Book Review of The Haunting of Emily Grace by Elena Taylor

An eerie suspense novel in which a grieving woman takes a job at an isolated mansion only to become wrapped up in the curse that seems to have befallen its eccentric owner.

Emily Grace has just endured the worst loss imaginable. Drowning in grief, she has lost her home, her friends, and her career. Her only remaining lifeline is a job working for an eccentric millionaire. Along with his wife, he has been building a mansion on a secluded island surrounded by a harsh and unforgiving sea. When his wife disappears under mysterious circumstances, Emily is hired to finish the project.

Locals believe the house is cursed, but their warnings go unheeded as Emily tries to rebuild her life. After what she has been through, nothing can scare her except perhaps the attention of a handsome man offering more than friendship.

Yet there is something strange about the solitary fortress: accidents, mishaps, ghostly whispers through the surrounding forest, and footsteps when she is completely alone. Is there truly a curse, or is the ethereal specter in the window an omen of something more sinister?

This is not a ghost book. There are some haunting-like elements, but it is not a ghost story.

Emily Grace has suffered a terrible loss, and keeping that loss a mystery for so long feels unnecessary. Understanding it earlier would have made it easier to bond with her character. This is part of why the rating feels closer to 3.75 stars rather than four.

Emily lost her five-year-old daughter to brain cancer. The father was never in the picture, and Emily has been spiraling, eventually losing her job and home. Her last lifeline is the offer to finish the construction work originally managed by her employer’s missing wife. The wife went missing a year earlier, and although there were few leads, the husband, Cameron, sometimes behaves as though she is still just around the corner. His presentation feels inconsistent: not grieving enough at times, yet still speaking of her as if she is present.

Emily begins working on the mansion’s interior projects while she is still struggling emotionally. Cameron seems relatively composed until he receives a call about his estranged daughter, Chloe, who is coming to stay.

Chloe appears suspicious from the start. She is in her twenties, bears scars from a car accident, has quit her career as a perfumer, and has suddenly returned to her father’s life. She lies frequently between Cameron and Emily as though they are not communicating, which makes her behavior seem increasingly suspicious.

Emily makes friends among the locals after commuting by ferry from Seattle to the island. The mansion sits slightly apart on a smaller connected island called Monks Rock.

She dislikes crossing the bridge to the mansion and does it quickly whenever necessary. Locals share whispers: perhaps Cameron killed his wife, perhaps the island is haunted, perhaps the convent and monks of the past left behind unsettled spirits.

The story could have leaned more into these supernatural elements. As it stands, the build-up feels eerie but the resolution feels abrupt and unsettled, as though the direction became clear only at the very end. The ending arrives extremely quickly in the final portion of the book, after many possibilities are thrown out without being deeply explored.

Emily becomes more sympathetic once the source of her grief is finally revealed, but it would have been more effective to disclose it earlier to help readers understand her emotional state. For much of the book, her “important loss” is hinted at without clarity, leaving her motivations unclear for too long.

The setting of the house is atmospheric: a modern, mostly empty structure perched on a cliff overlooking the sea. It is easy to believe the place might be haunted by earlier events on Monk’s Rock.

But the story shifts more toward Emily being haunted by memories of her daughter rather than by literal ghosts. Cameron, described as eccentric, reads more like a workaholic who struggles to be present, which may have contributed to marital conflict before his wife went missing.

The ending is rushed, with the story wrapping up in the final few pages. Suspicion around Chloe and uncertainty about Cameron build well, but the resolution feels disappointing compared to the tension earlier in the book.

Another reviewer noted that the supposed climax is messy, which aligns with the rushed feeling of the final chapters. The book leans more toward personal drama and mystery than actual haunting or supernatural themes.

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