Book Review: This House Will Feed by Maria Tureaud

This House Will Feed is a historical Gothic horror novel by Maria Tureaud, set in Ireland during the years of The Great Hunger. It is told from the point of view of  a young woman, Maggie, who has lost her entire family after they were evicted from their home, and has been rescued from the workhouse and taken to a remote, mysterious mansion, Browne House to pose as the deceased daughter of the house.

Browne House is  typical of the type of house you would expect in a Gothic novel, with locked rooms, mysterious lights outside, and disturbing dreams in the night, and sets the creepy atmosphere for the rest of the book.

Through those disturbing dreams we are shown the heartbreaking and horrifying story of Maggie’s family’s downfall, and the reason she came to be living in the workhouse. Reading those portions of the novel it just reinforces for me how  cruel and evil humans can be, because I have no doubt that the actions that lead to her family’s demise were based on real decisions based on real people. Nothing seems to surprise me any more when it comes to people, and that fact also made this such a sad, sad story. Far sadder than it was scary, in my opinion.

I always hesitate when I try to review a book based on real-life events that were so horrific, they’re almost beyond belief. It seems wrong to say I enjoyed the story, but I’m not sure how else to say it. I did enjoy This House Will Feed, and reading it has made me want to dig into the history that inspired the author.

My only issue with the book is that it seemed to be building the tension, slowly but surely, until the end of the book and I was really looking forward to the end. But when I finished, although the ending was satisfying with regard to what happened to all the characters, how it all came about felt rather anticlimactic. Maybe it’s just me, I expected more.

I picked this book up as part of my first Aardvark subscription box in February, and I don’t regret it. I would recommend it to lovers of historical fiction who enjoy supernatural elements, and light horror elements. However be warned that the really horror are the things that happen to Maggie and her family after they are evicted from their home, and I recommend that you check out the trigger warnings for this book. It’s not super scary, but there are some disturbing events.