Ugh!
When I read the back of this book, it had such potential. I thought it was going to be super creepy. Unbeknown to me though, I had never read either of these authors, and honestly it was a big long religious package... mixed with horrible writing. It's a collaboration between two authors and it's like when you were in school and a teacher would have you start a story and pass it on to someone next to you. You didn't know the characters, or anything, you just had to move on the plot; and they NEVER turned out well... yeah that's pretty much what this was. The scenes didn't fit together. The characters changed dramatically. Oh, and you really didn't care if any (or all) of them winded up victims of Tin Man. Ugh... I wish I could give no stars.

I don't really know where to start with this book. The cover and summary made the book seem like it'd be great, but I was really disappointed.

The characters were stereotypical and not very likable. They had no depth and I really didn't care who lived and who didn't. The authors made it seem like each character had some horribly dark past, but this was never explained. They'd hint, for example, that Randy had a shady past and did bad things in order to be successful in his career, but they never gave him or the others a backstory. This didn't really make sense, though, since the whole idea behind the book was that these people were being punished for their sins, but we never find out what they did that was so wrong.

The majority of the book was just them running aimlessly around the basement. If they weren't doing that, then they were arguing about whether or not to kill each other. It was actually really boring and did nothing to further the plot. Even after that last ultimatum from the Tin Man when he gives them six minutes to kill Susan (which ended up being way more than six minutes) and Jack and Stephanie decide to follow Susan because she claims to know the way out...all she did was go back into the basement and run around pointlessly. Again, it didn't further the plot. Seriously, pretty much the whole book is completely useless and serves no point whatsoever. Perhaps the authors thought they were being suspenseful and scary, but they weren't.

I never found the story to be scary in the least. It was just boring. I only finished it in the hopes that the story would end up going somewhere and maybe surprise me and be good, but that never happened.

It was also weird how it seemed to go from crazy serial killer, to haunted/possessed house, to religious light versus dark. I don't think the authors were really sure what they were trying to get at, either. It didn't really make sense. It's never really explained how or why any of it happened. We still don't really know Tin Man's story, either, which should've been explained. Not knowing the how, why, or any of the backstory really just makes the whole story pointless. Honestly, though, as horribly written as it was, it might not have helped much, anyway.

I thought that a collaboration of two of my favorite authors would produce an excellent work of fiction! I was so wrong. This was just a horror novel with a muddled message. I was so disgusted with the plot that I actually put the book down, lost it for over a month, found it while looking for something else, and finally finished it by sheer willpower.

WARNING - SPOILER ALERT

These guys could have really written something worthwhile, a book with a great lesson taught ever-so-subtly. Instead, they concentrated so much on the horror, the burning smoke, the "Saw" type dilemna of will they/won't they kill to live, that it was just boring. It drug on and on and on, with all the main characters stuck in the basement. I didn't even care if they ever got out. I was ready to just shoot them all to be free of their petty bickering!

The only bright hope in this entire black hole of story telling was one little girl, and you weren't even certain if she was good or a trick of the mind. A small smidgeon of good to justify the tidal wave of evil? I don't think it works that way. Sure, just one drop of the blood of Jesus washes away a multitude of sins, but it does so magnificently. It doesn't fade away into the woods with the shadow of the devil still lurking in the windows!

Peretti and Dekker wrote such great novels that crossed over into the non-christian market before this collaboration. I can't imagine why they felt the need to sell out at this point in their carreers! Now I'm afraid to read anything else by either of them. Please tell me it's safe to go back into the water - someone - anyone. Give me the all clear sign.

If I could rate this novel negative lips, I very much would. There’s really no other way to say this politely, but this book SUCKS. Reading the synopsis of the novel is the best part of the novel itself. It felt as if the authors had so many ideas and just threw them together and created a “novel”. To be honest with you all, I didn’t even make it past the first chapter. I truly tried my hardest to get through it. The reviews and synopsis really hooked me in and I was super excited to read it. Until I actually started to read it. I was really disappointed with this one.

