawcett makes an electrifying debut with her atmospheric story... Not only a ghost story, but it is also the exploration of friendships and those "lost to time," girls trapped in childhood history, haunted by people and events." —Leslie Zemeckis,  Montecito Journal

" Beneath the Stairs remains exciting and engaging to the end... It hurts you and scares you and holds you, but then lets you go. And sometimes, that is just the kind of novel you need." —  The Michigan Daily

"Told via multiple timelines, this novel was creepy and compelling. It was a haunted house story, a romantic suspense story, and a crime story all wrapped up into one." — Fictionophile

Audiobook Excerpt

One of the girls found out about the house first. It was always this way; one heard the story and told the others, and so the secret was passed down, girl to girl, generation to generation. She heard her mother talking about it, about something that had happened there before the girl was born, something bad. This secret place still existed, hidden in the woods, waiting to be found again.

And so, one spring afternoon, the girl led her friends around the curve in the road where the field stopped and the woods began. Partway along, she slowed down, searching for the spot where the fence was only hooked over the nails. Easy to pull back; easy to hide. They hid their bikes just inside the woods and followed the old road. Insistent undergrowth pulled at their legs like barbed seaweed, but they kept moving deeper. “Why would you build a house in here?” “Are you sure this is where she said it’d be?” “Maybe it’s gone now.” None of them were willing to say that they wanted to turn around, that as soon as they’d crossed into these trees, they knew this wasn’t a place for them. And then they tumbled into the clearing. And there, alone and asleep, was the Octagon House.

They went inside. Of course they went inside.

Their feet crunched over decades’ worth of broken beer bottles, leaves, animal droppings, and scattered remains of garbage, all of it turned a uniform shade of dust. The girls shivered and wanted to hug themselves but didn’t. They walked carefully around the two large rooms on the first floor. They glanced up the decayed stairs to the second floor. They looked at the strange door, too large for a regular door and made of metal instead of wood. “It must lead to the basement,” they said. They wiggled the latch, but it was broken, the door firmly shut. The girls were quietly grateful for that. They wandered back into the old kitchen where they had started, kicking at the garbage, wondering what to do next. But the one who had brought them returned to that metal door. It was once dark green, but the rust had spread over most of its surface, slowly gnawing its way through. Nothing stays hidden forever, she thought. And then she remembered how her mother had sounded when she’d talked about this house, that old fear coming awake again. She heard the others and turned to follow them. Just as she did, there was a click, and the door began to slide open. The air that escaped was cold and wet and smelled of earth and rot. Go, she thought, they’re leaving. But her legs wouldn’t move. The door opened farther, and now she could see the top of old wooden stairs.

She wanted to look.

She didn’t want to look.

She dared herself to look.

Only darkness, but there, on the lowest stair: something. She leaned into the doorway and looked down. She took out her phone and shone the light into the darkness, but that only made shadows, so she turned it off again. And in that millisecond, the instant between the light and the dark—

The voice was inside her head, but it wasn’t hers.

Her friends called out to her: “Are you coming?” They were already at the door, stepping out of the grip of the house like it was nothing. She was alone.

Help me leave this place.

She pulled herself away and ran to them.

The girls bolted across the clearing, giddy with adrenaline and release. And as they disappeared into the woods, the door shut. But it would open again. The house was awake now.

She would come back. They always came back.

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Table of Contents

• Rave and Reviews

About The Book

About the author.

Jennifer Fawcett grew up in rural Eastern Ontario and spent many years in Canada making theatre before coming to the United States. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Her work has been published in  Third Coast Magazine ,  Reunion: The Dallas Review ,  Storybrink , and in the anthology  Long Story Short . She teaches writing at Skidmore College and lives in upstate New York with her husband and son.

