My mom has clued me in to many amazing books over the years so she was bound to stumble upon a rotten apple. She hadn't read it herself and I can't fault her- from the cover alone it did seem interesting. Unfortunately it was one of the worst stories I've ever read. Absolutely terrible even before the obnoxious good versus evil religious undertones. It's like the authors came up with a plot they thought would be fun then threw together a ridiculously stereotyped cast of characters and completely illogical plot twists and slapped a cover on it. So so bad.

I keep practically every book I ever read...

...I didn't keep this one though.

(Update: I was going to leave it at the two lines above since I'm not particularly fond of a giving a book a bad review, but I just can't let this one get away without giving it a damn good spanking. And so...)

I've read a lot of bad books in my time. And I've probably read worse than this one. But whenever someone asks me what the most terrible book I ever read was, 'House' inevitably springs to mind. To this day I still can't get over what a steaming pile of shit this novel was, written by TWO acclaimed authors no less. How something like this goes on to sell thousands and thousands of copies is beyond me.... but we do live in the age where '50 Shades Of Grey' is the top-selling book of all time... so maybe I shouldn't be all that surprised.

I find it hard to describe this book without vulgarity, probably because it was an utter waste of my fucking time and extraocular muscles. I won't bore you with the details (and trust me, you'd be sleep-drooling on your keyboard in no time), but the plot walks face-first into walls, the characters make cardboard look like personality plus, the writing is such drivel that it would embarrass most authors, and the ending of the story is the kind that should surely end a writer's career on the same note.

Oh, 'House' is a horror novel all right; I was truly horrified that something like this got published and popularized. When I was done with it I thought about giving the book away to a thrift store, but then felt so bad about passing this waste of wood along and subjecting anyone else to the torment, like it was the videotape in 'The Ring' or something.

The only time I ever think it would have been wise to keep this book around is on the odd occasion I unexpectedly run out of toilet paper.

I was really looking forward to this book and was excited to read it, but this book was not really what I had expected at all. Well I should say the premise of the book actually was, but it all came together in a way I did not expect. There were a lot of characters involved and I gotta say I did not really like any of them. Hard to decide who was actually an antagonist or protagonist.

I loved the air of mystery that surrounded the house, and that was what kept me going on the book. I thought that would the focal point of the story, but eventually found disappointment in the end as it was not what I expected at all. I had high hopes that it would all come together.

The story was really up and down for me. I would love one part and really get into it and then some off the wall event came about and threw it all off and then would take a turn in a totally different direction. There were also parts that were unexplained and also that were confusing to me. I felt like it was missing some stuff.

I really did not get a feel for Dekker or Peretti in this book, and I really do like both of them and their writing. Again, great premise, but it kind of fell short for me. It was just really out there with unlikable characters and a pretty unrealistic plot, with too many unanswered questions. I thought I would be able to keep it at a 3 for the rating, but after finishing I was pretty let down.

This was my first "horror" book I read as a kid besides Goosebumps if you even count those. For my first real horror book I thought it was great!

As I grew up though and started reading true horror like Stephen King, I realized how actually not scary this book is. It was as a preteen but not as an adult.

Whether it's truly scary or not though, it's still a good story and I'd recommend it to people who are just starting to get into horror. If you're already into horror, I'd skip it. You're not going to be scared.

Definitely a dark, Halloween read. But rather than being a spine-tingling fun thriller, it was more of a heavy, gross, nauseating chiller. Like you’re taking turns telling campfire stories and enjoying the jump-scares until someone takes things in a really inappropriate direction, and you feel like vomiting up your roasted marshmallows. Dread versus thrill. That kind of entertainment.

Yeah. I was warned. Few of my GR friends had positive vibes from “House.” But back in the 1980’s, Peretti’s “This Present Darkness” series powerfully opened my eyes to the unseen world of spiritual warfare, so I was willing to give this fresh title the benefit of the doubt.

To their credit, co-authors Peretti & Dekker successfully capture the concept of personal hell—how our sins come pre-loaded with exquisitely fine-tuned consequences. And they totally nail the imagery of sin being at once delicious, yet sickening. So, hats off for really capturing the putridity of sin. But ultimately, I feel like for all the guts we had to wade through, readers are owed more glory. More victory. A grander, more epic conclusion.