Picked up this book as a result of watching the associated movie one night. The movie had a lot of potential, so I thought the book would be interesting as well. What I found was a poorly written, insipid horror story with a thinly veiled Christian agenda.

I tried my best to power through the book, even though I had lost interest in the first couple of chapters, but finally had to just put it down for good about 3/4 of the way through it. The line that finally did me in was "he pulled out one of his revolvers and checked the clip"... C'mon, the editor that let that gem fly by should be shot with said "revolver".

I am not pleased with myself for having wasted hours of my life to finish this drivel. Nevertheless I am more so pissed with whomever thought this was fit to publish.It was utterly unprofitable.I kept thinking that the person(s) who wrote this are mentally unwell.And to the people who are responsible for the current review rating of +3 stars: you need to stop. Warn people away from this crap, don’t make us all suffer!

creepy? yes
good message with this twisty and complex allegory that Ted Dekker always gives? yes
did Hannah scream when she went to watch the trailer for the film adaption (and had a thought about watching it)? yes
is she watching it? NO (not now at least) maybe with a friend. maybe.

I have only one word for this book: BO-RING! Well, okay maybe there are two: BO-RING and CONFUSING!! But let's start with the basics. First and foremost: SPOILER ALERT, please read no further if you don't want to be spoiled.

Jack and Stephanie are married. They are driving through the middle of a rural area to go see their marriage counselor. You get the feeling that something really bad happened in their relationship but you don't quite know what. Jack is bitter and resentful toward his wife, who appears to be the queen of disconnecting and denial. They get stopped by Officer Lawdale and told that the road is closed and they will have to take a detour. On the way down this detour they have car trouble. And in this context car trouble means running over a strip of nails left in the middle of the road. They travel to an inn to get a room for the evening and meet Randy and Leslie, who had the same experience with their car. From here, things get bad when the owners of the inn; Stewart, Betty and their disturbed son Pete, inform them that "White" is coming to kill them.

So that's the basic premise, sounds promising right? I thought so too. Add in the fact that it is a collaboration of two of the most respected names in the horror genre and I was ready to settle into a terrifying thrill ride. And boy was I disappointed. The following are my main issues with this book:

1. All the characters are so stupid and unlikable you almost want them to all die. They are pathetic and mostly run around trying to save their own skin and being scared. Personally, I wanted to see them fail and fall victim to the serial killer.

2. You really have no idea why the serial killer chose these people. Sure he seems motivated by sin, but none of these people are really THAT bad. They are pathetic and weak but not evil, but that's what you're expected to believe.

3. It reads too much like a movie script. Have the book is written in prose and its very difficult to visualize. As a movie it might work, but as a book it just made my head hurt.

4. You never actually get any answers. Maybe the house was possessed. Maybe it was the work of demons. Maybe Susan was an angel, maybe she wasn't. Maybe by accepting their fate Jack and Stephanie escaped the house, but why? They won't tell you.

Ultimately I was left unsatisfied and disappointed. Hopefully these two authors do better work on their own, because this collaboration was a failure.

Unfortunately, while exciting in concept, House by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker finds itself unable to overcome a complete lack of character development, poorly written dialogue and cliche villains, a reliance on cliches and poorly thought out plot points, and a quite literal Deus ex machina ending.

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House is a supernatural thriller about seven people who end up in a house together. Shortly after arriving, odd things start happening and getting progressively worse. It culminates when a tin can is thrown into the house with three rules for the game.

1. God came to my house and I killed him
2. I will kill anyone who does to my house and I killed God
3. Give me one dead body, and I might let rule two slide

Now everyone in the house has to decide who to kill if anyone, and who is behind the tin can.

I'm sorry that my last few reviews have been negative ones, but this is another one I didn't love. I really wanted to read a good supernatural horror - I LOVE scary movies, especially when they have to do with demons/hauntings/possession, etc. Based on the description of this book, I thought I'd found a winner. I did not. I've heard great things about Ted Dekker, and this was my first book by him, and it was a let down. After I finished reading the book and composing my thoughts, I read a few reviews and it sounds like this was not his normal caliber of work, so I'm still open to giving him another chance.

