Review | The Moore House by Tony Tremblay

Three ex-communicated nuns with empath abilities form a unit investigating paranormal occurrences with the support of their employer, Father McLeod and the Catholic Church. When they travel to investigate the Moore House, they do not detect anything paranormal about the place, despite reports of gruesome killings and missing people.

What they could not anticipate though, is the House’s ability to influence and pull them into its orbit. Soon, they are trapped, forced to relive their past sins and fight for their lives.

At this moment, our place in life is to do God’s work by recognizing and identifying the presence of evil.

From the blurb, The Moore House promises to a frightening read and it absolutely delivers. From the nasty, visceral opening, the action does not relent until the end. We meet the main characters, Celeste, Nora and Agnes while they are visiting a family who claims to be experiencing a supernatural phenomenon. However, the truth turns out to be something else. That’s the first instance where the book shows what we see is not what it is. It’s a theme that runs throughout the book.

The three characters left the Church for their own reasons and are now working under Father McLeod. Minor spoiler – Nora and Agnes are lovers. This comes with its own complications; their identity being at odds with their faith. But all three characters, and even the Father, have their own demons, and so they carry their own brand of guilt into the Moore House. I thought the reveal into the characters’ past is convincing and gives additional dimension to the characters.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a horror book that is very obviously supernatural and deals outright with exorcism, demons and the Church. I thoroughly enjoyed it! The writing is brisk so even when we spend time with other characters, the action doesn’t let up. On the flipside, because of how fast the story moves we don’t really get to the see the full extent of the nuns’ abilities. This means the ending fell a little flat because I was expecting more after the exciting final act. But this doesn’t massively impact my reading and I’m really looking forward to reading other books by the author.

About the author: Tony Tremblay

Photo by Eric Marty