I wanted start by saying this book scared me but that’s not accurate. When I read Help For The Haunted, I scared myself! Spooky, dark, weird and unsettling; but no outright horror. Just that sneaking sensation that ‘something’ is wrong, ‘something’ made that noise, ‘something’ out of the corner of your eye. Your imagination will take over as you read, leading your own mind to read much more into the text until you’ve scared yourself. John Searles weaves this story like a master-comparisons to Stephen King come to mind, especially The Shining.
The book has a very basic plot: parents murdered, daughters try to make sense of it all and get on with their lives. The twist is the parents were demonologists who helped the haunted. Down in the basement they store objects their clients believe are possessed and causing their ‘hauntings’. Weird things are happening in their home and Sylvie thinks the objects miss her parents, too. As the story unfolds there are more questions than answers about the murder and the older sister, Rose, may know more than she is telling.
When this became available at the library, I had just finished a super spooky vampire book that totally creeped me out. I was sleeping with the light on anyway so I ‘thought’ I was ready to dive into Help For The Haunted. Boy, was I wrong. After the first afternoon reading, I put this thing down until morning, I was too scared to read it after dark but too engrossed in the story to stop; my rating is 5 stars/highly recommend.