The Invited by Jennifer McMahon

Hello Beautiful People! Welcome back to another book review! Happy to have you here! For this review, I got into The Invited by Jennifer McMahon.

The Invited is a paranormal thriller that dips into history and the present, and how we can never really escape the past. I was a little on the fence about the book in the beginning but as things started to really kick up in the story it instantly becomes a book that’s hard to put down.

Main Characters:

• Hattie Breckenridge: Lived on the land that the two other main characters eventually build their home on, has a tragic past
• Helen and Nate Wetherell: Couple that moves from the city to the country in the hopes of having more relaxed lives
• Olive, Dustin, and Riley Kissner: Olive and her dad Dustin live on the land by Helen and Nate, after Olive’s mother goes missing Dustin’s sister Riley helps to take care of them

My Review

As I had said before I was a little on the fence about the book early on into it. As soon as the plot started to pick up though I was instantly pulled in. I ended up giving The Invited an 8/10 rating.

I’ve started to notice I am definitely a person who really enjoys a book with strong character development. I found Helen (main character) to be a really lovable character and following her in this book was easy to do. Her empathy, kindness, and open-mindedness made her the perfect character for this story. I really enjoyed the interactions between Olive and Helen because Olive desperately needs a positive influence and Helen takes her under her wing. A piece I also really enjoyed in this book is the twist at the end. I totally didn’t see it coming and I had a different idea of what the conclusion to the twister would be.

I also really appreciated McMahons descriptive writing skills. The main theme of this book is that Helen and Nate are building their dream home in the woods in the country. There were a lot of things needed here to give the reader a picture of what’s happening in the book and I will say I had such a vivid picture of the woods they lived in, the house they were building, and the nearby town.

The one thing I did find different once I read the book from my expectations is that even though this is a paranormal story, it’s definitely not a horror one. I will say that I appreciated that the ghosts in this story are nice in nature and are more so around to lead the main characters to solve something. I am not of much belief that spirits are often bad and even though there are parts where the characters struggle to know if it’s good or bad they eventually come to the conclusion that they are good and here to help. In this book, it’s not that Helen and Nate move into a haunted house but they essentially build one. I thought this was a different take just like the ghosts in the book being nice, because it’s essentially the opposite from what we usually see in these kinds of books. The fact that they build a haunted house will make a bit more sense in the summary and commentary area but I enjoyed the idea that objects hold just as much energy as places. I also enjoyed the idea that the book presented that it’s not witches or ghosts we need to be afraid of but it’s normal everyday humans who are the most frightening.

Summary and Commentary

***Please be aware this section has spoilers***

The book starts off in 1924 with an introduction to Hattie Breckenridge. Hattie speaks early on about her clairvoyant abilities and how they are a blessing and a curse. Her abilities have made her an outcast from the community and people tend to dismiss her visions before it’s too late. It turns out that earlier on Hattie had tried to warn the townspeople that a fire would happen in the schoolhouse and not to send their children to school that day. What she could not predict however was that her daughter Jane would be the one to burn it down. The townspeople come angrily looking for Hattie and Jane and Hattie quickly hides Jane away. The townspeople take their anger out on Hattie for the fire and ultimately hang her from a tree on her property. I quickly felt deeply for Hattie because she’s pinned as a killer for being a woman who has abilities that frighten people, it is heartbreaking. Hattie mentions that despite people’s whispers about her they always came to her for help, but it was no surprise to her how quickly they turned on her, this was always how it went.

Next, we get introduced to Helen in the present in 2015. Helen reflects on a year and a half ago with the passing of her father. His death sent her into a bit of a crisis and caused Helen to question what it was she really wanted for her life. Her husband Nate can tell something is off with Helen and she eventually shares with him that she can’t stand the city life anymore and has dreams to go live in the country. Her husband hops on board and the two set in motion their plan to move. Finding that it would be better to build their home on a plot of land, rather than fix up an old home they went on a search for the perfect plot of land. Eventually, they settle on land that has a small trailer on it, a beautiful bog, and room to build their dream home.

