Psychologist Carissa Orlando’s “The September House” expertly blends mental health and domestic violence with a modern haunted house tale.
The debut novelist fleshes out her flawed protagonist and her ghostly companions with humor, sarcasm, and genuine warmth. Unlike a traditional haunted house story where the main characters learn of the haunting at the story’s climax, “The September House” reveals its haunting with the first line of chapter one: “The walls of the house were bleeding again.”
Margaret, the novel’s main character, chooses to see the haunting as a small price to pay for a large, enviable home where she can have a sunlit painting studio and grow old. Sadly, her husband, Hal, disagrees.
Character Analysis
Main Characters
Margaret Hartman
Harold “Hal” Hartman
Katherine Hartman
Father Cyrus
Officers Jones and Douglas
Ghosts
Master Vale
Fredricka
Angelica
Elias
Blythe
Jasper
Henry
James
Margaret Hartman, an aspiring painter, prides herself on being flexible. The fifty-something married mother of one learned to live by her abusive alcoholic husband’s rules, and now she abides by the house’s rules.
Margaret avoids using the fireplaces or having a piano to limit Blythe’s hauntings, removed bird feeders to reduce the number of birds suiciding into the house, and doesn’t get too close to Elias to reduce the risk of being bitten. She simply doesn’t understand why Hal won’t become more flexible himself and follow the rules.
More than anything, Margaret loves her daughter, Katherine. The nearly 30-year-old brusque businesswoman is who Margaret would move heaven and earth to protect.
Hal Hartman is Margaret’s loud, domineering recovering alcoholic husband. He has a history of verbally and physically abusing his loyal wife, especially when he’s been drinking Jack Daniels. After a third DUI, Hal attends counseling and enters AA after which he and Margaret have a good six years before moving to their new home.
During their third September in the house, 58-year-old Hal confronts the most villainous of the ghosts, Master Vale. The basement confrontation doesn’t go as planned, and Hal’s leg is injured. This defeat caused him to leave before the next September.
Katherine Hartman takes after her father. She’s argumentative, temperamental and demanding to know where her father is. Although they’re not close, Katherine still wants to know that both her parents are safe.
She attempts to connect with Margaret about her recent breakup and attending therapy but sees that her mother’s distracted. Katherine’s concerns mount when she sees her mother asking odd questions in public and notices objects around the house have been moved and misplaced.
Father Cyrus is an elderly and frail priest from Saint Dymphna Catholic Church. He’s the only one who believes the Hartmans and will perform regular exorcisms on their home to keep the hauntings at a minimum for a week. Margaret urgently asks for his services before Katherine’s visit.
Fredrika is the maid who haunts the house. She mostly makes tea, offers help with dinner and cleaning. In September, she moves objects to different areas, drops lamps and framed photographs, and places piles of dirt inside cabinets. She returns to her helpful self in October.
Master Vale is the source of all evil in the house. He resides in the unfinished basement full of heavy air with an unpleasant smell. Hal failed to defeat him, and Margaret actively avoids him but does have Bible verses on one side of the door and has nailed it shut with pieces of wood.
Plot Summary
Margaret and Hal Hartman finally found the house of their dreams after struggling for decades.
The middle aged married couple gets the deal of a lifetime when they buy a large three-story Victorian home on Hawthorne Street for a suspiciously low price. While viewing the home, they are too distracted by its beauty and original features to heed the warnings of the agent.
They soon learn about the year round hauntings from helpful ghost Fredricka, harmless Blythe and Jasper, and angry young Elias who bites anyone in his vicinity. The worst of the house’s strange behaviors take place every September as the walls bleed, the house escalates from moans to full-on screams, and birds fly into the walls of the house killing themselves.
After years of enduring the hauntings, Hal decides to leave. Margaret believes the house, and all its afterlife inhabitants, are her home. She’s willing to ignore the blood, screams, and work around the ghosts to stay in her forever home.
Hal leaves on Aug. 2 and by mid-September the couple’s grown daughter Katherine demands to investigate his disappearance. Katherine’s visit complicates things for Margaret, who persuades Fredrika and the others to make themselves invisible to her temperamental guest.
As the days go by, the hauntings increase leading Margaret to take drastic measures that leave her sleep-deprived and barely functional. Katherine becomes suspicious and believes her mother is suffering from mental health problems.
Just as Katherine draws this conclusion, Hal’s body is discovered. Police believe Margaret is involved and prepare to arrest her, but the house refuses to let go of its best rule-follower.
Final Thoughts
“The September House” is a haunted house tale that shows how unstable upbringings can have long-standing effects on people.
It manages to address abuse and unhappy unions while delivering on the horror and gore. The novel entertains, frightens and encourages readers to empathize with flawed characters.
“The September House” is highly recommended for anyone looking to read a haunted house story told with a contemporary psychological lens.
Rating
My rating is 4 stars out of five.
Book Details
Title: “The September House”
Author: Carissa Orlando
Year of Publication: 2023
Number of Pages: 342
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