How to Fake a Haunting by Christa Carmen Summary pdf

How to Fake a Haunting by Christa Carmen Summary

How to Fake a Haunting by Christina Carmen. This book is expected for publication on October 7th, 2025, and is approximately 322 pages in the Kindle edition. I did have the audiobook. I was just confirming in my brain—did I have the audiobook? I had the audiobook. I thought that was pretty well done by the narrator. I was highly intrigued. But let us dive into the summary and we’re going to go from there.

A desperate woman's plight to frighten her husband out of her life takes a nightmarish turn in a chilling novel of modern horror by a Bram Stoker Award–winning author. Laney Taylor is being pushed to the brink by her alcoholic husband Callum, prone to hallucinations and erratic behavior. It's only a matter of time before he puts Lany's life and that of their daughter Beatrix in jeopardy.

A divorce and full custody is out of the question. In Callum's words, “Over my dead body.” Lany's sympathetic friend, Adelaide, has a wild solution. They'll stage a haunting so convincing it will drive Callum out of Lany's life for good. Nothing too over the top—strange smells, noises in the walls, and flies unleashed along the window sills. It could work. Considering Callum's alcohol-induced night terrors, he's already close to broken.

With each new scare, Laney is closer to seeing the haunting through to its bitter end. But in a house filled with so much rage, resentment, and fear, is it any wonder that Laney and Adelaide's plan goes horribly wrong? As their fake haunting spirals into something no one can control, Laney discovers that the only way out of this frightening trap is to join forces with Callum or die trying.

It is considered horror, thriller, fiction, ghosts, mystery, and gothic suspense. Now, I'm going to tell you right here and right off the bat—I do not like that last sentence they put into this. Again, I don't frequently read these summaries before I read the books, and I don't frequently read them before I come on here and talk to you guys. But the fact that they say that she has to join forces with Callum or die trying is a bit disappointing. I don't really want to tell you why. I just want to tell you that I don't think they should have included that.

There are trigger warnings for domestic abuse, paranormal activity, and those sorts of things, so just be aware. This is a family in crisis. Let's dive into my thoughts. It is a lot of arguing between Laney and Callum. We start off with them moving into their house. It's a brand-new build. They built it themselves and they're having a housewarming.

Laney goes upstairs—I think Adelaide gets her away from somebody who's trying to talk her ear off—and they find Callum in a drunken stupor, bashing a mirror in the bathroom. It's a brand-new house—like what the heck? Callum’s having a moment, some sort of hallucination or drunken breakdown.

We flash forward about four years and see that Laney and Callum have a daughter named Beatrix, who’s now four years old. Callum’s parents are very, very wealthy—ridiculously rich—and seem to have influence over everyone in their area. The fact that Callum is an alcoholic has been masked because his family denies he has a problem. Laney hasn’t been struck or hospitalized, so there’s no record of abuse. At this point, it’s her word against his powerful family’s.

Laney is reaching her breaking point. Every night, Callum drinks to excess and becomes blackout drunk or violently sick. One night, Laney, Callum, and Beatrix leave a party hosted by Callum's mom. Callum insists on driving. Laney refuses, but his mother glares and pressures them. He drives anyway, and of course, it doesn’t end well. They get into a car crash.

Happily, everyone is mostly fine, but Callum runs off because he can’t be seen drunk. Laney is done. She’s got to figure out how to protect herself and her daughter. Adelaide picks her up from the crash scene. The sheriff who responds was at the party and had been honored by Callum’s parents, so he’s biased. Laney has no one to believe her—except Adelaide, who’s been by her side through it all.

Adelaide comes up with the idea: what if they stage a haunting so terrifying it scares Callum into leaving? Laney hesitates but eventually agrees. Adelaide’s ideas are wild, and at first Laney isn’t sure she can go that far. But each night, Callum comes home as if nothing happened, acting like the car crash didn’t exist. I just wanted to punch him in the face—what the actual WTF?

Laney has her own secrets too, which we don’t learn right away. There are quite a few trigger warnings in this story. Some people note that it has “Lorraine Warren vibes,” and kind of, yes. One thing the book does well is portraying the haunting. I love watching spooky ghost shows on YouTube—wondering if what I see is real or how it was faked. I’ve gone on several ghost tours myself, which I enjoy mostly for the history and the stories.

This book starts to get pretty intense. I won’t discount the possibility of actual supernatural events—that’s up to your interpretation—but it’s an interesting take on haunted houses. The premise is well done. My biggest complaint was the constant arguing between Laney and Callum. It gets exhausting after a while. Laney wants full custody of Beatrix and needs Callum to abandon them to make that happen. That’s why she’s trying to haunt him away.

The dialogue between them can get repetitive, but the narrator of the audiobook did a great job overall. The story is spooky, creepy, and I would’ve been terrified. I definitely don’t plan on crawling into any attics to set up fake hauntings anytime soon.

Heather from “Reads with Two S’s” highlights that the book discusses the hardships of being a woman but also contrasts that with female friendship, and I think that’s true. There’s the overbearing mother-in-law, the woman who wants out but lacks the means, and the spoiled husband who’s always been protected by his family. Callum’s family avoids confrontation and denies everything.

I think it’s a uniquely told story. Was I thrilled about all of it? No, but some parts were really cool. There’s a blurry line between what’s fake and what’s real, and I was intrigued to the end. The ending—I could take it or leave it. It makes sense for the characters, even if I didn’t love it.

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