The Drowning House: Priest is the empress of the cursed house story

The Drowning House by Cherie Priest

Cherie Priest should be crowned the queen of cursed houses. First there was Maplecroft, her Lizzie Borden/Lovecraftian suspense novel with the atmospheric house there, then The Family Plot with the old house steeped in family evil. With 2024’s The Drowning House, Priest gives us not one but two cursed houses… and one makes an appearance in a way I’ve never seen before.

In the middle of a wild early-autumn storm, a derelict house washes up out of the ocean onto the shore of Marrowstone Island, in Puget Sound. The crash of its arrival awakens elderly Charlotte Culpepper, whose own house is on that stretch of beach. When she goes to the beach, what she encounters stops her heart. A few minutes later her forty-something grandson, Simon, disappears after leaving a text for his friend Melissa on the mainland in Seattle. Melissa contacts another friend, Leo, and both travel to Marrowstone to find their friend, only to uncover a mystery that goes back to the 1950s.

In the 1980s and 90s, Simon, Melissa, and Leo, who is several years younger, hung out together on the island in the summers. Simon was an orphan raised by his strange but kind grandmother. In 1985, Leo nearly drowned in the surf, but Mrs. Culpepper saved him, although he’s foggy on the details. Leo is also sure the Culpepper house is inhabited by two shadowy little boys who cry, and Mrs. Culpepper doesn’t contradict him about that. The story of The Drowning House alternates between those past summers and the current-day adventures of Melissa and Leo as they search for their lost friend, uncovering more questions and secrets about Mrs. Culpepper and the weird house on the beach as they go.

The duo faces more challenges than just the disappearance of their friend. In spite of years of shared experiences, Melissa and Leo aren’t close. One thing they have in common is that each of them loved Simon—a fact that drives them apart rather than bringing them together. Soon, however, the sinister magic of the derelict house, and Mrs. Culpepper’s own secrets, draw them together. Leo’s success as a Realtor doesn’t hurt, either. With his people skills and house knowledge, and Melissa’s sheer stubbornness, they make a pretty good team. And soon they realize they’re up against a ghost and evil magic, magic with a Norse flavor, drawn from Mrs. Culpepper’s own tradition. Once they uncover the runes painted on the basement wall of Mrs. Culpepper’s basement, it’s a race to stop the entity inhabiting the sinister house before it destroys the island of Marrowstone and all the people on it.

Cherie Priest

I loved the narrative voices of the various characters, as the point of view shifts among Melissa, Leo, and at times others. I also fell right into Priest’s atmospheric descriptions. It helps that I’m familiar with the San Juan islands and the Puget Sound area, but even if I weren’t, I think these images and details would make the place real for me. And I know I’ve never been in a house that was submerged for seventy years and then lunged out of the water to hurl itself onto the beach. Melissa’s encounter in Mrs. Culpepper’s shower was harrowing, and the suspense tightened like a blood pressure cuff in the final pages, as Leo and Melissa each race to complete a task they hope will defeat the evil entity.

On the human side, one of the book’s best moments is when Leo and Melissa realize that while each one of them loved Simon, neither of them really knew him. This was a realistic and heartbreaking observation on the nature of growing up and aging. It added depth to a tale already steeped in atmosphere.

I didn’t want to put The Drowning House down. I was scared for Leo and Melissa the whole second half of the book. The horror is real—the evil is real—but this isn’t graphically violent or gory. It’s a lot of holding your breath and hoping our heroes prevail, even as we wonder how they can.

Let’s rustle up a crown for Ms. Priest, please. Nobody does cursed houses like she does.