The Cold House by A.G. Slatter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Everly is going through hell. Her husband and her four year old daughter have just been killed in a car accident. Instead of being able to grieve, she learns through a lawyer that her husband had been lying to her about who he was, and now she is rather wealthy, and questioning everything about their relationship. In order to get some space and clear her head, she accepts an offer to housesit on a little-populated island. Instead of finding relative peace, she learns that the house is cold, strange, and tied more to the mysteries of her life than she could have ever imagined.
I was lucky enough to be able to read an ARC of this book, and I am pleased to report that I absolutely adored it! Everly was a wonderful character, the setting was awesome, and the entire novella oozed atmosphere. It went in a direction I wasn’t expecting, which upped this from four to five stars for me!
Everly. Let’s begin with Everly. She is an author who uses writing to exorcise her personal demons, which I can certainly respect. I cannot even begin to imagine the torment she must have faced, losing her partner and her child, and then finding out that her partner had lied to her throughout their entire relationship. I don’t think I would have even a sliver of the strength she did if I were in her situation. Strong is the most apt descriptor for Everly, and I admired her will greatly. She did float through some of what was happening around her initially, which I know is often a detractor when looking at a main character. In this case though, it made perfect sense as she did her best to navigate the fog of grief she was lost in, as she tried to determine what her future would look like now. I cannot go too much into detail about many aspects of her life and what happens to her in the book, but suffice it to say, she was a fighter.
We did get to meet some interesting side characters along with Everly, that all played important parts in the tale. The vicar of the local church and her wife. The hedgewitch who owns and operates the local ‘spooky’ shop. Some others that I don’t want to mention here, in order to avoid spoilers. Through those that Everly meets, she is able to replenish her pools of strength, get things off her chest she never thought she’d say aloud, and learn vital information about the situation she finds herself in.
The settings of St Jude’s Isle, and the house Everly stays in on it, Morningthorpe Manor, both added a great deal to this story. Setting is always an important part of a book, but when there are folktale elements, the import is even greater. Here we have an isolated isle that can only be reached at low tide, and a manor that is whispered about by locals. They both have the effect of isolating Everly further from the world, and also present new challenges for her to navigate. And the inhabitants mentioned above are just as part of St Jude’s Isle as it seemingly is of them. In the small town of St Jude, there was also a very unique church. I hesitate to say further, as spoilers are definitely not something I want to impose upon you.
The setting, the fascinating characters, even the elements of grief, all gelled together perfectly to create an immaculate atmosphere. Sometimes when I read a novella, I worry that there won’t be enough space to fully flesh out the tale, or that space will be wasted on unnecessary fluff. In this case, happily, I found the length of the story was absolutely perfect. So if you share similar concerns, I don’t think you’ll have a problem here.
I am so pleased that I had the opportunity to read this ahead of publication, because it was brilliant. I’ve never read A.G. Slatter before, but some of her works are on my TBR, and I am excited to get to them. If you enjoy shorter horror stories, folk horror and a potentially haunted manor, then I certainly hope you pick The Cold House up on it’s publication day, the 7th of October, 2025.
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Rebecka O'Malley 