The Stranger in Our House by Sarah A. Denzil
Genre: Psychological thriller, Suspense, Supernatural
Read: 17th March 2023
Published: 7th February 2023
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
What would you do if your son became a stranger overnight?
Tired of their cramped London apartment, Aaron and Meera relocate to the idyllic village of Little Crake along with their two children, Noah and Uma. The new cottage looks out over the many miles of woodland beyond. It’s a far cry from their tiny flat and the perfect fresh start.
Until fifteen-year-old Noah wanders alone into the forest. For three days, a search party combs the woods. Aaron braces himself for the worst, convinced his son is lost forever. Until he finds Noah alive, hiding in the hollow of a tree. It feels like a second chance.
But why doesn’t Noah remember those three days in the woods? And why are there strange cuts slashed across his torso? Why did he cover himself in mud and hide away in an old oak tree?
Once a studious and gentle boy, Noah becomes a troublemaker at school. He withdraws from his family, sleepwalks at night, and creates eerie sketches of Dark Valley Forest. Aaron tells himself that Noah just needs time to readjust. He’ll soon be himself again. But Meera believes otherwise. This new version of Noah is harsh and cruel—a complete stranger.
A mother knows when something is wrong with her child. Aaron may be deluded, but she knows the boy who came back from the woods is not their son.
MY THOUGHTS:
He looks like my son...he sounds like my son...but he's not my son...
What would you do if your son became a stranger overnight? One day he was your son and the next...a stranger took his place. He looks like your son, he even sounds like you son...but he isn't your son. He is a stranger. An evil malevolence that seeks to envelop and destroy your family. How will you get out of it alive? Thus, what ensues is an atmospheric psychological thriller steeped in Yorkshire folklore and the legend of the Gytrash. Not my usual trope but I do so enjoy a Sarah Denzil thriller. Needless to say, having not really read the premise beforehand, I had no idea what I was in for!
THE STRANGER IN OUR HOUSE is unique in its storytelling in that Denzil has created a narrative using solely diary entries, voice notes and articles which thus gives it an air of something derived from actual events. Even the Foreword is written in such a way that I had to wonder if this was in fact a true story. But Denzil was clever in her portrayal of this story that it seemed as such despite being entirely a work of fiction. Of course, at the time of starting the book I still had no idea just how "Amityville horror" it would be, without the levitating furniture and all that. This was something far deeper, something rooted within the psychological masquerading as folklore.
The Aiken family had had enough of London and wanted their children to grow up in the clean fresh of the rural countryside. So after a visit to a North Yorkshire village, Little Crake, and falling in love with the cottage Woodsman's Hut, Aaron and Meera sell their pokey little flat in Dagenham for the greener pastures of Little Crake. In less than a month, their entire lives would be irrevocably changed.
A couple of weeks after the move on his way home from school, their eldest child Noah goes missing in the woodlands bordering their cottage. A search party is summoned and after three days the family assumes the worst. Until curiously he is found sandwiched inside the hollow of an oak tree trunk. He is covered in mud and has criss cross cuts on his abdomen. His voice pleads in the still silence..."Help me!"
Noah remembers nothing of his ordeal and yet upon his return he is a completely different child to their usual quiet yet happy son. He is even more silent than ever and speaks only to utter words of anger or to taunt his younger sister, 13 year old Uma. But his taunts are not that of the usual sibling rivalry kind...they are cruel and harsh, bordering on violent. Uma comes to fear the brother she once adored, locking her bedroom door to stop him from coming in an standing threateningly over her as she slept. He would constantly stomp in the night in his attic bedroom, mutter to himself "I am not Noah, I am not Noah" and draw the most hideously frightening images of the woods which held him captive for three days.
Within the first day back at school, Noah is suspended for violently lashing out at a student. Aaron is forced to contend with Noah at home, but his son only locks himself in his attic bedroom, chanting to himself, staring at nothing or drawing those horrible images of evil faces and gnarled trees.
It isn't long before Meera begins to believe their son is possessed by this evil Gytrash a local woman told them about. But Aaron isn't so sure. Something happened to their son in those woods...besides consuming copious amounts of hallucinogenic mushrooms which no doubt contributes to his memory loss. He is withdrawn, lashing out in anger, sleepwalking and obsessed with drawing hideous images of the woods - the Dark Valley Forest. To help process what happened to him, Noah undertakes therapy but is it enough? Or is it too late to save him? To save themselves...
THE STRANGER IN OUR HOUSE turned out to be something completely different to what I expected (having not read the premise before I began). I'm not usually a fan of stories with a supernatural element unless they are done in just the right way. This one was and you are let feeling flummoxed as to the complete hash everything was made by Noah just wandering into the woods one day. We do learn why in the end though not before all hell has been wreaked upon this family and they have been ripped apart from the inside out. All the while reading about the Gytrash, folklore and the supernatural hold upon Noah I still kept waiting for the logical side to kick in. A psychotic break of some kind maybe? But which of it is it to be? You will have to read it to find out!
The story is wrapped up with a few drawings made by Noah and a conclusion that deftly ties the different threads together nicely. You aren't left with a feeling of unfinished business or loose ends and you aren't left wanting more. It ended just right.
The story definitely has a creepiness about it and the atmosphere tense throughout. If you like a mix of psychology, suspense and the supernatural then you will love THE STRANGER IN OUR HOUSE.
I would like to thank #SarahADenzil and #Netgalley for an ARC of #TheStrangerInOurHouse in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
As a bestselling author of psychological suspense novels, Sarah's books include number one bestseller Silent Child, which was a Goodreads Choice semi-finalist in 2017. Her books have been published in several different languages and have appeared on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list.
Sarah lives in Yorkshire with her husband and cat, enjoying the scenic countryside and rather unpredictable weather. She loves to write moody, psychological fiction with plenty of twists and turns.
For cat pictures and book news follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
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