The Invited
By Jennifer McMahon
Doubleday, 9780385541381, April 2019, 368pp.
The Short of It:
Not your typical ghost story.
The Rest of It:
Nate and Helen come to town with the hopes of building their dream house and living out their lives in peace and tranquility. The land they purchased was a good price, secluded, surrounded by nature and… haunted. Helen figures this out fairly quickly but Nate is not convinced even though one bad thing happens after another.
As they build their home from scratch, Helen learns of the history behind the land and also gets to know her teen neighbor, Olive, quite well after she attempts to scare them away, pretending to be the ghost of Hattie, a young mother who was hanged for witchcraft years ago.
But there is something mysterious going on and both Helen and Olive attempt to get to the bottom of it. Helen, out of curiosity and later, duty. For Olive though, her mother walked away from her and her dad without a trace and she believes the stories surrounding Helen’s land has something to do with it.
The Invited was a welcome surprise. It had a little bit of everything and the story was rock solid. Reading it was a nice way to spend a couple of days. I’ve not read this author before but I would absolutely read her again.
Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.
Book Chatter 
I have the audio and eGalley of this one so I was happy to read you enjoyed it.
I thought it was going to be your typical ghost story, you know, all woooo wooo but it was a little smarter than that and had a nice back story.
It’s narrated by Amanda Carlin & Justine Eyre
Great post 🙂
I think I’d like the audio of this book.
Perhaps Depends on who is reading it.
This sounds like my kind of ghost story
You would enjoy this. It’s a novel but there are historical elements.
Not sure I am up for a ghost story, but this does sound like it isn’t a creepy ghost story-style book.
Sounds like a good read for summer. Ghost story, I like it
It’s interesting because usually I save ghost stories for fall but this one was a mix of things. Made it interesting.
I’m glad you enjoyed! Jennifer McMahon is a really fun author, and all her books (that I’ve read so far) are wonderfully creepy. I loved The Night Sister especially, if you’re looking for something else by her!