Well hello, a book that I could not put down and then ended up talking to strangers about when I went out to dinner (yes I take my books with me when I go out, it mostly does not prevent people from chatting with me) and just gushed over. This was 100 percent awesome. You give me a book with a cool premise (see these diagrams of a house, tell me what is strange to you), a dead body, and a lot of hmm could this and this be because of Y thing and I am all over it. It seriously gave me not only Agatha Christie vibes, but House of Leaves vibes too. And the afterword blew my mind. So then I had to go back and re-read this again.
Strange Houses follows an author (presumably this one) who is approached by a friend of his about buying a house. The author takes a look at it and then the diagram and realizes something is off to him. When he realizes what it could be, he goes to his friend who is an architect who reveals more strange things to him regarding the house. And from there a bigger mystery is revealed.
I don’t want to give too much away but have to say the dialogue and included pictures of the house and other things that are pertinent to the story (no spoilers) were really great. It makes you become involved in the story and that’s why I said this was giving me House of Leaves vibes. That’s the only book I can recall I had to hold up to a mirror to just read pages. And sometimes you had to turn it totally upside down or hop on a foot (I am making that last one up).
This really is hands down one of my top 10 for 2025.