This Cursed House by Del Sandeen

Welcome Back, Booklovers! This Cursed House had already gotten my attention being Black Southern Gothic and when I saw some early readers praising it I knew I had to check it out. And what better season to read something dark than fall when the sky is cloudy, the weather is frigid, and you're in the mood to just curl up in the house? 

Jemma flees Chicago for a fresh start after her cheating boyfriend ends up getting his side woman pregnant. She receives an offer that she believes is for a tutoring job in New Orleans for the wealthy Duchon family. Upon arrival, Jemma is warned by people in town about the mysterious family who keeps themselves isolated. The longer Jemma works for them the more she understands those warnings as secrets are revealed and she discovers ghosts roam the house. Members of the Duchon family are unable to leave the property and every seven years one of them dies on the same date. The family informs Jemma that she is the key to breaking the curse. 

This Cursed House starts off very fast-paced with many twists and reveals to get readers engaged. It had my undivided attention wondering what would be revealed next or how much more the Duchon family could disgust me. However once it's clear what direction this book is going in the story starts moving at a glacial pace.  There's also some repetition that made the book lag towards the end in addition to it feeling like it hits it peak long before the ending. 

This book deals heavily with colorism and racism with the Duchon family doing vile things to uphold those standards. So the forgive and move forward messaging in the second half of the book just felt clunky as that family was undeserving of forgiveness. Some of the discussions surrounding it too also felt more 2020s discussions than 1960s discussions so the overly modern feel there threw me out of the story. There's been much romanticization of families like the Duchons who believed in keeping the bloodline as white as possible to remain at the top of society so it was interesting to see that address in a book. However it didn't quite hit the mark. Jemma's motivations as a character started to not make sense in the grand scheme of things and what started out a very interesting tale fizzled with an unsatisfying conclusion.