If you were on a date on a beautiful summer day, rowing across a sparkling lake in a canoe and you came across a house at the bottom of the lake, would you dive down to check it out?
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“Josh Malerman expertly conjures a fairy tale nostalgia of first love, and we follow along, all too willingly, ignoring the warning signs even as the fear takes hold.” LitReactor.com
About The Book 📚
Title: A House at the Bottom of a Lake
Author: Josh Malerman
Publication Date: 2016
Publisher: This is Horror
Genre: Horror, Romance
Pages: 116
Content Warnings: sexual content, confinement
About The Author
- Josh Malerman is an American author
- His debut novel is Bird Box
- Is a singer/songwriter in a rock band
- https://joshmalerman.com/about-josh-malerman/
My Review
› I would describe A House at the Bottom of a Lake as light-horror. The audiobook is great, has two narrators and a creepy atmosphere. This is my first Josh Malerman story and I am hooked. I can’t wait to read more of his work.
› “What was dark but the absence of light?”
› James and Amelia are seventeen years old on their first date canoeing on a lake when they come across a house, at the bottom of the lake. Curious, they take turns diving down to check it out. They are immediately obsessed and spend the rest of the summer hanging out on a raft anchored above the house, taking turns diving down to investigate the house.
“For the first time in either of their lives, they were falling in love.”
› They promise each other they won’t ask why there is a house at the bottom of a lake and to keep it a secret. In this short novella, Malerman accomplishes well-developed characters, a great setting with visual descriptions and world-building. The writing has high readability, authentic dialogue, and effective viewpoints. I didn’t want to put it down. Overall, I had a really good time reading this one.
› In the past I have given a rating out of ten and converted that to a star rating, but I’m no longer giving a star rating here on my blog. I will continue to do that on Goodreads and The Story Graph.
› Final Thoughts
• A House at the Bottom of a Lake is a unique, mysterious, and tense novella about young love, desire and confronting your fears. I can’t wait to read Malerman’s next horror novel coming out in June 2024 called Incidents Around the House.
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