No sabía que esperar de este libro, porque terminó en mis manos gracias a una amiga, pero tengo que admitir que no es lo que imaginaba que sería. Me atrapó al inicio, tiene un arranque fuerte que te hace devorar las primeras doscientas páginas sin detenerte un segundo... pero ya a mediados del libro me causaba más risa que espanto. Hay muchos aspectos que me parecen poco desarrollados, como por ejemplo la calidad de los personajes (no hay historia que funcione sin personajes que generen cierto impacto) y ciertas situaciones se me antojaban forzadas.

El estilo es muy limpio y sencillo, es una novela que puede leerse en un día. Su punto fuerte son las descripciones, probablemente es lo que más disfruté también. Respecto a la trama, fue como si mis expectativas se fueran quedando atrás mientras avanzaba en la lectura (o tal vez fui quedando excluida de una gran revelación). No diría que es un libro brillante, pero creo que es un libro que te permite contemplar ciertos aspectos de tu vida desde una nueva perspectiva: ¿Cuánta luz y cuánta oscuridad hay en nuestros corazones? Y cuán dispuestos estamos de asumir la responsabilidad que tenemos por lo que hacemos y, sobre todo, por lo que somos.

House has been on my shelf for a couple of years, and it was one of the novels I didn’t make it to on last year’s spooky October list. I made it first this year to be sure I actually got to it, and I’m sorry that I bothered. I read and liked Frank Peretti’s Veritas Project novels when I was younger, but they in no way prepared me for this. There’s a lot of bitterness ahead; you may want to bring an umbrella. Spoilers will be clearly marked. Trigger warning: rape.

Two couples find themselves trapped in a house in the middle of nowhere while a killer stalks them. Once they’re forced into the basement of the house, the killer preys upon their worst fears and tries to convince them to kill each other before dawn.

I reserve one star ratings for that special blend of structural and ethical failure. This book isn’t just a disaster of bad writing; it’s actually offensive. In a year and a half of running a book blog, I’ve never had to give something one star because there’s almost always something redeemable about a novel, even if it isn’t for me. But the more I thought about House, the angrier I got.

Let’s start with structural failures, since that’s usually what I focus on in my reviews. I care about how novels are put together, about how they work or don’t work, and this novel doesn’t work. The beginning is a mess of horror cliches, from the car breaking down to the creepy, backwoods family living in the only house for miles. There are rip offs from any number of horror films, and House brings nothing new to the concepts. The middle is a lot of aimless running through rooms in the basement that could never logically exist, with no attempt at explanation, and then it just spirals into absurdity. White wants them to kill each other; in a game based on sin, it doesn’t make sense for any of the characters to think that murder will help them win. For a horror novel, there’s nothing remotely frightening about it except how awful it is.

A big part of this failure is in character. I don’t care for novels where every single character is a selfish jerk; they’re not even unlikable in an interesting way. Randy is a cliche of a male villain, and Stephanie is so vapid it’s almost criminal. Along with the outright violence against the female characters, there’s a casual sort of sexism going on as well. The girls are frequently slapped or told to shut up, even though they’re hardly the most offensive characters on the page.

As for the thematic failures, I should point out that I’m not the audience for this book. Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker are well-known Christian writers, and I don’t particularly subscribe to that faith. The thing is, I shouldn’t have to. If the book is well-written, it has the potential to appeal to anyone, and I’ve been moved by Christian subtext in the past. (Supernatural? Constantine? Love them. You don’t have to believe in heaven and hell and redemption to love them.) But the mythology is so shallow and so beaten over the head of the reader that it’s nauseating. There’s no attempt at subtlety, or even at bringing a new angle to old ideas. It’s as flat and tasteless as the rest of the novel.

What bothers me most about House is the overall message that all the characters are SINNERS and ATHEISTS who should be punished. There’s a long tradition in scary movies that characters who “sin” will die first (no drinking, no drugs, no sex), and it’s not even slasher movies that have taken this up; the entire Saw franchise is based on punishing so-called evildoers. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t like any of the characters in House, but that doesn’t mean they deserve what happens to them, and I dislike the very heavy-handed implication that they do.

