This House Isn't Haunted But We Are is an interesting horror novella, written by Stephen Howard, and published by Wild Hunt Publishing as part of the Northern Weird Project. A story that makes a great exploration of grief and healing mechanisms, while also including a weird and fresh approach to the whole sentient house idea, creating a memorable novella.

After the death of her daughter, Simon and Priya move to a remote house in the Yorkshire Moors hoping for a fresh start; however, strange events start happening, complicating that start they were looking for. Howard masterfully alternates between three POVs: Simon, Priya, and the house, in a non-linear way to weave a story around the grief of the pair, their healing process and the house attempts to retain them.

In the case of Simon, we can appreciate how he's refusing to accept the idea of her daughter's death, being more positive towards the house attempts, while Priya is trying to straightforward overcome the pain, understanding that those eerie apparitions are not the answer to her grief, just a false answer. But what stood more with me after the novel is how well written is the alive house POV: how it is unable to grasp what is the problem of this pair at the start, but it's trying to confort them; we actually see how the house develops a bond with the pair, and how even if its attempts are a bit rough, there is a good intention behind them.

This House Isn't Haunted but We Are is an excellent novella, well paced and that masterfully executes its ideas; a great exploration of grief and healing, and also about the perspective of mortality (iykyk). What a banger to kick-off the Northern Weird Project!