Review: Ashes of August Manor - Blaine Daigle

Genre: Horror Published: Wicked House Publishing, June 2025 My Rating: 4/5 stars

"Everyone deserves to have someone at their side when they go."

The Story:

We follow Noelle, a 27-year-old hospice worker at the end of her emotional rope, who accepts a job caring for the dying patriarch of the reclusive August family at their lakefront manor in the Oregon forests. Arriving at the manor, she soon learns that this is going to be a job unlike any of her previous ones. The gothic manor, isolated and perpetually covered in ashes from a local papermill, as well as the eccentric family that calls it home, ooze a sense of dread and mystery. Together with the August’s mute son Elias and the manors gardener (who eerily resembles Noelles deceased fiancé), Noelle reckons with the secrets of the family, as well as those of her own tragic past.

What I loved:

Plenty a book has been marketed as “for fans of The Haunting of Bly Manor”, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a book truly capture that same feeling the show gave me. Until The Ashes of August Manor. For the first 60% or so, I was obsessed with this novel. I read it in almost a single sitting, completely captivated and amazed by how much this book matches all the things I love in horror. It’s a gothic, quietly melancholic tale of grief-horror that’s absolutely brimming with atmosphere and building dread. Our protagonist Noelle is a fascinating three-dimensional lead, who’s equally haunted as the manor she works at. The writing is gorgeous, delivering stunningly gorgeous gothic descriptions that are clearly inspired by the likes of Shirley Jackson (the opening paragraph could’ve been straight out of Hill House). Yet it also knows exactly when to tone that down and deliver a short and poignant line to drive in the emotional nail.

In short, this book was so close to perfection, that it made it all the more frustrating when it took a turn that really didn’t work for me.

What I didn’t love:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a novel squander its potential to be a new favourite, this hard in a single chapter before… That chapter happens to be chapter 17. Here, what was a subtle and “quiet” horror-novel (these are the authors own words, as stated in the afterword too, so we know this was the intended direction!), tosses all that out of the window with a heavy-handed villain monologue explaining everything ánd introducing several more twists that weren’t properly foreshadowed… It turns into a masterclass of over-exposition and it’s all the more sad that, had this single chapter been rewritten, leaving the entirety of the rest of the book the same, this could’ve been a new favourite for me. It’s still a 4-star, because I loved the majority of the book, and I don’t think my particular gripes will be universal to every reader.

Beware spoilers below, because I want to go into a bit more specifics.

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Chapter 17- Fireside confessions – consists largely of an extended villain monologue, in which Isabel delivers exposition regarding almost every mystery that’s been set up so far. It’s about as subtle as a wrecking ball, slamming down the carefully crafted gothic manor. Here’s what I personally would’ve changed:

- cut the entire monologue by Isabel. Instead, either leave things a mystery, or let Noelle figure things out for herself organically, rather than being told.

- stick to a single “twist” or paranormal driver. In this case, the book clearly set up its ghost-angle and almost every motif ties into this. Then it comes out of left-field introducing a cult-storyline, worshipping Old Crow, where the entire village turns out to be involved in the supernatural shenanigans. None of this is properly foreshadowed and it breaks the immersion and subtlety completely.

- please lose every twist for the sake of “twist/shock”. The plotline about Isabels daughter and her accident in the crematorium was horrifying enough, and actually added to Isabel’s tragic character. Revealing that she actually murdered her own child only cheapens the story for me.

Similarly; the reveal that Noelle is related to the Augusts falls completely flat. There’s no build up to it, making it feel utterly unearned and unbelievable. Even retroactively, the only “foreshadowing” I could find was a mention of Elias’ eyes being similar to Noelles; that’s far too little to pull of a twist that big.

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Many thanks to Wicked House Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.