The worst part is, again, the sexist implications this has for the women. There’s an underlying message that Leslie deserves to be violated by Pete because she’s a whore, and I’m about eighty-seven kinds of uncomfortable and pissed off about that. It’s rape apology at its finest hiding behind so-called faith, and I’m so offended I almost threw this book in the garbage. I’m not sure it’s doing anyone a favor to donate it. (Also, I hope that line about White really being black is metaphorical, or we have a whole other set of problems.)

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. TURN BACK BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.

The failure to make sense of all the rooms in the basement is poorly explained away by saying it’s a reflection of the characters’ insides. Er, okay? That’s actually worse, since Leslie is the only one for whom this parallel really makes sense, and it’s outright offensive. Then there’s the fact that Lawdale is the villain. There’s a big reveal for it toward the end of the novel, as though we’d never seen a single horror movie. Naturally, he’s in on it; he’s the one who leads them off the trail to begin with. Susan, save us sinners and feminists from this bad writing.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

OMG but this was TERRIBLE! I only finished it because it was a buddy-read situation for Litsy. It's even more horrible because they took my favorite trope--the haunted house--and totally ruined it. Problems with this book:

1. Characters are unlikable (forgivable) and one-dimensional (unforgivable!). My only regret is that some of them survived the ending.
2. The plot is too much. It's like a mashup of all different types of horror stories. You've got the homicidal hillbillies living in the house (threat #1). Then we meet The Stranger Who Shows Up Randomly to Kill You for His Own Amusement--AKA the Tin Man AKA White (threat #2). Finally, because this is apparently not enough, the house in which all of this is transpiring is HAUNTED (threat #3). What that results in is this frenetic activity that makes absolutely no sense. None of the three plotlines can be fully developed because of the other two jostling for page space. So we have this random group of stupids running around like chickens with their heads cut off, being attacked on all sides by hillbillies, a homicidal stranger, and the house itself. The house pretty much limits its attacks to slamming and locking doors and pulling the old switcheroo on locations. Rooms appear and disappear, grow and shrink in size, and change places. It's like the Torrances arrive at the Overlook to find they have to deal not only with the ghosts but the separate entity of a carnivorous clown and an army of vampires, as well. There's no suspense--there's no time for suspense! None of it is ever really explained, either, because who has time for that?
3. The writing itself is simplistic and amateurish. It's hard to believe that this was the collaboration between two well-known authors. I haven't really read anything else by either of these guys, and am now certainly not eager to. Are both of them lacking in talent, or was one of them more responsible for actually putting pen to paper than the other? Did their collaboration have a supernatural effect on them, their writing abilities canceling each other out? It's a mystery that I will probably never solve. Life is too short and there is too much GOOD reading material out there to try to puzzle out the reasons behind the bad.

So, horror fans, take my advice and don't waste your time with this one.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I picked up this book. I knew it should be good, because both of these authors have established themselves as excellent writes, specifically for Christian audiences. Though I could tell by the development of the storyline and plot that this book was specifically aimed at both Christian and non-Christian audiences, it still had much of the feel of a Christian book.

That being said, it is definitely better written than most Christian fiction and would probably be a great book to recommend to non-Christians. The writing bears more of Dekker's style than Peretti's, though the overall setting and story arc bear Peretti's fingerprints admirably.

The story itself centers around the estranged marriage of Jack and Stephanie, a starting point that many Americans (at least) are familiar with and can probably relate to rather easily. They get stranded on the road under mysterious circumstances and end up seeking shelter for the night in a Inn they come across. Yep, sounds like the makings of a horror story if I've ever heard 'em!

The plot and action move quickly and the characters unfold and develop unobtrusively. There is a lot of tension and panic, common to the horror genre, but it never gets out of control. What it seems that Perretti and Dekker were aiming at was to reveal how easily the facade of character an individual has can crumble and wash away in the presence of true terror, and how a person needs something (or someone) other than themselves to lean on and trust in to help them through situations.

In the end I don't think this is either author's best work. Peretti's Oath was just brilliant, and Dekker's Circle Trilogy has a depth and movement to it which many secular works lack. This was a teaming of two incredible talents, but I think in the end the struggle to harness and mesh their particular creative talents (which definitely run in different directions) produced a worthy story, but just one that doesn't quite reach the potential of either.

