Harry was raised in an ultra-strict, religious home that had no use for horror films, but from her first viewing of The Lost Boys at a slumber party, she was hooked and couldn't get enough. Fast-forward a number of years, and Harry has been on her own since her late teens, that is, until she has Gabe at 19. They do okay these days, although the pandemic all but killed her waitressing career, but she's recently gotten a job as a housekeeper for the notorious recluse horror director, Javier Castillo. His huge, looming home called Bright Horses is as intimidating as he is, but he pays quite well and he has no idea what a huge fan Harry is. For the past decade, Harry and Gabe have lived in a nice apartment building owned by a kind, elderly landlord who has never raised the rent, but the pandemic caused Harry to burn through her savings anyway. Then out of the blue, the landlord retires and hands over his properties to his greedy son, who has decided to sell to developers and Harry finds out she has two months to find a new place to live for her and Gabe. Needless to say, she's quite preoccupied and it's obvious, even to Castillo as she is working. While Harry really needs this job at Castillo's house, certain things at Bright Horses just give her the creeps.
For starters, Castillo is very particular about specific things, such as Harry removing her shoes when she enters, her wearing a mask while she is there, and basically there's no chit-chat allowed. While these rules aren't exactly creepy, Castillo is imposing and allows no room for argument to his rules. He works alongside her cleaning his prolific horror movie prop collection (probably to make sure she doesn't steal or break anything, truth be told), but there are certain items that just send chills up her spine. Specifically, there's the eerie costume from Castillo's hit film A Messenger From Hell of the demonic character Sten, and sometimes, she feels like the thing is watching her. Most recently, while she was upstairs cleaning the guest rooms, rooms which no one ever stays in by the way, she starts hearing thumping sounds coming from the room at the end of the hall - the locked one she has been forbidden to enter. She even thought she heard someone calling for help. Is she going mad or is the stress in her life getting to her?
Then out of nowhere, Castillo invites Harry and Gabe for dinner, which seems odd since up to now, Harry has always felt like "the help," but she agrees, as she thinks it will be nice for Gabe, who is also a big fan. Prior to the dinner, Harry decides to read up on what drove Castillo to leave the success of California and move into utter reclusion in Chicago, so she and Gabe won't say the wrong thing at dinner. It turns out that he and his beloved wife, Lena, had a troubled young son named Michael, a child Javier never really wanted to begin with, as Lena was always enough for him. Well, Lena's devotion and the adoration of thousands of fans was, at least. Michael had a taste for the wild life, and as a teen, he was always getting into trouble in clubs he was too young to enter, while being seen in the company of a bunch of beautiful models. When Michael's 19-year-old model girlfriend was found murdered, it appeared he was to blame, although his wealth and privilege protected him, up until the time that he and his mother Lena vanished one night without a trace, fleeing justice. Javier, unable to bear the scrutiny and suspicion of the public eye, abandoned his career in Hollywood and secretly moved to Chicago. And now Harry, his housekeeper, and her 13-year-old son Gabe are having dinner with him. That's not weird at all.
And actually, it isn't. It turns out Gabe has so much to talk to Javier about, being as big a fan of the man's work as his mom is, and the three develop a sweet little friendship. As this friendship grows, so does the intensity of the seemingly malevolent entity in the home that seems directed at Harry. No longer is it just staring at her, but it has even attacked her, although leaving no visible marks, and she's had odd visions regarding the room upstairs as well. What's more is that Castillo seems increasingly focused on Gabe and Harry fears he is growing too attached, perhaps seeing Gabe as a substitute for his own missing son. Things come to a head when Castillo surprises Harry and Gabe by inviting old friends Daniel Jensen and Amina Collucci to join them for dinner. Gabe is over the moon at meeting the two lead stars of A Messenger From Hell, but the evening takes an odd turn that ends in a terrible tragedy.
With Harry and Gabe facing homelessness, Javier offers them a place to stay, but with all the weird happenings at the home, Harry would rather find a place of their own, but soon circumstances give her no choice and she acquiesces. It's fine at first, but then she realizes that there is much more to Castillo and Bright Horses than she knew.
The story unfolds in chapters that focus on Harry Then and Now, and also Javier Then and Now, so you get details about Harry's upbringing and struggles, while also discovering the ins and outs of Javier's long career and difficult family life. Christina Henry never disappoints and The House That Horror Built is no exception. Its an engaging tale that builds to a frightening crescendo, and then ends abruptly, which is something that she did in her previous book, Good Girls Don't Die. It's definitely not a bad thing, but seems to be a change in her recent style. Personally, I wouldn't have minded an Epilogue as I always want to know what happens "After," but the story was definitely complete at the end.
Overall, if you are a Christina Henry fan, you'll want to get your hands on this one as soon as you can. It's different from her twisted fairytales, but I also really love it when she branches out and just does pure horror, as she did here. Highly recommended!
