This first thing I did after I finished reading this book was preorder a signed copy. The second thing I did was add every other Laurel Hightower book to my TBR pile; up high, so they don’t get crushed by the weight.
I went into this read expecting a rehash of a bunch of movies I’ve seen where a film crew go into a [haunted location] and [bad stuff happens]. I was good with that. They’re enjoyable movies. The jump scares are usually broadcast at least a minute before they happen, the CGI is generally amusing at best, but they’re good, trashy fun. I would’ve been satisfied if this had been the book equivalent of B grade horror.
What I got was so much more.
“There was something there, something in that house that wasn’t … right. Wasn’t natural.”
For the first time in twenty years, the surviving Lasco’s are returning to 2103 Harper Lane. They’re being accompanied by a film crew, because family drama is always better when it’s televised.
“She says she’s going to tell us. All of it.”
Stella’s now adult children are each living in the shadow of the capital T trauma of their childhood, which culminated in the event that transformed their before into after.
Depending on who you believe, Stella is either the cause of this event or its biggest victim.
“However bad you think you had it, it was far, far worse for me.”
This book gets the impacts of trauma right while highlighting that one size does not fit all. There’s no clear consensus about what happened or what it continues to mean for them individually and as family, and the surviving Lasco kids live their adult lives in vastly different ways.
I wasn’t expecting to be so conflicted as I read. If you search a dictionary for narcissism and gaslighting, Stella’s is the face that should be accompanying the descriptions. She’s the kind of woman that you love to hate and, because of this, it’s really difficult to see her as the victim she portrays herself as.
The pain I felt for her children was visceral. I desperately wanted the adult kids to get the validation they deserved. I wanted The Cleaner’s audiences to be left with no doubt about the pain Stella caused her family.
The other part of me was hoping for the paranormal to practically leap off the page at me and that’s what messed with my head. If I got the oozy spooky I signed up for, then what did that say about Stella’s responsibility?
The squirminess of wanting accountability while yearning for the paranormal made this a much more uncomfortable read than I was expecting. I love that it took me there, because apparently I’m a masochist but also because I don’t want easy reads.
I want to be challenged. I want to have to think and feel and question. This book gave me complicated and my squirminess now is about needing someone to talk to about the [bad stuff]. Someone I know needs to read this book very soon.
I practically hoovered this book. I was left feeling so satisfied with how it ended but I still want more. I now need the book where we hang out with Carrie in her other job.
So, what awaits us on the third floor? Something awesome!
Thank you so much to BookSirens and Ghoulish Books for the opportunity to read this book.
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There is nothing like family
The not knowing. That’s what really got to me. I had to find out. What happened? What’s going to happen? I couldn’t/wouldn’t stop. I started the day at 40% and I plowed through the rest in a reading frenzy. There was no way I could go to sleep without some resolution. I did not want those dreams.