Next, we are introduced to Olive as she watches Helen and Nate from afar as they work on their land. Olive is a young teen who instantly seems aggravated by Helen and Nate moving on the land next to hers. Olive has been skipping school recently in the hopes of finding treasure that’s rumoured to have been buried on Helen and Nate’s land long ago. With them moving in it screws up her hunting plans. Olive is able to do this all day because her mother left her and her father a few months ago, and since then her dad doesn’t pay attention to things like her attendance at school. It seems like home isn’t a place that Olive wants to be, and with the smallness of the town her mother leaving was the talk for a while. It was rumoured she left Olive and her dad for another man and never looked back. I instantly thought this was odd because while mothers do leave their children, it seemed like Olive and her mom had too strong of a relationship for her to just leave and never look back. This seems to be Olive’s thoughts too. Olive seems to be an outcast in the community and struggles with her self-esteem.

The first night on the land weird things started happening and Helen was woken up in the middle of the night by screams. Nate passes it off as animals. In the morning they find a strange bundle on the trailer’s steps and it’s got animal teeth on it. Helen and Nate start to think that someone may be messing with them. Being two people from the city moving all of a sudden to the small country they think that the townspeople may not be too fond of them. This portrayal always makes me giggle because at least where I am from if a young couple moved close to a small town the townspeople would lose their minds in happiness for the new life. I just find this grumpy townspeople portrayal to always be funny, I mean don’t get me wrong small-town people love to gossip but they don’t tend to hate new people as long as they don’t cause problems. It turns out that maybe what Helen was hearing the night before was a bus crash on the highway near them that took four lives, although that noise would have had to travel far.

Olive seems to have plans to get Helen and Nate off the land, but I wondered why she cared so much. I mean yeah I get the treasure and whatever but that didn’t seem like enough to want to drive people off the land. Olive struggles at home because ever since her mom left her dad has been obsessed with fixing up the house for when her mom comes home. That has made their home a perinate construction zone that never ends. Olive hates it and it makes sense why she never wants to be at home, I mean essentially all parts of her old home, her mother’s home were gone. Helen has always had a connection to history and since they moved on the land she became interested in the history of it. Furthermore, since they moved into the trailer things keep going missing or moving and Helen and Nate start to feel like they are going crazy a bit.

A bit into the future Helen and Nate have started to get the bones down for their new home. When Helen goes into town one day she attempts to make an effort to meet some more of the townspeople in the hopes of talking with them about the land. Helen finds out that the previous owners of the land have a sad past, and the woman of the home drowns in the bog. Her husband went a bit mad after her death and had to move away from the land. He claimed that the ghost of Hattie Breckenridge tricked his wife into the bog and drowned her. This is when Helen hears about the ghost of Hattie for the first time, and how the Breckenridge land got its name. Helen learns about the rumour of the treasure and how the townspeople killed her on her own land one day. Helen becomes really fixated on the history of Hattie and wants to instantly learn about all she can. With learning about Hattie’s history in being connected to the future Helen becomes interested in her abilities and why she would have been killed for it. I mean honestly if I moved into land with this history I would be doing the exact same thing.

Olive presents her new metal detector to her Aunt Riley in the hopes of finding the treasure. At this part, I started to laugh because earlier on Nate had some money missing from his wallet and I think it’s pretty apparent where it went. Little sneak has been going in their place and stealing their shit! When Helen and Nate go to work on their home the next morning BEWARE OF HATTIE is written on the floor. Of course, Nate thinks that it’s someone messing with them and Helen thinks this may be something going on with the land. I mean as far as I know ghosts don’t write, and Olives has been up to some trouble so I felt like she did it. When Olive goes out to the bog that day with her new metal detector she finds a necklace hidden deep in the mud. Shockingly the necklace is the one she recognizes as her mother’s. This made me think instantly that her mother is dead, and either someone hurt her at the bog, or she’s buried there somewhere. Olive sees it as a sign her mother didn’t run off but she doesn’t go instantly into thinking she is dead like I did.

