Creepy Old House + New Pregnancy = Disaster

TITLE: The Chrysalis
AUTHOR: Brendan Deneen
PUBLISHER: Tor Books
PUBLISHING DATE: September 4, 2018

FROM GOODREADS: Welcome to the dark side of suburbia. 

Barely employed millennials Tom and Jenny Decker have to grow up fast when they lose their cheap Manhattan apartment. Leaving "the city" is hard, but the blow is softened when they stumble upon a surprisingly affordable house in the suburbs. 

For Tom, the bills, the mortgage, and Jenny's unexpected pregnancy add up to terror. He's not ready for this kind of responsibility. 

Then he finds the thing in the basement. It makes him feel like a winner even as it scrambles his senses. A new job soon has him raking in the big bucks--enough that Jenny can start making her entrepreneurial dreams come true. 

The Deckers' dream home conceals more than one deadly secret. As Tom's obsession with the basement grows, Jenny realizes that to save her family, she must expose everything. Before it destroys them all. 

No one ever really wants to grow up...but sometimes behaving like an adult is the only way to survive. 

MY THOUGHTS: I've basically wanted to read this book since it first came out so I finally cracked down and decided to make time for it.  Boy am I glad that I did. So Tom and Jenny are your basic millenials.  Tom is a bartender and Jenny basically hangs out with him at the bar when not working her job as a personal trainer.  One day they receive a notice that their rent is increasing and they will no longer be able to afford it.  They start house hunting and are shocked when they score a huge old house outside city limits.  Soon after moving in, Jenny learns she is pregnant and both of them are forced to grow up.  However, the glowing blob in the basement has other ideas.

I really enjoyed "The Chrysalis" and pretty much read it in a day.  Every time I put it down, I would quickly pick it back up and convince myself I'd read just one more chapter.  I don't know that I ever fell in love with either Jenny or Tom as characters, but they were likable and I wanted to find out what was happening to them.  As the story unfolds, Tom's obsession with the chrysalis he discovers in the basement takes over and boy does it take a toll on the relationship.  Add that to the red stain on the kitchen floor which never quite disappears and you just know the book is headed down a road toward disaster.

"The Chrysalis" isn't what I expected.  Initially I thought it was a haunted house tale but instead I ended up with more of a haunted individuals tale.  And it worked.  I was even pleased with the ending and was glad that the author wasn't afraid to take some chances.  I will warn people who have little tolerance for whiny character that they might find Tom annoying.  When he basically had what equates to a mid-life crisis because he had to get a full-time job and cut his hair, I felt no sympathy.  However, on the whole, I think any horror lover might want to give this book a try.  In addition, I think someone new to horror might even like this because I kind of consider it "horror-lite." 

MY RATING:  4 Paws