Review: The House of furies by Madeleine Roux

House of Furies, an all-new gothic horror series from the New York Times bestselling author of Asylum.
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After escaping a harsh school where punishment was the lesson of the day, seventeen-year-old Louisa Ditton is thrilled to find employment as a maid at a boarding house. But soon after her arrival at Coldthistle House, Louisa begins to realize that the house’s mysterious owner, Mr. Morningside, is providing much more than lodging for his guests. Far from a place of rest, the house is a place of judgment, and Mr. Morningside and his unusual staff are meant to execute their own justice on those who are past being saved.

I am stuck in mediocre book phase and I can't get out!! 

2.5/5 stars
I picked up this book at a library on a whim - only because the page design and illustrations inside of it caught my eye. I am saddened to tell you that the illustrations remained to be the best thing about this book. Because the book itself was very meh. 

​It is not a bad book per say, it's just - useless? 400 pages of no apparent plot and no satisfactory ending. Apparently it will be a series (which I didn't know) so the book never actually ended, but rather created an opening for the next book. When I was done reading it I felt like I just wasted all of my time for nothing - because nothing really got resolved.

​At first it was also very hard for me to get used to the format of writing. Maybe because it was in first person, or maybe because it was different (not in a bad way) but it took me a while. But I have to say that when I did get used to the writing I really enjoyed it. 

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​On numerous occasions I found myself wanting to DNF the book, because the plot was going nowhere and everything was just dragging, but I persevered for one big reason - this book is not your typical YA cliche book! It doesn't have the overused tropes, it doesn't have "girls turning stupid over boys" and it didn't have "Insta-love" (there was an instance where I thought it would go that way, but it didn't and I was very happy for it) - and those were reasons good enough for me to keep reading! It was refreshing to read something very different, even if in the end it all added up to pretty much nothing. ​

That said, it was a solid 4 star read till the last few chapters - that was when I realized that this will just end in a cliff-hanger (although I wouldn't call it exactly a cliff-hanger, as it wasn't dramatic and it didn't leave me wishing for more).

​Also this book is claimed to be gothic-horror, well it wasn't. Sure it was gothic, and there was one very disturbing instance, but it wasn't horror. It wasn't scary. If anything it even felt a bit like middle-grade novel, and not even YA.