Top Ten Tuesday: Books where a house is a character

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books that Include/Feature [insert your favorite theme or plot device here] (for example: unreliable narrators, coming of age, darkness vs. light, time travel, metafiction, a specific romantic trope, good vs. evil. cliffhangers, flashbacks, plot twists, red herrings, loose ends, stories within stories, meet cutes, symbolism, etc.) (submitted by Alice @ The Wallflower Digest)

I have chosen to do books where a house is almost one of the characters

Recently I read Happily Ever After where a woman goes to work in Templewood House and steps straight into a gothic novel. I had already decided to do this topic ever before I read this book but it seemed like a good opportunity to share a passage. This is the section early on in the book where Andi is being given a tour of the house.

We mounted an enormous staircase, carved in twiddly dark wood, curving like an impressive eyebrow over the hallway and up onto a galleried landing which branched off in various directions. "This is the most haunted part of the house," Hugo said, leading me off to the right along an upstairs corridor. Occasional glances through the huge windows told me that this wing of the house looked out over the gardens.

"I'm sorry?" As I spoke, the sun went behind a cloud and the wonderful roseate light died to leave us staring down a wood-panelled box into a murky dimness which was giving off a distinct smell of damp plaster. 

"Oh yes. Whole place is riddled with ghosts of course, but this is the worst bit." Complacently Hugo set out, touching closed doors and naming as he went. "My room, the Green Room, Scarlet Room..." We rounded the end of the corridor and set out along another, which branched around to the left.

"Hang on, hang on, can we go back to the "ghost" thing please?" I'd stopped moving now, frozen into immobility on the landing. "The house is haunted?"

"Oh yes". Hugo sounded completely blase about the walking corpse potential. "Dreadfully, I'm afraid." Then he smiled. "No need for you to worry, though. Stay in your room after dark, don't go wandering around - it's all perfectly all right."

And then later when Andi asks what kind of ghosts

"And then there's the noises, footsteps and so on, occasional ghastly scream, that sort of thing, all very standard in a house this old. There's a ghost horse in the old stable block, but that's mostly disused now, and we haven't heard him for ages, and sometime something moans in the Morning room. I'll show you that in a bit."

Happily Ever After by Jane Lovering - I had to include this one seeing as I quoted from it above! Every chapter in this book has the name of a famous house from literature which is a fun feature! (my review)

Discovery of Witches series by Deborah Harkness - I am sure that the aunt's house is a bit magical! (my review)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier - "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." What an opening line!

Inheritance by Nora Roberts - There were a few different books I could have chosen but this it the most recent one I read.

Thornwood House by Anna Romer - This is a gothic story with an Australian setting. (my review)

The House of Light and Shadows by Lauren Westwood - This was a recent read which features a house that is slowly revealing it's secrets (my review)

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley - Never miss an opportunity to share a Kearsley book in these posts (link to joint review at Historical Tapestry)

The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell - Another house with secrets to be revealed!

Casa Paradiso by Francesca Scanacapra - This is a bit different in that the book tells the story of Casa Paradiso through a series of stories about the various owners. It covers several hundred years. (my review)

The Girl who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen - I feel like I could have chosen any number of SAA's books, but this one features wallpaper that changes according to your mood and baking! (joint review)

Can you think of any other books where the house is almost a character?