In the wake of his wife Pippa's death, Alfie is doing everything he can to make life carry on as normal for their twin girls Sylvie and Cassia. Tucked away in their family home of Hart House in London, there isn't much to break the monotony of grief or to fill the Pippa-shaped void now left in their lives. Before long, Sylvie and Cassia struggle to sleep.
"Daddy, there's a man in our room," they say. What Alfie dismisses initially as the girls harmlessly processing their loss through the form of an imaginary friend soon becomes something more unsettling.
"Daddy, he said he's going to take us away," the girls report pleasantly. Black Mamba, he's called. He wants a seat at the dinner table, he protects the girls at night. He whispers things to them. Things that grow darker in the night.
As the days pass, it's clear that something sinister walks the halls of Hart House. Cassia and Sylvie become silhouettes of their former, vibrant selves, Alfie begins having visions in the night--of Pippa, and something much darker.
But as the stories often go, sometimes the true darkness is that which lies within.
For lovers of "The Babadook" and "The Haunting of Hill House," "Let Him In" is an unforgettable, terrifying story of loss, grief, and the horror that often sneaks in unsuspecting. Superbly-written and suspenseful from the first page, I found myself totally immersed in the world of Alfie and the twins, and found the story to have an almost cinematic quality because of how well it flowed together. Certainly not for the faint of heart, "Let Him In" might just be a horror masterpiece--it's the kind of story that, long after the last page, makes you question the reality of anything you read. Bravo.
Rating: 5 Stars
Publication Details: Out 10/3/2023, Poisoned Pen Press
*Many thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for providing me with my advanced review copy of this title*