~Jen

So, this was my first Ted Dekker Book. I enjoyed this. I know from the reviews that a lot of people didn't like this but I did.

This is my kind of "Thriller" where you don't see guts on the page and you don't hear cussing on every page. I like the fact that he keeps it clean so I can enjoy the book.

Perhaps people didn't like it because they didn't read the rest of them they started with this one & decided they didn't want to go any further. However, I will be starting from the beginning.

I think Ted Dekker could be a new favorite of mine.

This is a house come alive.

I kept reading this hoping that it would get better but alas, I'm coming away extremely disappointed. My first scary book of the month is not off to a good start.

There were way too many plot lines going on, the main reveal was very predictable, the authors tried to make it supernatural and religious and the work of a human being and it was all too much. The characters lacked depth. Everything just felt so shallow. And strange. I'm glad I was able to read this so quickly & get it over with.

DNF

Abandonado... me estaba pareciendo malísimo

Dull. Dull, dull, dull, and did I mention, so very dull?*

After having car trouble (read: “run over a bunch of nails planted in the road”), an estranged couple find themselves in a B&B type establishment in the middle of nowhere, where they, and a second couple, are promptly creeped out by the backwoods owners and informed of the fact that Scary Killer will be coming after them, cause they’re basically sacrifices.

I didn’t find it at all suspenseful, the writing was not notable, it gave a pretty good example of How Not To Do Constantly Shifting POVs, the characters were one-dimensional and I had no sympathy for any of them, and the ending was unbelievably banal.

Seriously, I only finished reading this because I was on an airplane and didn’t want to run through the books I’d brought too quickly. Apparently it’s soon to be a movie, and honestly, as I was reading it, I was thinking, “This is way too visual, why are you trying to describe it in prose?!”, so maybe it’ll actually work better as a movie. Except the ending will still suck.

edit to change offensive wording

Zzzzzzzzz

Boring, boring, boring and more boring.

The writing is snail pace. Nothing much happens. The attempts to introduce Christianity towards the end fall totally flat.

It's difficult to believe these are two best selling authors.....

Perhaps they used AI??

Embarking on a new book regime is a little like jumping into the deep end of the pool; you’re never quite sure if you’re gonna sink or swim. I guess that’s how I feel about Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker’s religious fiction novel House is a definitely the unworn path that I do not usual take.
tI liked the horror of this novel. It involved an ominous evil force within a house in the middle of nowhere. There are main elements of this book that I didn’t like, but the one thing that I really associated with was the house itself. I enjoy books where a place is another character. The house is part of the evil of Peretti and Dekker’s book. It changes constantly in form and design. It is never the same as it was the scene before. It confuses the characters as well as the reader.
tThe house is the setting for a game; a creepy and horrible game that traps people in order to test their strength. Jack and Stephanie are suffering from a dying marriage and taking one last trip together as husband and wife but are caught out in the middle of the woods stranded with another couple, Leslie and Randy. The owners of the house are archaic and seemingly inbred and fanatical.
tBetty, Stewart and Pete are the family that owns the house and they are little less than accommodating. The two couples are forced into a game of cat and mouse against the evil Mr. White. White has challenged the people in the house with three rules. The first says that he has killed god, the second says that he will kill everyone in the house, and the third is that if the players can produce a dead body he will let the second rule slide.
tThe game is an elaborate maze and in true horror fashion Peretti and Dekker create an elaborate setting for suspense and human triumph. Even though there is a religious theme to Peretti and Dekker books there is a classic horror genre at work here that is genius. This book is a heart gripping book that will challenge the ideals of good and evil and the pain we can inflict on ourselves as well as everyone around us. So whether or not you are a religious person or not this book is action and horror and a wonderful read.t

Once I finished this book, I put it down on my night stand, and immediately started looking up contact information on who to talk to about getting a chunk of my life back. There's no point in going into specifics. If you value you're time you should pass hard on this.