Why We Love It

“I binge-watched the Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House . I was soon hungry for a replacement, a novel that would delicately balance bone-chilling terror and deep sadness. Jennifer Fawcett’s debut Beneath the Stairs landed in my inbox at the right moment—and it wasn’t a replacement. It’s undoubtedly unique, an atmospheric and elegantly constructed novel about a woman’s descent into the heartland of mourning and guilt. Blending the best of horror, mystery, and suspense as we move through past and present storylines, this book will haunt you in more ways than one.” —Loan L., Editor, on Beneath the Stairs

Product Details

• Publisher: Atria Books (March 28, 2023)
• Length: 352 pages
• ISBN13: 9781982177164

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Raves and Reviews

"Do not do what I did and read Beneath the Stairs in a house alone in the woods. It was creepy from the very first scene. Author Jennifer Fawcett makes an electrifying debut with her atmospheric story. Not only a ghost story, but it is also the exploration of friendships and those “lost to time,” girls trapped in childhood history, haunted by people and events."

– Leslie Zemeckis, The Montecito Journal

"A book I would easily recommend . . . it is monstrously engaging. I would describe it as a “beach read” for fans of horror — good to pick up and set back down, draws you back and makes you care, but doesn’t linger in the way some really disturbing horror does. Perhaps a reason for that is its relatively sunny ending, something rare in its genre. [ Beneath the Stairs ] different kind of horror novel — not one that is disturbing, but one that ends with catharsis and closure. It hurts you and scares you and holds you, but then lets you go. And sometimes, that is just the kind of novel you need."

– Emilia Ferrante, The Michigan Daily

"[Beneath the Stairs] reminds readers how easily a thought becomes a truth, how quickly a dream becomes a nightmare, and how unknowingly we ourselves can become haunted houses. . . . Fawcett’s debut is both incredibly suspenseful and immersive. A word of caution to readers: leave the light on."

– Library Journal

“In Beneath the Stairs , Jennifer Fawcett explores the lasting impact of childhood trauma in this metaphysical story about a house with buried secrets. An enthralling debut by a gifted storyteller!”

– Wendy Walker, author of Don't Look for Me and All Is Not Forgotten

“A spell-binding horror story, where the terror comes not from ghosts, but from the haunted places we find within ourselves. A thoroughly engrossing and compulsive read. ”

– Elizabeth Brundage, author of The Vanishing Point

"Jennifer Fawcett's Beneath the Stairs had me from the very first page. Tense, surprising, and utterly gripping, I loved this book!"

– Karen Dionne, author of international bestsellers The Marsh King's Daughter and The Wicked Sister

"A poignant haunted house tale about guilt, grief, and the nightmares of adolescence that follow us into adulthood. Fawcett delivers genuine scares in this chilling, mesmerizing debut."

– Rachel Harrison, author of The Return

"Are you always on the lookout for a rich, mystery-riddled haunted house novel for grown-ups? Me too. Jennifer Fawcett's Beneath the Stairs is that book. A thrilling, thoughtful, character-driven crucible that reveals the ways childhood fear clings to us, shapes us, but can also show the one way out of our adult darkness."

– Andrew Pyper, author of The Residence and The Demonologist

" Beneath the Stairs is an audacious debut. With plotting as intricate and wild as the Hill House adaptation, it'll keep you guessing until the very end."

– Sarah Langan, author of Good Neighbors

"A novel brimming with menace and secrets, a haunting story of friendship and old betrayal that I devoured in one sitting. Fawcett delves into the complicated ties of teen girls against the backdrop of a small town and a strange house’s sinister history. Atmospheric, cleverly constructed—the past meets the present in this gripping debut."

– Karen Brown, author of The Clairvoyants and The Longings of Wayward Girls

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Beneath the Stairs: A Novel Hardcover – Feb. 22 2022

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Print length 352 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Atria Books
• Publication date Feb. 22 2022
• Dimensions 15.24 x 3.81 x 22.86 cm
• ISBN-10 1982177152
• ISBN-13 978-1982177157
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About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atria Books (Feb. 22 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1982177152
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982177157
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 544 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 3.81 x 22.86 cm
• #1,029 in Stories of Friendship
• #8,843 in Domestic Life in Women's Fiction
• #25,453 in Horror Fiction (Books)

About the author

Jennifer fawcett.

Jennifer Fawcett grew up in rural Eastern Ontario and spent many years in Canada making theatre before coming to the United States. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Her work has been produced in theaters across the country and published in Third Coast Magazine, Reunion: The Dallas Review, Storybrink, and in the anthology Long Story Short. She teaches writing at Skidmore College and lives in upstate New York with her husband and son. www.jenniferfawcettauthor.com

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