Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker

I wonder why this was published by sff stalwart tordotcom instead of by its horror imprint, Nightfire, as the also creepy (and just as speculative, if not more so) Crypt Of The Moon Spider was. Regardless, I’m so glad that this novella has been released as a standalone book, perfect as a quick-ish read as the cold and dark start to roll in to where I live in downcounty Maryland.

Mara is the odd duck in her family of overbearing overachievers. She doesn’t really know what to do with her life despite being well into her twenties. She keeps trying community college but mostly works in retail, and does some light maintenance work on her uncle’s rental properties in exchange for a break on the rent of her own apartment.

When her oldest cousin Jeremy mentions that he has an opening behind the scenes of the cable TV show he’s hosting, Mara is initially reluctant to accept. But community college sucks, so after a few misfires, she finally joins him on the set of his ghosthunting/home reno show, Haunt Sweet Home. The show focuses on homeowners who have just bought a fixer upper that may or may not be haunted. The day crew focuses on the home makeover part of the show, while the night crew focuses on the hauntings. As Mara quickly learns, production is not above creating a few unsettling effects of their own in order to make for good television.

As a non-union production assistant on the night crew, Mara is at the very bottom of the pecking order, so is given the most uncomfortable and annoying tasks. She doesn’t super mind this: being a general dogsbody means that she doesn’t have to think too much, and skulking around in the dark has never really bothered her, given her upbringing. But when a floater from the day crew starts tagging along to help her out, Mara starts to question what’s really going on around her. The show might be manufacturing ghosts for its viewers, but could some of those ghosts end up being real?

I overall really enjoyed this ghost story but I have to say that it was primarily because I liked and sympathized with Mara. Her family sucked. It was weird for me because there’s a moment where Mara’s new friend Jo accuses her of not appreciating what she has, and while I understand that having a big, cheerful, artistic/musical family can be a blessing, her family members all treat Mara pretty poorly. The main exception is Oma, and even there Mara’s sadness is perfectly justified. While I get that not everyone in a clan can look out for each other — and cousins can definitely be the worst, especially when they’re in a pack — her parents are especially crappy in that American way I’ve never understood. Why do some people treat parenthood like a reverse custodial sentence that ends at eighteen years? And I get it, families in the 21st century are probably better than families in the 19th, just in the general way that everything has improved with time and technology, but I really couldn’t take Jo’s accusation at all seriously. It just felt like more of the same bullying and gaslighting that Mara’s been subject to her whole life, and I didn’t care for it.

I was also unconvinced by the double (triple?) twist of the library haunting, especially when the owners found out about Mara’s role in it. I suppose since at least one reveal wasn’t televised, that keeps the show’s fraudulence secret. I did like the tentative exploration of what it means to make art, of the fusion of artist with creation. While I don’t think it was perfectly dealt with here, it did feel like the seed of something great for Sarah Pinsker to keep working on in following stories. I’ve really enjoyed most of her other Hugo-nominated works to date, and while Haunt Sweet Home isn’t quite as up there in my estimation as Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather or Two Truths And A Lie, it’s still a great book to cozy up with as fall works its way into the year.

Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker was published September 3 2024 by tordotcom and is available from all good booksellers, including