Grounded teenager Jessie Campanelli just wants to be left alone that fateful afternoon. Wanting a break from her younger brother Paul, Jessie dares him to spend thirty minutes in the neighborhood haunted house and tells him to bring friends along so he has proof. It seems like a perfect plan; brother stays away, and brother can’t tell on her because he’s not supposed to go anywhere near the abandoned McIntyre home. Only Paul doesn’t come home and his friend loses and arm. Shortly after, the home claims her father, and Jessie soon discovers the house is hungry. Over her teens and into her adulthood, Jessie collects the stories of those who went into the house and never came out. When the house proves that it isn’t done with her, or her young son, Jessie has to return to the place that ruined her life.
Told over the cyclical backdrop of families and neighborhood changes, The Place Where They Buried Your Heart, captures the gut wrenching feeling of being haunted by past traumas. Writer Christina Henry does an excellent job capturing the uncomfortable atmosphere of that one place in your neighborhood you know must be evil. The details of the mysterious home feel twisted and fresh, not just another haunted house regurgitation. Jessie’s grief is palatable and feels genuine, pulling the reader closer and closer into the story until the reader to is obsessed with finding out what makes the McIntyre home tick. This book was not only atmospheric, but it also made me burst into tears at one point (not a complaint). It can be really easy to get burned out on haunted house horror, but Christina Henry’s The Place Where They Buried Your Heart is right up there with the greats like The September House by Carissa Orlando. It captures the reader’s attention and holds on.
The Place Where They Buried Your Heart is available from Berkley Publishing Group November 4, 2025.