That night Helen hears noises again and thinks that Hattie’s ghost is back. When she goes to wake Nate he isn’t next to her. She goes into a panic. When she runs towards the noise she sees that their new home is on fire, and there is a ghost standing in the home. She finds Nate in there and it turns out not to be a ghost but a trapped Olive. Nate had managed to catch her before she ran off. I mean damn Olive stealing their stuff and then setting the house on fire? I mean she must have really wanted them off the land. Nate and Helen debate calling the cops but Olive offers to give them back all the stuff she stole, and would work off the money she stole and spent by helping them on the house. Nate wants to call the police but Helen seems to connect to Olive and doesn’t want her to get in trouble. Despite Nate’s wants they end up agreeing to the deal with Olive. When they find out why she wanted them off the land (the treasure) they tell her that she could have just spoken to them and that she would be welcome to explore the bog whenever she wanted. Olive is filled with a lot of shame and I was defiantly thankful that she didn’t get in huge trouble, but don’t get me wrong what she did was defiantly screwed up.

It’s been a month since the incident and while Nate still doesn’t trust Olive Helen and her have started to spark up a friendship. Olive seems to really admire Helen and Helen enjoys having someone to teach and talk with about things. With having found her mother’s necklace Olive starts digging for answers. Everyone, her dad and Riley kept brushing her off however sticking to that her mom ran away. I mean she didn’t tell them about the necklace though so they didn’t have much of a reason to be thinking what she was thinking. Olive’s Aunt Riley is into all things spooky and history and when Olive learns of Helen’s desire to bring more history into the home she brings Helen to meet her Aunt. Riley works at the town salvage yard and also volunteers at the historical society and is very knowledgeable about the town. When Helen and Olive go to the salvage yard they find out that there is an item there that connects to Hattie. A beam made from the tree she was hung on. Helen seems to have this drive to bring this beam back to the land it once came from. Despite it being made from the tree Hattie was hung from she buys it. I thought it was a bit morbid but as someone who loves spooky stuff, I would have probably done the same thing. When she brings it home Nate is a bit disturbed by its history and doesn’t see why Helen would want it in the house.

That night in the house Helen is awoken by the ghost of Hattie standing in the home, and this time it definitely isn’t Olive. Despite her horror, Helen is really calm and seems to be able to see what Hattie is trying to tell her something. All she said to her was Jane. Of course, Helen doesn’t know what this means but we the reader know who Jane is. I appreciated Helen’s fear, but also her lack of fear. She seemed to know Hattie didn’t want to hurt her and was just searching for something. It seems like bringing the tree back to the land helped bring her back. Nate comes back to the house in a frenzy the next morning. When he was out in the woods exploring he stumbled upon a rare pure white doe. He seemed to be mesmerized by the animal and its uniqueness. He becomes obsessed with the idea of being able to get a picture of it. On her journey to find out what happened to her mom, Olive goes to talk to her old best friend. Her friend tells Olive that her mom had become a part of a group run by Dicky Barns which is known to be a paranormal group. Olive finds this strange because she remembers her mom and dad calling Dicky a crazy person, and finds it weird she would have been a part of this group. Olive also learns from her that before her mom went missing she had become a bit obsessed with finding Hattie’s treasure. I wondered if she found it or something and was killed because of it.

Helen and Riley start to become friends after they connect over their similar love for history. When Riley comes over to their home one day she learns about Nate’s white doe he saw in the woods. Riley warns Helen to keep an eye on Nate. It was rumoured that years ago Dicky Barns’s father saw the white doe and ran off after it into the woods. He was never seen again. Some think the white doe is Hattie tricking people to follow her so she can kill them. I mean that it’s that odd but I was so confused as to why everyone assumed Hattie was this mean person who loved to kill people, I mean it’s not like she did those things when she was alive. Riley is the first one aside from Nate that she tells about what Hattie said to her. Riley instantly believes her and tells her about Hattie’s daughter Jane and how that must have been who she was referring to.

