The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

The Dead House

by Dawn Kurtagich

Twenty-five years ago, Elmbridge High School burned down. The blaze killed three and injured twenty, and one pupil, Carly Johnson, disappeared. For two decades, little was revealed about what became known as the Johnson Incident.

Until now.

A diary has been found in the ruins of the school. In this diary, Kaitlyn Johnson, Carly's twin, tells of the strange and disturbing sequence of events leading to the incident.

But Kaitlyn doesn't exist. She never has.

Chilling, creepy and compelling, THE DEAD HOUSE is one of those very special books that finds all the dark places in your imagination, and haunts you long after you've finished reading.

Reviewed by readingwithwrin on

3 of 5 stars

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" I don't blame Carly for being the one in the light. I love her more than anything. She's my opposite completely, and she'll say she's the weaker half of our equation, but the truth is she's my rock. She is everything I wish I were. "


The Dead House is a very interesting story, mainly because of how Kaitlyn is and who Carly is and trying to figure out which one is real and which one is in her mind. The story is told through Diary entries, written recordings, and notes. With the Diary entries you really get to see who Kaitlyn is and what she was feeling at all times. With the few Carly diary entries we had, we saw what her version of life was and how she was always trying to make things better for Kaitlyn and trying to protect her. The main chunk of written recordings were from therapy sessions that both Kaitlyn and Carly had. There were also some police reports/interviews more towards the middle/end of the story that were taken after the incident happened. The notes were between Carly and Kaitlyn and was how they would communicate since they couldn't ever remember what had happened when the other one was in control.
Now your probably wondering what I mean when I say the other one was in control. Well it appears that Kaitlyn/Carly have split personality disorder or have been possessed by an evil spirit.
Your never really sure which one it is throughout the story up until the end. Then, it became very obvious which one it was.
As for the side characters throughout the story I did find them interesting, but I never trusted any of them and always thought that most of them were going to end up hurting Kaitlyn/Carly or do something to make the other one lose it. I'm not going to say anymore about them or the rest of the story because I don't want to give anything away or make you think that this story wasn't a good one.

For me this book wasn't very scary sadly. It was more of a thriller/ mystery instead of a horror novel like I thought it would be. I still enjoyed it though and was always wanting to know what was going on with the girls.

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 19 September, 2015: Finished reading
  • 19 September, 2015: Reviewed