Thank you to Atria Books/Simon & Schuster and Edelweiss for this ARC.more I read this book with Susan and Mary Beth and they got a real earful from me. I was so put out by the actions of the people in this book but also that threads were left dangling, threads that should have been dealt with in the epilogue, if no where else. I'd love to mention the things that didn't work for me at all but those things would be spoilers for the story. Then we come to the end of the book and some very important matters are just "covered over". And, of course, the characters make really eye rolling decisions when it comes to a world involving a haunted house where murders took place. The girls' younger days could have been condensed. There is one character who got a lot of book time who just turned his parts of the story into a rambling, meandering wander down his memory lane, which added nothing to the story. The story had potential but it got bogged down is too many side issues. Clare has her own personal trauma that might have been induced by Abby's strange text messages a few months earlier. Abby is now in a coma and Clare has come back to offer support to Abby and her family, at the request of Abby's mother. In the present day, Clare's best friend from her teens, Abby, has ventured to the house, alone, and tried to commit suicide. The synopsis of Beneath the Stairs lured me in with it's mention of a haunted house, a family murdered in that house, and how past events are coming back to haunt two women, twenty years after they last entered the deserted house. Abby is now in a coma and Clare has come back to offer support to Abby and her family, at the request of A Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett I want to thank Edelweiss, Atria Books/Simon&Schuster for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.moreīeneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett The synopsis of Beneath the Stairs lured me in with it's mention of a haunted house, a family murdered in that house, and how past events are coming back to haunt two women, twenty years after they last entered the deserted house. This was a buddy read with Marilyn and Susan which made this fun but we all felt the same way. I had so many questions that were unanswered and left me disappointed. It just did not add up right and did not make sense. I thought the story fell apart close to the end. I think the book could of been a lot shorter. I wanted to find out all about beneath the stairs. I would bot want anything to do with this house. I also thought felt the gothic atmosphere brewing. It had a dark past and I loved reading about the history of it. The haunted house was deep in the woods and it was so creepy. I love supernatural thrillers, especially one of a haunted house. I think the book could of been a lot shor With little to lose and still grieving after a personal tragedy, Clare returns to her roots to uncover the darkness responsible for Abby’s accident.more Twenty years later, an adult Clare receives word that Abby has attempted suicide at the Octagon House and now lies in a coma. Clare came out, but a piece of Abby never did. One summer night, an emboldened fourteen-year-old Clare and her best friend, Abby, ventured into the Octagon House. A man had killed his wife and two young daughters there, a shocking, gruesome crime that the sleepy upstate New York town tried to bury. A man had killed his wife and two young daughters there, a A woman returns to her hometown after her childhood friend attempts suicide at a local haunted house-the same place where a traumatic incident shattered their lives twenty years ago.įew in sleepy Sumner’s Mills have stumbled across the Octagon House hidden deep in the woods. Few in sleepy Sumner’s Mills have stumbled across the Octagon House hidden deep in the woods. A woman returns to her hometown after her childhood friend attempts suicide at a local haunted house-the same place where a traumatic incident shattered their lives twenty years ago.