With the new info Olive has of her mom being a part of Dicky’s ghost club she goes to go investigate his hotel because that’s where he holds these group sessions. I wasn’t exactly sure what she was thinking she would find here, and why this group of adults would admit to her that they killed her mom if that’s what happened. I mean look Olive is young so her naivety makes sense but I thought it was silly the situations she kept putting herself in. I definitely wasn’t as bold of a 14-year-old as she was. Exactly what I thought would happen happened and of course, Dicky denied her mother ever being there. When she leaves the hotel she sneaks to an open window and hears Dicky in a heated convo. He’s telling whoever is on the phone to get the group over here and bring the diary, and that Olive knows too much. Very suspicious! That same day Riley brings over a Ouija board for her and Helen to play with. With the beam giving Hattie’s spirit strength she tells them that she was able to come back because of Helen. Since Helen put up the beam on the land it allowed Hattie’s spirit to come through stronger. Hattie needs something from Helen, and that’s to go to some place called Donovan and Sons. Turns out it’s an old factory not insanely far away. Helen of course wants to go check it out. It turns out that the factory is under construction due to a fire that demolished it long ago, it’s being turned into something else. Helen is able to gather info from some workers on the site. The story goes that the factory owner was tired of the girls going for smoke breaks and locked them in from the outside. Due to the factory being a cotton factory a fire happened and spread quick. Very few escaped the fire. Some said that even all these years later they could still smell burnt hair and skin. Helen being the freaky girl she is takes some of the old bricks from the building to use for her home since they will just be dumped anyway. She doesn’t understand though why Hattie sent her there but my guess is she brought the bricks back for her.

That night Helen dreams of women in a fire. She then hears Hattie laughing. When she follows the noise she sees Hattie and Jane sitting together. Helen realizes that this must be her daughter. Honestly, this made me happy. I just thought it was so sweet that Helen was able to bring them together again. Sadly this must mean though that Jane died in that fire. I liked this though because while I do think there can be bad spirits I think most don’t do any harm or really have any effect on us. We then get a perspective from Jane. Turns out that even in adulthood Jane was a little firebug. Her boss at the factory was a dick head and fired her because she wouldn’t sleep with him. To spite him she lit the factory on fire, but just didn’t know that they had locked the doors to stop the girls from smoking during the work day. She died among all the other women. Look I felt kinda bad for her but honestly, since she was the one who lit it I wasn’t mad she didn’t get out.

Helen and Riley go through history digging to find out more about Jane and Hattie. Turns out Jane was an employee at the factory and had a different last name due to her marriage. Turns out she must have found some way to survive after Hattie died. Furthermore with Jane’s name now they are able to discover she had two children. So after Hattie’s death, her line was able to live on. It’s possible as well they may be able to find family members who know more about Jane and her family history. Turns out though Jane’s daughter died when her husband committed a murder-suicide. Helen wants to go to the home where Ann was killed in hopes of bringing her home to Hattie and Jane. Nate finds out she lied about where the bricks came from and is disturbed she’s getting all this creepy stuff with morbid backstories. I mean I get it but it’s not that bad man I mean Helen sees Hattie and Jane not him so what’s his issue? Also has obsessed with the white doe so everyone has their things. When Helen goes exploring into Ann she finds out from the new homeowners that she was the town witch. Helen is shocked and wonders if Hattie’s powers can pass on through her bloodline.

Olive one day when playing around with her mom’s necklace finds out that she can use it to answer questions. The necklace is swinging by itself when Olive asks it a question. I wondered if this necklace was connected to Hattie or something and she was trying to tell Olive something. That night Ann comes to Helen’s home. She asks Helen where the children are and when she can’t tell her she disappears. We then get a perspective from Ann in 1980. She isn’t sure why but one day her husband flips a switch. We do learn though that she did have children and I wondered if she was able to pass on her gift to any of them, but it was also unclear if they died as well although it didn’t seem like it. Riley convinces Helen to go to one of Dicky’s ghost meetings. She doesn’t get much from it though is save her before she runs out of the room. She runs because along with the save she also sees the white doe and the bog and worries that Nate is in trouble.

