I acquired a overview copy from the writer. This doesn’t have an effect on the contents of my overview and all opinions are my very own.

The Place The place They Buried Your Coronary heart by Christina Henry

Mogsy’s Score: 4 of 5 stars

Style: Horror

Collection: Stand Alone

Writer: Berkley (November 4, 2025)

Size: 320 pages

Writer Info: Web site

Christina Henry is following up The Home That Horror Constructed with yet one more haunted house-themed story, however this one appears out to hit a unique nerve. Whereas there are floor similarities, such a concentrate on a mom and son, The Place The place They Buried Your Coronary heart settles into far bleaker territory and feels way more visceral, uncooked, and terrifying.

The story begins in a quiet Chicago neighborhood, the type the place everybody is aware of one another and nothing stays secret for lengthy. There are streets like this all around the nation, the quintessential instance of middle-class suburbia, apart from one blemish that spoils the entire image: the McIntyre place. Twenty years in the past, an evil man murdered his total household inside, and the home has sat untouched and rotting ever since. Now it’s simply one other unhappy landmark individuals both be taught to dwell with or faux to not see, the type that inevitably attracts the curiosity of neighborhood children. That’s what occurred to Jessie Campanelli’s little brother Paul, who went contained in the McIntyre home on a dare and by no means got here out.

In keeping with Paul’s pals, the home ate him, however adults dismissed these claims as infantile creativeness or trauma. Jessie knew higher, nonetheless. There was undoubtedly one thing improper with that home. In his grief, her father tried to burn down the place that had taken his son, and all that did was value him his life. The McIntyre home itself remained untouched by the flames, a relentless reminder of the way it destroyed Jessie’s household. Years later, she nonetheless lives in its shadow, elevating her personal son in her childhood house whereas the previous home waits down the road. And when it begins stirring once more, Jessie fears it should come for her boy prefer it got here for Paul. Solely this time, she isn’t going to let it win.

The creator’s work tends to mix human tales with horrifying themes, and The Place The place They Buried Your Coronary heart isn’t any exception, although each edge feels a bit sharper this time. In the event you benefit from the environment of small-town dread, it’s the lived-in high quality of the horror that can stand out essentially the most. That’s as a result of the McIntyre home is extra than simply haunted. Primarily based on the sections revealing its full, twisted backstory, I feel it’s extra correct to say the place is possessed by one thing genuinely evil. It feels alive and malevolent, actively searching for its unsuspecting prey. I used to be fully drawn into its darkish historical past because it was revealed in immersive, relentless element.

On the coronary heart of the novel is Jessie Campanelli, who’s initially launched as a listless, directionless teenager carrying the burden of her brother’s disappearance. Younger Jessie’s life is messy and uncooked, and whereas her outlook will be nihilistic at occasions, it’s believably rooted in grief and regret. Henry reveals her protagonist fighting that guilt, in addition to the next breakdown of her household. This sometimes makes the primary half of the ebook arduous to get by means of, for the reason that bleakness coupled with Jessie’s brooding is usually a little overwhelming, however on the identical time, it’s a part of what makes the story really feel actual and grounded.

The tone shifts as Jessie matures, first into a university pupil determining her path, after which later right into a mom whose youngster turns into the emotional heart of her world. Every thing she skilled in her youth feeds into the girl she turns into, the worry and loss reworking right into a fierce overprotectiveness. Henry does an unimaginable job exhibiting how Jessie’s relationship with the McIntyre home finally shapes her, giving her energy and a way of function. That journey is brutal with out ever feeling gratuitous, and the plot rigorously maintains a steadiness between revealing the supernatural menace and protecting the strain sufficiently excessive.

In the long run, The Place The place They Buried Your Coronary heart is perhaps certainly one of Christina Henry’s darkest books and never simply due to the scares. It’s the emotional heaviness that can persist with you, the best way she follows her protagonist by means of years of tragedy and the lingering penalties. Talking as a longtime fan of the creator’s work, I’m delighted to see her push deeper into this type of character-driven horror.