Book Recommendation, "The September House" by Carissa Orlando, from MFA Fiction Alumnus (and Librarian) Kelly Burgess Mayer

My husband, infant son and I moved into our Chicago home in May of 1999. From the early days, I felt like we were not alone in the house. My husband rolled his eyes at me, claiming my superstitious Irish roots were showing. I ignored the eyeroll, cleaned the house, and clapped in the corners to dispel bad energy. I later met the original owner of the home and decided the presence was benign. I’m still fascinated by house history and believe homes can carry energy good and bad.

The September House is a debut novel by Carissa Orlando and begins, “It was our dream house.”

Then the first chapter takes a sharp turn – “The walls of the house were bleeding again. This sort of thing could be expected; it was, after all, September.”

What starts as a kitchen-sink drama turns into a horror novel. Through the rest of the book, Orlando balances the real terror of domestic violence, alcohol abuse, and mental illness, with the supernatural aspects of a ghostly housekeeper serving tea and toast: “And of course there was that gash on her head, gaping open like a split pumpkin, where the axe had sunk in over a hundred years ago.” There are tortured children who scream in the night, and a basement door nailed shut and covered by pages of the Bible. Margaret’s husband Hal has seemingly left her and disappeared, and their difficult daughter Katherine arrives looking for her father.

I admire Orlando’s ability to weave the threads of the concrete problems of life with the fantastic paranormal elements. I think we’ve all had moments where we feel our houses are “cursed.” Difficult life events can feel otherworldly, like a malevolent hand is pulling the strings. Real problems can induce real terror. Orlando writes a compelling story with some riveting, gorgeous layers of meaning.