Olive continues to play around with the necklace pendulum and discovers that it wants to show her something. It takes her to the bog and to a spot where an old axe head is. Olive takes it with her unsure of what it means. That night she dreams she used the axe to cut up her mother and throw her in the bog. Since all that stuff with Helen happened with the items I wondered if Olive’s mom was sadly actually cut up with this axe. Olive decides to give the axe to Helen which I get because she thinks it had to do with the dream but why give it to someone else? Why not put it back? Helen ends up cleaning it up in the hopes it could be Hattie’s and hopes it may connect her further to her. Things keep going wrong on Helen and Nate’s property. First, the propane is turned on into the house, and then the last chance is written on their front door. I was kind of confused about this because I knew it wasn’t Olive, and it wasn’t the ghosts so who was doing it? And why?

In Helens digging on Hattie she discovers that Hattie wore a very distinct necklace all the time. It was the one that Olive’s mother was worse. Helen is able to find a photo that was taken the day Hattie was hanged and in the photo of Hattie, dead one of the townspeople is holding her necklace. Helen goes in search of that person’s family in the hopes they may still have the necklace all these years later. Turns out they don’t! And you’ll never guess who it was sold to… Olives mom! I was low-key kicking myself a bit because I was like how did I not figure this out before! Clearly, Olive’s mom was Ann’s child and a direct descendant of Hattie. She probably had powers and hoped her great-grandmother would show her where it was.

Olive decides to sneak back into Dicky’s in the hopes to see what they do for one of their ghost sessions, and maybe see if it leads her to her mother. They do this like a cult ceremony and Olive thinks that a person with a white doe mask is her mother. She overhears them talking about her mother’s diary that’s hidden in the shed at her home. They end up catching her but Olive is able to break away and get to the diary first. Her mom talks about her connections to Hattie and that Hattie led her to the treasure. She had found it and planned to better their family’s lives with it. However something went wrong before, and it seems in the diary that her dad killed her mom. Olive of course is freaked out. Her dad comes home and this part I didn’t get. She like to gets a gun to protect herself but I just found the whole thing weird this 14-year-old kid holding a gun to her dad. As this happens Helen is home realizing that the person Hattie wanted her to save was Olive. Helen goes over to Olive’s home to find her and things look bad there. Olive has gone off into the woods thinking she saw her mom, and her dad goes after her.

As Olive is running looking for the white doe lady her dad is gaining on her. I wasn’t really sure at this point if he did kill her mom or not. Part of me thought maybe but I wasn’t really sure. I didn’t have a better idea of who it would be though. Her dad is then hit over the head by the white doe lady. Turns out it’s Riley. Then I had my second aha moment. She’s just as obsessed with Hattie as Helen was, and she was always pushing Helen to connect. Maybe she hoped Helen would lead her to the treasure since Olive’s mom died before she could show Riley where it was. Riley starts to get super aggressive with Olive and it is clear now her dad didn’t do anything it was Riley. Riley thought that maybe Olive had the gift and wanted her to show her where the treasure was. Riley then tries to kill her which I did not see coming… like wtf? Helen and Nate find them before Riley can. Riley is angry at Helen for having a connection to Hattie that she wanted, one that Helen didn’t even ask for.

It comes to light that Riley killed Olive’s mom when trying to get info from her about the treasure. She was obsessed and wanted so badly to connect to Hattie in any way. She then cut up her body and put it in the bog. She hoped that one day Olive would show her where it was, but then Helen came along. After all is done and everyone is safe it was Hattie who helped them save Olive. Riley goes to jail and Helen and Nate finish building their house of ghosts. Olive comes to terms with her mother’s death, but realistically it’s something she thought all along because she knew she didn’t just leave. The book ends off with Hattie using the necklace to seemingly show Olive where the treasure is.

Despite the different slow parts of the book, the action-packed parts make The Invited a fun read. I enjoyed the idea of spirits helping rather than hurting, and humans creating a safe space for spirits to be instead of banishing them.

I hope you enjoyed this review! Feel free to follow me on my socials @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when I release a new review!