To me, the book felt really convoluted. There were so many perspective jumps that it was hard to keep track of who was in which room of the house, and where each room led. You'd think that those things wouldn't matter, but so much of the book was spent talking about those things, that it kind of did. Also, on a more pedantic note, it bothered me that of the three "rules" only one could even sort of be interpreted as a rule. The other two were just statements!

For a book that is supposed to be a supernatural horror, I didn't feel scared, tense, or on edge at all. The characters fell flat to me and had little to no personality, and the personality they did have was crappy, so I wasn't really rooting for them to get out alive anyway. I was shocked at how many parts of the book felt boring.

Lastly, this book evolved into a completely different story than how it started. It was a blatant good vs. evil, god vs. the devil sort of story, with angels and the repenting your sins...the whole nine yards. I wasn't aware going in that the authors were writers of Christian books, and I want to be VERY clear that I have nothing at all against that, and that I only bring it up because had I known that going in, I could have guessed the ending and would have skipped this book all together. It never got preachy, which I appreciate, but the moral of the story was very clear.

Overall, this one just didn't do it for me. I don't read horror very often but after reading the first Mara Dyer book and expecting a book about a girl who was possessed (which it is not!) I've been in the mood for one. If you have a good scary horror book that you can recommend, let me know down in the comments!

Huh. That was rather different.

How does one describe House? Weird? Creepy? Intriguing? Mind-bending? Unnerving?

It's all those things, really. I don't think there's any way to define a Dekker book. (Because yes, this read MUCH more like a Dekker book than a Peretti one, in my opinion.)

Annnnd that's probably why my thoughts are as jumbled as trail mix right now.

Okay, so the creepy factor? VERY HIGH. Don't do what I did and read this while pulling an all-nighter, folks. It will freak you out to see your clock correspond with the time in the book, trust me. It's obvious that both authors have a lot of experience writing thrillers because wowwwww. This was a wild ride! And a (possibly) little-known fact about me: I like getting scared by books. IT'S ACTUALLY FUN?? So I was pleased by how terrified this book made me. ;)

Now. The characters. They're rather interesting because the deal is that they have to kill someone in order to live. That's one of the House rules. So throughout the course of the night, they...um...go crazy basically? The House messes with their minds, and they start to turn on each other and everything. SO YEAH. They aren't likable characters for the most part. Buuuut this book does present a really clear picture of human nature which was, for lack of a better word, unnerving. This was well-done, fascinating, but also kind of disturbing. After all, watching people succumb to the evil in their hearts and think about murdering each other is not exactly easy to read. :P I have very mixed feelings about the characters. The development was great, and I really do think that the authors are masterful storytellers, but it was really disturbing to see the things they thought/did.

And of course, there's the allegory. Ah yes. Dekker-style allegory. XD I'm...not really a fan of it? Again, mixed feelings here. On the one hand: WOW THIS IS BRILLIANT. I would have never thought of spinning an allegory like this. But on the other hand: I AM REALLY DISTURBED. Which basically sums up my entire relationship with Dekker books currently.

CONTENT:
Tons of violence. Characters shoot/stab/punch/kick/etc. Lots of murderous rage/thoughts by the characters. Disturbing scenes involving one character who has a *cough* thing for the female characters. There isn't any cursing, but the h-word is used a lot to describe the place. I wouldn't recommend anybody sensitive to violence or darkness in books to read this. Definitely at least 16+.

Overall? I'd say this book held me spellbound in disturbed fascination. It was creepy, it gave me chills, and it did make me think. And that's more than I can say about some thrillers. I just don't think Dekker's books and I mix very well so far.

3 stars

I hated this book. The writing was very basic, the characters were often moronic and not worthy of any emotional investment, and the story was lackluster. The religious aspect was the little turd cherry on this shit sundae.

The one good thing about this book is that once you read even a little bit, you'll be inspired to write your own novel. If this can get published, anything can.