Deadly Occupants book review

Deadly Occupants by Mads Rafferty
Published by Mads Rafferty on September 10, 2024
Goodreads

A haunted house tour on Halloween night with three of her college best friends takes a twisted turn as Blair barely escapes with her life. The night may have ended…but the horrors are just beginning.
Soon after, their own home seems to come alive, making them question if they’re truly alone. As the paranormal activity rises to a fear-filled high, Blair discovers that the house isn’t the only thing haunting her…but also her past.
Now, Blair faces the challenge of solving the devastating mystery, or risk succumbing to the same torturous fate.

I had seen this one everywhere on my TikTok. Could Deadly Occupants be the book to get me into horror? Which shouldn’t have been as hard as it is. When I say everything about this book was a disappointment, there was very little I enjoyed about it. It’s suffice to say I won’t be jumping into another horror book any time soon.

Plot of Deadly Occupants

Four college students take part in a haunted house tour on Halloween. When there they witness supernatural activity (which by the way is hinted at but never explained until the very end). Blair, the main female character then spends her time after being wounded WOUNDED by the spirit haunted by mysterious happenings. The problem that this entire book has is that it had no singular focus. Plus the things it did focus on it didn’t execute well. There was the house haunting side of it, which held potential if it had been explored properly, but it wasn’t. Not only that the explanation as to who committed the murders and why it was never solved is bullcrap.

Then you had the awful romance subplot with characters that two dimensional. So the entire thing felt forced and the timing of it all felt rushed and a plot device. Basically there were 3 or 4 different plots going on but not one of them was properly developed or well written.

Characters in Deadly Occupants

This was possibly the worst thing about the book, the plot is a near second but these take the cake. For a start there are four main characters in this story, each one was as boring as the others. There was no redeeming character arcs in Deadly Occupants and I didn’t actually care about any of them. The main character Blair was extremely annoying. The overhanded way her childhood trauma was talked about but never explained was just frustrating. I found the whole romance to be tropey but so unbelievable. Plus the other characters never developed any kind of personality.

I just think there was no real thought put into the characters as a whole. It was kind of like they were there to drive plot points and nothing more. Plus having four main characters in a book like this was just too many. I couldn’t tell you five different things about each character, they just fell completely flat. I was so disappointed. Don’t even get me started on Xavier, and how unrealistic the entire romance subplot was. How easy it was for Blair the untrusting one to immediately trust everything that came out of his mouth. It was extremely frustrating.

Bad Bits

• No plot or character development
• Poorly written romance
• Rushed ending with no real idea of what was happening
• Nothing was resolved

Good Bits

• It ended

Who would like Deadly Occupants?

I don’t know what the audience for Deadly Occupants would be. If you’re looking for a good thriller, then I would suggest The It Girl by Ruth Ware or Final Girls by Riley Sager. Both have a college feel but with a much better plot and better characters.

Have you read this one? Did you agree with my summary? Let me know in the comments.