Briana @ Pages Unbound
I admit I didn’t much care for their stories separately either. I like actual Gothic literature, and though some of it can also tend towards the silly and overdramatic rather than actually scary (I’m looking at you, Ann Radcliffe), Mila’s story is not a compelling modern take. There’s a lot of telling rather than showing, particularly in the beginning when Mila and her family first enter the mansion; the author basically insists that the place is wrong, creepy, mocking, etc. without taking the time to fully convince me that this is so.
Curtis’s storyline interested me a bit more, though a lot of it features him having angry outbursts and driving dramatically throughout town in his car or on his motorbike, cursing the world. The sentiment is certainly understandable based on his life circumstances; I just personally wasn’t completely invested in reading about it.
My favorite part was the end of the book, but that was because I was suddenly semi on the side of the “bad guys.” Though their ends might not have justified their means, I think they had a good point about needing to stop the continued influence of the cursed mansion on their town, and the author missed a prime opportunity here to add some nuance to the story of good vs. evil because she was more fixated on building a flimsy, unconvincing romance between Mila and Curtis.
I was hoping to get a good Gothic tale out of House of Ash and enjoy some strong YA fantasy, but the book fell completely flat for me. I don’t give a lot of very low ratings, but I was tempted to DNF this book the whole time I was reading, so it’s going to have to get one star from me.