The Haunting by Natasha Preston
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
The Gist
Let’s be honest: The Haunting by Natasha Preston is anything but haunting. The title promises chills and suspense. What we get instead? Teen angst, repetitive characters, and a plot that leads nowhere. If there was a ghost in here, I must’ve blinked and missed it.
The Details
Preston recycles the same protagonist in every book. Boring, naive, and completely forgettable. This one stumbles through the story with zero awareness, no real growth, and even less personality. It’s like watching a cardboard cutout try to solve a mystery.
The pacing drags. The tension fizzles. Every time something interesting threatens to happen, it vanishes. The dialogue doesn’t help—it’s flat, awkward, and painfully slow. You keep waiting for a twist, some kind of payoff. Instead, the book ends with a cliffhanger so abrupt it feels like a joke.
And not a funny one. A frustrating one.
Look, I’m not against cliffhangers. When done well, they can be powerful. But this wasn’t clever—it was lazy. It didn’t tie anything up. It didn’t deepen the mystery. It just ended like the author ran out of time or interest and hit “publish.”
Worse, it reeks of marketing strategy: leave readers hanging so they’ll buy the next book. Spoiler alert: I won’t.
The Verdict
In short, The Haunting misleads with its title, wastes its potential, and leaves readers stranded. I’ve read enough Natasha Preston to know this formula by now—and I’ve finally learned my lesson. If you’re looking for real suspense, haunting atmosphere, or even just a plot that finishes what it starts, look elsewhere.
