House of Beth - by Kerry Cullen (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A haunting and seductive tale of a young career woman who slides quickly into the role of stepmother, in a life that may still belong to someone else. "Vivid, addictive, and crackling with life (yes, even the ghost), House of Beth asks us to consider how and why we make the lives we make" (Lynn Steger Strong).

After a heart-wrenching breakup with her girlfriend and a shocking incident at her job, Cassie flees her life as an overworked assistant in New York for her hometown in New Jersey, along the Delaware. There, she reconnects with her high school best friend, Eli, now a widowed father of two. Their bond reignites, and within a few short months, Cassie is married to Eli, living in his house in the woods, homeschooling the kids, and getting to know her reserved neighbor, Joan.

But Cassie's fresh start is less idyllic than she'd hoped. She grapples with harm OCD, her mind haunted by gory, graphic images. And she's afraid that she'll never measure up to Eli's late spouse, who was a committed homemaker and traditional wife. No matter what Cassie does, Beth's shadow still permeates every corner of their home.

Soon, Cassie starts hearing a voice narrating the house's secrets. As she listens, the voice grows stronger, guiding Cassie down a path to uncover the truth about Beth's untimely death.

Review Quotes

"Modern gothic meets psychological suspense in this wholly original work."
--Kirkus Reviews

"House of Beth is a stunning debut novel that is compelling and surprising and haunting. Kerry Cullen's sharp and beautiful prose is the lifeline of this book, telling us the story of Cassie--a young woman working in New York--as she returns home to New Jersey and rekindles an old relationship. Cullen subverts our expectations at every step, constructing a book that is unexpected, impossible to put down, and one that is so very satisfying at its end."
--Laura Spence-Ash, author of Beyond That, the Sea

"House of Beth perfectly captures that tenuous moment in your twenties when your adult life doesn't yet have a solid foundation. Cassie--seemingly irresponsibly--decides to walk away from New York City and her job in publishing, only to end up in a marriage, a ghost story, and a new life so strange that it matches the strangeness she has always carried inside her. A lovely story about how even though unraveling a life can be dangerous, there are possibilities in the heart of that darkness."
--Ann Napolitano, author of Hello Beautiful

"A ghost story, a love story, and a spiral all at once--an intense reckoning with the human mind, House of Beth examines both the horror and the resplendence of being alive."
--Danya Kukafka, national bestselling author of Notes on an Execution

"Staggering in its beauty and in its honesty, House of Beth is exquisitely tense--every page sparks with angst and desire and piercing insight about what it is to be haunted. A ghost story unlike any other. Eerie and hypnotic and absolutely unmissable."
--Rachel Harrison, USA Today bestselling author of So Thirsty and Black Sheep

"House of Beth is the ghost story I've been waiting for--steamy and audacious; terrifically paced. What begins as an unsettling tale of precipitated marriage and loneliness twists and explodes into an exquisite finale."
--Sanaë Lemoine, author of The Margot Affair

"Vivid, addictive, and crackling with life (yes, even the ghost), Kerry Cullen's House of Beth asks us to consider how and why we make the lives we make; how blurry, complicated, and misunderstood our own thoughts and yearnings can be, and where and how we might both love and be loved amidst the mess. I loved this book for its acuity, its urgency, but most of all its beautiful beating heart."
--Lynn Steger Strong, author of Flight, Want, and Hold Still

About the Author

Kerry Cullen's fiction has been published in The Indiana Review, Prairie Schooner, One Teen Story, and more. She earned her MFA at Columbia University, and she lives in New York.