Horror Book Spotlight: The Dwelling by Judith Sonnet
Wrong turns can lead to more than just being lost. It can lead you to true horrors.
This week’s Horror Book Spotlight is THE DWELLING by Judith Sonnet. Published by AETHON: Wicked House, the novel was released in April 2026 to positive reviews and is currently on the bestsellers list in the Occult and Supernatural Horror eBooks.
THE DWELLING Plot
Kelsey is supposed to be the responsible one, but when she takes a wrong turn, she puts her and her friends in a desolate place in Ozark Hills.
After their van breaks down, they come upon a house that may provide shelter.
But Kelsey and her friends soon realize they aren’t just guests in this dwelling but cogs in a sinister machine. They must try to fight and survive unspeakable horror together.
THE DWELLING My Take on the sample
The book begins with some interesting quotes and then dry humor related to horror story cliches before moving on to the first scene. Kelsey is driving the van. Her friends Emily, Stanley, Savanah, her sister Erica, Culgee, and boyfriend Elvis are returning from a party where they all had fun, but Kelsey suspects that their drinks were spiked.
Elvis is fast asleep, and Kelsey is unable to make out where she is. After the first scene, the story moves into a tangent, giving backstories of characters that disrupt the intense scene buildup.
We learn about the party, the friends they met, and that Emily’s boyfriend is forty-five, unlike the rest of them, who are twenty. Kelsey secretly judges Stanley for being too old and behaving like them, and for dating Emily. There’s also some judgment regarding his career.
Eventually, Kelsey wakes up Elvis, who is certain she took a wrong turn somewhere at the fork of a road, and asks her to stop so he can take the wheel.
The chapter ends with the van breaking down, and to make things worse, it begins to rain.
In the next chapter, we meet Galveston and Peter, who appear to be criminals on the run from cops after a failed robbery.
They, too, may end up where Kelsey and her friends are, by the look of it.
READ OR SKIP?
The plot seems intriguing but not unique. In fact, the author also points it out at the beginning of chapter one. There are too many characters, backstories, etc.
While the author has utilized the hook trick by starting off with a compelling scene, it then deviates haphazardly to character thoughts and judgment.
If someone is lost, would they really be thinking how their boyfriend doesn’t look that handsome in this pale light?
The entire scene doesn’t seem believable for someone who would actually be lost.
The second chapter introduces two more characters. At this point, it seems like they may just be extras for whatever happens in the house when things go wrong.
The number of characters suggests they are included just to increase the body count rather than to be relevant.
This is a SKIP for me.
The first chapter is what is supposed to get you to read the following chapters, but over here, we see a lot of information being thrust into a few pages just to “get over” the character intros and move on to the plot that would probably begin much later in the story. For now, you have to sift through a lot of information before the story begins to flow in your mind.
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