Book Review

 September 2026 Reads

How To Fake A Haunting

By: Christa Carmen

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars 

Start Date: 9.18.26

End Date: 9.23.26

Spoiler Free Summary 

Trapped in a dangerous marriage with nowhere left to turn, Lainey Taylor orchestrated a phantom terror in hopes of driving her abusive husband out of their home - & finally starting over. 

Fearing for the safety of her younger daughter, Beatrix, but unable to pursue a traditional divorce due to Callum's wealthy, legally manipulative family, Lainey feels entirely out of options. 

Desperate to escape, she confides in her sympathetic friend Adelaide, who proposes a radical & unconventional solution: exploit Callum's alcohol-induced paranoia & night terrors by staging a highly convincing fake haunting to terrify him into abandoning their family home. 

The plan begins with subtle, carefully engineered tactics - such as strange scratching noses in the walls, sudden unusual smells, & swarms of flies on the windowsills - that easily prey on Callum's fragile mental state. However, as the psychological warfare intensifies, the domestic atmosphere grows increasingly toxic. The deep-seated rage, fear, & resentment already saturating the household & starting to curdle, causing the fabricated haunting to spiral entirely out of control. 

As the fabricated horrors bleed into reality, the curdling environment threatens to consume the very person Lainey is trying to protect: her young daughter, Beatrix. Lainey thought she could orchestrate a controlled terror to escape a nightmare. But how do you stop a phantom evil once it takes on a terrifying life of its own? 

My Thoughts | Possible Spoilers 

Overall, I lowkey hated this book. It could have been the high-hopes I created reading all the positive reviews. I literally almost DNF this book, but decided to stick it through. It isn't a typically ghost story, Can you really be a ghost if you are still alive? Kind of gave the same vibe of ghost of christmas past, present, & future, this is quite literally the best way to think of it. 

As a scary book connoisseur, I just hated this. I did enjoy the slow build of the paranormal activity, but I just couldn't get into this story line, It felt slightly predictable once I figured out what was going on (ghost of christmas past, present, & future). Don't get me wrong I think the internal message of this book is good "When you notice you are doing wrong, correct it before it gets to late" & "Don't let grief eat you whole to become an entity outside of yourself". But, I just hated getting there, This is probably a hot take book review since I've only read good reviews about this. 

Also, I hated Lainey for 80% of this book, It took awhile for me to decided, okay, maybe she's not awful, I understand the bases was to protect her daughter from that wretched man, but she literally did almost everything you shouldn't do, I don't know, I was just reading this flipping the pages pissed every time she decided to do anything. 

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts? Am I alone in this hate? 

XoXo, 
Abby