I do recommend this book, though I think your time would be just as well spent reading other works by the authors. Due to the violence and some more mature sexual themes, I would definitely not recommend this to anyone not in High School.

Before I picked up this book (at a severe discount)I did not even know there was a Christian Horror genre. I am pretty sure this book is part of the reason why. Peretti steals Stephen King's more stereo typical characters without learn anything from his polished writing style. Then he proceeds to throw them into a bizarre cross between Rose Red and Saw. If Saw was orchestrated by the devil himself while on PCP. And just for good measure is throws in the "creepy child" with a good mixture of Cassandra and the Messiah figure as a character. And it's all so odd and convoluted that you think as horror it just might work out. Until you realize that this bizarre world wants to do the daunting task of turning you to god while disturbing you beyond belief.

Because that is all this book did for me. It was disturbing, and awkward, and oddly put together. I mean for Pete's sake, those very promising rules on the back cover, the scary ones that include killing god, are written on the side of a soup can. Yes. A soup can. It was so bad that I cannot believe I found words to describe the unholy abomination that is this book.

WOW this book is SO terrible. Usually when a book is bad I can somehow find 1 or 2 points that makes the book bad. For this book there are so many I don't know where to start...

If you are expecting a fun thriller book this is bad because there are random Christian elements in it shoved in there. If you are expecting some good Christian fiction this is ALSO really bad because those Christian elements in there make no sense.

It's really obviously this book is written by two authors. And it appears they didn't even talk to each other when they were writing this book. So many jarring narrative transitions in this book that makes no sense.

It also draws you in with a pretty interesting beginning, then it descends into chaotic nonsense. You can see how the story slowly breaks down into chaos, when you comes to the ending it just becomes completely trash.

The entire book non of the characters are Christians or familiar with Christianity, and in the end suddenly they understand SUSAN IS THE CHRIST. What?? And bang two pages later, Susan is an ANGEL too??? WHAT??!! I don't even know why I bother to write this review it already wasted so much of my time to read it!

It pains me to give a novel only two stars as I know how much time, passion and work goes into writing a novel. However, this novel missed the mark for me. I didn’t find it scary, I found it extremely redundant and it lacked those elements that I seek in a good scary story. Maybe you will have a different experience, but that was mine.

I started reading this and at first it seemed like one of those campy horror movies but all went straight downhill. Beyond silly. I would never recommend this to anyone.

Leer esto fue como ser un niño a las 2 pm un domingo de verano sin ventilador: aburrido, tedioso y eterno.

Not sure what I expected with this being one of those books where two established authors combine their ideas and talents. This did start well, with a slight Texas chainsaw... and Haunting Of Hill House vibe. It did slow down halfway where I thought it was possibly going to change or see other things come up in the narrative. Still a number of entertaining surprises and surreal twists before the end. Try it if you enjoy haunted house tales, Poe or some classic Stephen King.

DNF at approx. 70%.

I wish I hadn't wasted my time for so long with this slog of a book. I mostly kept hoping it would get better (which is why I stuck with it for so long), but at the 70% point I just couldn't continue any further. While the premise was intriguing (two couples getting stuck in a mysterious house they can't seem to escape while simultaneously being hunted in the hopes of making it out alive at dawn the next morning), the book itself was incredibly boring, the dialogue between characters was awful and you felt literally nothing for the main characters. It also got very judgemental regarding religion, and basically stated anyone who didn't explicitly believe in God was a terrible sinner who deserved what they got. It made me very uncomfortable, and seemed entirely out of place in what is supposed to be a horror novel. It felt very much like the authors were pushing their own personal beliefs on the readers in a 'it's my way or the highway' type of setting, which I did not appreciate.

Strong start but by page 100 i was already hoping Randy would snap and shoot someone just to save the torment of reading on and on. I actually felt like i was stuck in the house with no way out too… and as for the 'shocking' twist - pffft. I saw that one coming as if it had a flashing neon sign and it's own personal marching band. TIP : if you want there to be a surprise bad guy, don't make a convenient stranger in the beginning of the story such an arsehole. It probably would have shocked me more if he had come in and saved them.