​The ghost wasn’t the problem here—the protagonist was.

​While the premise of a malevolent presence haunting an isolated Italian villa sounds great on paper, being trapped in Anna’s head for hundreds of pages was pure reader exhaustion. Instead of compelling tension, you get an endless internal monologue of self-righteous martyrdom. Anna spends the entire book convinced she’s the lone, flawless pillar holding the universe together while looking down on literally everyone—her family, coworkers, ex, you name it.

​When a haunted house story has you actively rooting for the malevolent entity to take out the main character just to give everyone some peace, the book has lost the plot. A solid setting wasted on one of the most grating, insufferable characters I’ve read in a long time.

​Skip the trip to Villa Vascello.