A relentless, horror-inducing psychological suspense for fans of The Push and Baby Teeth by New York Times bestselling author CG Drews.

Single mother Elodie’s life has become a fairy tale. She’s met Bren, equal parts golden-retriever devoted and sinfully handsome. He’s whisked her and her autistic son, Jude, to the crumbling family house he’s renovating. She has a new husband, a new house, and a new baby on the way. Everything is perfect.

Then Jude claims he can hear voices in the walls. He says their renovations are “hurting” the house. Even Elodie can’t ignore it–something strange is going on. The question is, is it with the house, or with her son?

Then the one secret Elodie has been hiding is revealed, and no one is safe anymore.

A pulse-pounding, clever take on the haunted house novel, You Did Nothing Wrong examines the complexities of motherhood and the twisted bonds of family as it races to its shocking ending.

I received an advance copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

I’ve read and really loved both of C.G. Drews’ YA books (Don’t Let the Forest In and Hazelthorne), so I couldn’t wait to see what they had in store for their adult debut. And baby, let me tell you, I was not prepared for any of these shenanigans. I was sat, I was entranced, and I was freaked the hell out.

Elodie, a former dancer and single mother from Australia, is raising her autistic son, Jude, and managing a fractured relationship with her family. Her luck seems to shift when she meets Bren, a dashing, devoted American man who appears to be the partner she’s always needed. He moves them into his family’s ancestral home in the States, but as he works on renovating the aging house, Elodie’s world feels far from settled. Already struggling to help Jude adjust to their new life, her anxiety is compounded by a new pregnancy and the mounting uncertainty of how her son will adapt to a sibling.

Things really get crazy when Jude starts saying he can hear voices in the walls and they’re saying that the renovations are hurting the house. At first, Elodie tries to brush it off. Jude is autistic and sometimes processes things differently. But the longer they’re in the house, the harder it becomes to ignore. Something strange is happening. The question is, is it the house or is it Jude? Or is it something else entirely?

This book is so creepy. In a way, it felt kind of like the mother and son from The Babadook met an American man who swept them away to the US to live in his family’s old home that he’s remodeling. The Babadook said “No way are you going without me,” tagged along, and then teamed up with the house to terrorize the family.

What makes this book work so well is how Drews handles the family dynamics. Elodie is trying so hard to make everything perfect. She loves her son and her new husband and she can’t wait to have the perfect family. But she’s also dealing with the reality of raising an autistic child, navigating a new marriage, and being pregnant. And then on top of all that, the house is falling apart around her. Literally and figuratively. Jude is a beautifully written character. He knows something is wrong, but no one is listening to him. Watching Elodie struggle with whether to believe him or whether to assume he’s just overwhelmed was heartbreaking. I really felt her pain.

The tension in this book is relentless. It builds slowly at first, and then it escalates. The pacing is perfect. You’re never bored, but you’re also never overwhelmed. Drews knows exactly when to pull back and when to push forward. I seriously went back and forth the entire time on what was actually happening. Is Elodie losing her mind? Is Jude possessed? Is Bren secretly evil and terrorizing everyone? Is the house actually haunted? Or maybe all of the above? Drews does an incredible job of making you question everything. And the ending kicked me in the gut. I did not see it coming. And that’s saying something. I read a lot of thrillers and horror, so I’m usually pretty good at clocking twists. But this one got me.

If you love haunted house stories, trust me when I say the creep factor is real with this one. This isn’t jump-scare horror, instead we get a slow, insidious dread. The house feels alive, and when you couple that with everything else going on you know someone is going to be bleeding profusely before it’s all over.

I both listened to and read this one in tandem and the narration by Saskia Maarleveld was great! The voices fit the characters and the emotion was all there. It really helped elevate the experience and the tension.

This book is tense, creepy, and well-written. If you love haunted house stories, unreliable narrators, and atmospheric horror where you can’t trust anyone (or anything), pick this up. Drews has officially proven they can do adult horror just as well as they do YA. Needless to say, after three winners, Drews is an auto-buy author for me now.

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