Slade House is a sort of haunted house story that takes place in the same universe as David Mitchell’s 2014 novel, The Bone Clocks. I don’t know if Slade House is a better book than The Bone Clocks, whatever that means. I do think it is much more effective at drawing the reader in and getting him or her to accept some of the fantasy concepts that, for me, weakened Mitchell’s previous novel.

This is a very short book – my Kindle says it was around 250 pages, but I’ve seen other people saying it’s even shorter and it certainly felt shorter. So I won’t give away too much of the plot. Suffice it to say that there’s a house in London into which people seem to go missing every nine years on the last Saturday in October. The book is narrated in turns by a series of the house’s victims. If you’ve read The Bone Clocks, you will quickly be able to guess at what is going on. If you haven’t, though, that’s ok – as I said at the beginning, this really is a sort of haunted house story and it could easily be read and enjoyed as a standalone novel.

David Mitchell is one of the best authors out there when it comes to creating distinct, believable voices for his characters. He can write up and down socioeconomic classes, across genders, ages, and time periods with apparent ease. This is a strength in all his books but it’s a particular strength here, because one of the keys to a good suspense or horror novel is having a protagonist that the reader can care about. Here Mitchell gives us a whole series of protagonists who, in just a few brief pages of exposition, make enough of an impression on us that we feel genuine fear for them when they enter Slade House and we truly hope that they will find some way to escape their fates.

Slade House may not be a horror novel, exactly, but it will scare you. With each vignette, Mitchell gradually builds up a sense of dread that will keep you awake at night and turning pages. That dread builds on itself in a sort of meta way as you turn to the next vignette and watch the same structure of events play out to ensnare a different character. All of this builds to a conclusion that, I imagine, will read a bit differently for those who have read The Bone Clocks and those who haven’t. Without spoiling anything, I’ll just say that if you’ve read Mitchell’s previous novel, you’re likely to see what’s coming a little earlier than if you haven’t. Either way, it’s a very satisfying ending.

Slade House is an excellent companion to The Bone Clocks, but it would be almost equally great if read as a standalone novel. It’s not a horror novel, but it still gave me some of the best chills I’ve gotten from a book in years. If you’re looking for the perfect novel to read around Halloween, I don’t think you could do much better.

I received this novel in advance of its publication date through Netgalley’s advance review program in exchange for an honest review. Also: This review has been cross-posted at Goodreads, since I doubt anyone would see this review anytime soon if it were only posted here.