Harmony House

by Nic Sheff

Overview

Carrie meets American Horror Story meets The Shining in this terrifying YA horror novel from the author of Tweak and Schizo.

Something’s not right in Beach Haven.

Jen Noonan’s father thinks a move to Harmony House is the key to salvation, but to everyone who has lived there before, it is a portal to pure horror.

After her alcoholic mother’s death, Jen’s father cracked. He dragged Jen to a dilapidated old manor on the shore of New Jersey to start their new lives—but Jen can tell that the place has an unhappy history. She can feel it the same way she can feel her anger flowing out of her, affecting the world in strange ways she can’t explain.

But Harmony House is more than just a creepy old estate. It’s got a chilling past—and the more Jen discovers its secrets, the more the house awakens. Visions of a strange boy who lived in the house long ago follow Jen wherever she goes, and her father’s already-fragile sanity disintegrates before her eyes. As the forces in the house join together to terrorize Jen, she must find a way to escape the past she didn’t know was haunting her—and the mysterious and terrible power she didn’t realize she had.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062337092
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/22/2016
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	745,171
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Nic Sheff is an author, screenwriter, and recovering drug addict and alcoholic. His memoir of addiction, Tweak, was a New York Times bestseller. His first work of fiction, Schizo, won him much critical acclaim. Nic is a huge fan of horror-in film and on the page. Harmony House is his first novel in this genre.

Caitlin Davies is an actress and voice artist. She has a bachelor's degree from Vassar College and has studied acting at the Eugene O'Neill National Institute, the British American Drama Academy, the Barrow Group, and Brown University/Trinity Rep.

Original bio sent from Cassandra:

Cassandra Campbell began doing voice overs as the voice for Calvin Klein's Italian commercials. This was followed by commercial and documentary recording in both English and Italian. She has recorded many audiobooks and has received several AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as an Audie(R) Award nomination. As an actress and director, she has worked at the Public, the Mint, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stagewest, Theatreworks, the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, Millmountain Theatre, the National Shakespeare Company, and the New York Fringe Festival.

Noah Galvin has performed in numerous regional and off-Broadway plays, including performances in Yosemite, Treasure Island, Our Town, and Broadway Kids. Also a narrator, he has read books by Stephen Chbosky and Matthew Quick, among others.

Editorial Reviews

01/04/2016
Sheff (Schizo) uses Gothic trappings to explore the many forms that addiction can take. Strange things start happening soon after Jen Noonan and her father move into Harmony House on the New Jersey shore as winter caretakers. They are both grieving the death of Jen’s alcoholic mother, yet her already religious father seems to be descending into dangerous zealotry. Soon Jen starts hearing voices, and the spooky old house isn’t helping her mood, but she has met some new friends and hopes to settle in. It’s not to be. As her father becomes increasingly consumed by religious fervor, Jen has visions of the home’s evil past and copes by taking pills. Although entertaining, Sheff’s story is rushed (especially the violent conclusion), with scares served up as if following a horror blueprint. Jen’s burgeoning “powers” aren’t explored much, and Colin, the nice local boy she meets, manifests at highly convenient times, such as to save her from a violent teen’s attack. Even so, the book’s chills might appeal to those looking for a quick, eerie read. Ages 14–up. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

The haunting hells [Sheff] has brought to this debut are chillingly realistic, evoking the classic Kingsian horror of both Carrie and The Shining.” — Booklist

“Sheff writes solid suspense that recalls the classics: both Stephen King’s The Shining and Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, among others. A solid and quite frightening tale of the supernatural.” — Kirkus Reviews

“The interspersed narratives about the dreadful incidents that have happened in the house are gripping and disturbing… horror fans seeking a good scare may find some enjoyable dread here.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

From the Publisher

The haunting hells [Sheff] has brought to this debut are chillingly realistic, evoking the classic Kingsian horror of both Carrie and The Shining.

Booklist

The interspersed narratives about the dreadful incidents that have happened in the house are gripping and disturbing… horror fans seeking a good scare may find some enjoyable dread here.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

The interspersed narratives about the dreadful incidents that have happened in the house are gripping and disturbing… horror fans seeking a good scare may find some enjoyable dread here.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

The haunting hells [Sheff] has brought to this debut are chillingly realistic, evoking the classic Kingsian horror of both Carrie and The Shining.

Booklist

04/01/2016
Gr 8 Up—After Jen Noonan and her father, Anselm, are emotionally destroyed by the death of Jen's mother, her father relocates them to a dark, abandoned mansion called Harmony House. Formerly a home for unwed mothers run by the Catholic church, Harmony House, with its sinister presence, drives Jen's father deeper into religious fanaticism and causes Jen to have terrifying nightmares and visions. The book begins with a prologue, set at Harmony House in 1867, describing the unexplained pregnancy of a teenager named Cornelia (the unborn child was possibly fathered by the devil) and her subsequent dramatic suicide. Disappointingly, Cornelia is absent from the remaining narrative, though Jen (in the present) has a terrifying vision of Cornelia, and a new friend is haunted by the vision as well. Creepy cadence and Jen's increasing paranoia propel the narrative forward, along with strange plot points like an earthquake and another unexplained pregnancy. Very strong language and adult themes of sex and religion keep the story entertaining and creepy but can sometimes feel gratuitous. An underwhelming and decidedly weak resolution feels less like a sigh of relief and more like a sigh of disappointment. Horror buffs will recognize the various nods to classic films, such as The Exorcist, The Shining, Rosemary's Baby, The Haunting, and Psycho, but may feel left in the dark by the overstuffed tale and some of the dead-end plot points. VERDICT Give this book to teens who have read all the horror they can get their hands on and are looking for something more.—Amy M. Laughlin, Darien Library, CT

School Library Journal

2015-12-08
A girl dominated by her fanatically religious father tries to escape when he confines her inside a haunted house. Jen knows her father is approaching insanity in his religious devotion, but since the death of her alcoholic mother, she has been trapped. When her father takes a job as the offseason caretaker of a notoriously strange hotel, she immediately senses danger. Jen gets vivid visions of the previous occupants. The building formerly had been a Catholic home for unwed mothers, run by a monsignor who, if his ghostly apparitions are accurate, was an evil and abusive person; the nun also in charge was no better. Jen finds herself endangered not only by the house, but by an apparently unhinged local boy who attacks her when she refuses his advances. Jen frequently draws from a stash of drugs she has hidden to escape mentally from the stress, but she begins to realize that she must actually escape the house. Scenes of the miseries inflicted on the building's previous occupants are interspersed with Jen's narration, ramping up the tension. As events build to a truly frightening climax, Jen may have to rely on something supernatural to save her. Sheff writes solid suspense that recalls the classics: both Stephen King's The Shining and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, among others. A solid and quite frightening tale of the supernatural. (Horror. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews