Del Sandeen
At a glance
In this Southern gothic horror debut, a young Black woman abandons her life in 1960s Chicago for a position with a mysterious family in New Orleans, only to discover the dark truth: They’re under a curse, and they think she can break it.
In the fall of 1962, twenty-seven-year-old Jemma Barker is desperate to escape her life in Chicago—and the spirits she has always been able to see. When she receives an unexpected job offer from the Duchon family in New Orleans, she accepts, thinking it is her chance to start over.
But Jemma discovers that the Duchon family isn’t what it seems. Light enough to pass as white, the Black family members look down on brown-skinned Jemma. Their tenuous hold on reality extends to all the members of their eccentric clan, from haughty grandmother Honorine to beautiful yet inscrutable cousin Fosette. And soon the shocking truth comes out: The Duchons are under a curse. And they think Jemma has the power to break it.
As Jemma wrestles with the gift she’s run from all her life, she unravels deeper and more disturbing secrets about the mysterious Duchons. Secrets that stretch back over a century. Secrets that bind her to their fate if she fails.
"In this haunting and chilling story, an inglorious remnant of American history is handled so deftly that you won’t believe it’s Del Sandeen’s first novel. It’s hard to say which is more disturbing: the otherworldly goings-on in the Duchon mansion or the racism of the South in the 1960s."
- Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor
"An absolute marvel of a debut from a prodigious talent. This Cursed House is a richly atmospheric, utterly chilling ghost story, an enthralling puzzle box of family scandals and secrets—that’s also an unflinching examination of the insidiousness of racism, the horrors of colorism, and how the toxicity of hate is a curse that traps us all with the worst of ourselves. A spellbinding Southern gothic."
- Rachel Harrison, national bestselling author of Black Sheep and Such Sharp Teeth
"A sinister and beautifully rendered Southern Gothic, This Cursed House explores the real-life horrors of racism and trauma. Del Sandeen’s stunning debut haunted me."
- Alexis Henderson, author of The Year of the Witching
Out of the corner of Jemma Barker’s eye, the woman flickered, a shadow of light shimmering at the edges of her vision.
Don’t look at ’em, Jemma. That was Mama’s voice.
Ain’t nothing but the devil’s work if you look. And that was Daddy’s.
Taking a slow breathe (five, four, three, two, and one on the exhale), shakier than usual due to the train’s rattling, Jemma stared into her light-wool-skirted lap, where twisting fingers worked wrinkles into a white handkerchief. When she glanced over at the empty seat next to her, the woman was gone.
Jemma smoothed the handkerchief, then her already smooth skirt, then her bobbed hair, the hot-combed hangs fluffing in the Southern heat, humidity intent on disarray. The man who’d sat in that seat, who’d boarded with her when she’d left Chicago two days ago, had gotten off somewhere in southern Missouri, right when one of the white-jacketed porters had hung a COLORED sign in their car. The sign wasn’t necessary, as only Black passengers inhabited…
Slavery, slurs, incest.
