The Mysterious Happenings at Greenwood's Castle

I’ll admit: I side-eyed the ‘virtual voice’ narrator at first. No inflection? No dramatic pauses? But within 20 minutes, I was sold—because *Greenwood’s Castle* isn’t a story that needs melodrama. It’s a slow unspooling of dread, and the narration’s almost robotic delivery makes the horror hit harder. When a character whispers, ‘The attic door was locked from the *inside*,’ the lack of theatrical gasp somehow makes it worse. Like the house itself, the performance is stiff, formal… and hiding something. "Brooks’ writing shines in the details. The 1990 setting isn’t just window dressing—it’s integral. A fax machine’s whir becomes a clue; a mixtape’s tracklist holds a coded message. The mystery unfolds like a jigsaw puzzle where half the pieces are missing on purpose, and the reveals (especially the truth about the castle’s original owner) are *earned*. My only gripe? The pacing stumbles in the third act, where a subplot about a missing diary feels like a red herring too far. And while the virtual narration grows on you, it *does* struggle with emotional scenes—imagine a computer reading a eulogy. Still, the trade-off is worth it for how uniquely unsettling the whole experience becomes. If you’ve ever loved a mystery that lingers in the air like cigar smoke in a drafty hall, this one’s for you.