When I read the synopsis for Solace House by Will Maclean, I thought the premise sounded interesting and I was excited to be approved for an advance copy. Unfortunately it did not live up to my expectations.
The story is told from the point of view of Alex Lane, a university student who has been dealing with trauma experienced in his past. He has no where to go for the summer so reaches out to a counsellor and is given a job cleaning a former mental hospital with several other students, to prepare it to be turned into a residence hall. Soon they are also tasked with cleaning out the mysterious house next door.
For some reason Alex’s past trauma is treated very mysteriously for a large portion of the book. When the secret is finally revealed it’s underwhelming and had nothing to contribute to the story, other than providing a reason for him having no where to go for the summer.
We spend a significant amount of time with Alex in his dorm room after all the other students have left. While he does have a minor encounter with one of the characters he meets at his new job, that section of the book could have been cut down significantly.
Likewise the book spends a ton of time following the students as they begin to clear out the mysterious Solace House. If we were getting to know the characters in depth in this section then it might have been worthwhile, but almost no time is spent getting to know them beyond their surface level personalities. They were unmemorable and not well developed so when the story finally ramped up, I felt no sense of suspense or anxiety about the fates of any of them.
These first two sections of the novel make up about the first 60% of the book, and I struggled to get through it because I found it so slow and, quite frankly, boring.
The next 10% picked up significantly. We finally got to see something happen at Solace House. Unfortunately the action was predictable and short lived, and some of the things that happened made me wonder why the author bothered to include some of the characters. Spoiler….they were done away with off the page and contributed very little to the story.
Then the remainder returned to the slow pace with an ending so ambiguous and unsatisfying that it left me wondering if anything I read really happened or if it was all Alex’s imagination as his brain tried to deal with something traumatic. I tend to lean towards the second, personally.
I felt that there were a lot of plot points that were left unexplained, that didn’t bring anything to the story, and there were other things that, when introduced, felt important but were not tied in by the end of the book.
Considering the setting, an abandoned mental hospital and an old Victorian house next door, this book should have had all the elements for an amazing creepy hunted house atmosphere but I didn’t really feel that at all.
I was extremely disappointed in Solace House. I’m sure there are people who will enjoy it, but I found it to be pointless, rambling, and unsatisfying. If you enjoy a slow paced book that leaves you with more questions than answers, then maybe you’ll enjoy Solace House more than I did.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Solace House will be available on October 13 2026.
