Book Review — Home Before Dark

 

Title: Home Before Dark
Author: Riley Sager
Genre: Horror
Pages: Oversize paperback 384
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4519-6
Opening Lines: "Every house has a story to tell and a secret to share."

Rating

"Twenty-five years ago, Maggie Holt and her parents, Ean and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. Three weeks later they fled in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book titled House of Horrors. His horror memoir of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skeptics.

"Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father's book. But she also doesn't believe a word of it. Ghost, after all, don't exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father's death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren't thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie's father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father's book, she starts to believe that what he wrote as more fact than fiction."

~ Jacket copy

After all the dust settled and the media attention died down, after years of movies and the Satanic Panic, did you ever wonder what the Lutz children thought of The Amityville Horror? This is the follow-up book/docuseries you wanted—the Lutz children returning to the sight of their harrowing encounter with the supernatural and trying to sift through the truth and the lies. (Of course, this assumes the Netflix documentary following the youngest son does not exist . . . I kind of wish it didn't.)

Book Review — The Haunted

 

Title:  The Haunted
Author:  Bentley Little
Genre:  Horror
Pages:  Oversized paperback, 347
ISBN:  978-0=593-19997-8
Opening Lines:  "'We're here again, Dad.'"

Rating

"Julian and Claire Perry and their two children, Megan and James, have made the move to a bigger, nicer home in their city's historic district. But something isn't right

"The neighbors seem reluctant to visit. Claire can't shake the feeling that someone is watching her. Megan receives increasingly menacing and obscene texts. And James is having terrible dreams. No wonder, considering what he's seen in the corner of the basement, staring at hime and shuffling ever so slowly.

"Pity no on warned them about the house. Now it's too late. Because the darkness at the bottom of the stairs is rising . . ."

~ Jacket copy

Most smaller towns in the United States have that one neighborhood with that one house.  You know the one.  All of the children are afraid to go near it during Halloween, and most times teenagers will dare each other to enter just to demonstrate some machismo.   Unfortunately, the Perry's new home is that house.  And they're about to find out what the truly entails for the inhabitants.  

Book Review — No One Gets Out Alive

Title:  No One Gets Out Alive
Author:  Adam Nevill
Genre:  Horror
Pages:  Paperback, 628
ISBN:  978-1-4472-4090-7
Opening Lines: "The dream receded quickly and Stephanie recalled little of it, beside an anxious desire to leave a cold, greyish place; a narrow space in which people stood too close to her.  One of them had been crying."

Rating

"Cash-strapped, working for temping agencies and living in a shared accommodation, Stephanie Booth feels she can fall no further. So when she takes a new room at the right price, she believes her luck has finally turned. But 82 Edgehill Road is not what it appears to be.

"It's not only the eerie atmosphere of the vast, neglected house, or the disturbing attitude of her new landlord, Knacker McGuire, that makes her uneasy — it's the whispers behind the fireplace, the scratching beneath the floors, the footsteps in the dark, and the young women weeping in neighbouring rooms. When Knacker's menacing cousin, Fergal arrives, the danger exceeds her darkest imaginings.

"But this is merely a beginning, a gateway to horrors beyond Stephanie's worst nightmares. And in a house where no one listens to the screams, will she ever get out alive?

~ Jacket copy

After a bad break-up and a crummy home life, all Stephanie wants to do is make it one her own.  Unfortunately, working in work temp agencies affords her little more than the "Cage"; however, she has to get out.  She cannot live there another day.  As luck would have it, she sees an advert for a boarding house for girls at a price she cannot refuse.  Unfortunately, she refuses to listen to her better reason, over look all of the warning signs, and takes the room for the decent price.  And that's when everything starts happening

I wanted to like this book.  I desperately wanted to like this book!  Many of the reviews said to hang through the first 200 pages, and then it would pick up.  If you can get over Stephanie refusing to stand up for herself and her whining, it would get better.  At times, I honestly believed the reviews.  Yes, the first 200 pages are hard to slog through; however, Nevill has some great world/setting building in those pages.  He sets an amazing tone and mood that carried the book through.  Unfortunately, it should have ended after the ninth day in the house.

The book has a very good undercurrent of the paranormal, and, at times, it invaded my dreams.  I found myself a bit paranoid after reading the book.  Sadly, Stephanie is not a likable character, and she is rather daft.  Without getting into the aspect of the Black Maggie, Knacker's plans were obvious.  Even the idea of the Black Maggie was overused and played out.

After reading House of Small Shadows and reading rave reviews of Nevill's other books, I desperately wanted to venture into his other works.  If his other books are like this, I will be staying away from him in the future.  He suffers from TELLING and not showing.  Much of the last third of the book was spent skimming and skipping large sections.  It was more erroneous and superfluous detail that completely took me out of the story.  As mentioned before, the entire last part of the book was completely unnecessary, and the story itself would have been improved had it been scrapped during editing.

All in all, this book ended up being more of a disappointment. 

 

Book Review — The Women in the Walls

Title:  The Women in the Walls Author:  Amy Lukavics Genre:  YA horror Pages:  Hardback, 278 Publisher:  Harlequin Teen ISBN:  978-0-373-21194-4 Opening Lines:  "Walter the cook killed himself in his little bedroom downstairs, just a few hours after saying good-night."

Rating

"Lucy Acosta's mother died when she was three.

"Growing up in a Victorian mansion in the middle of the woods with her cold, distant father, she explored the dark hallways of the estate with her cousin, Margaret. They're inseparable—a family.

"When her aunt Penelope, the only mother she's ever known, tragically disappears while walking in the woods surrounding their estate, Lucy finds herself devastated and alone. Margaret has been spending a lot of time in the attic. She claims she can hear her dead mother's voice whispering from the walls. Emotionally shut out by her father, Lucy watches helplessly as her cousin's sanity slowly unravels. But when she beings hearing voices herself, Lucy finds herself confronting an ancient and deadly legacy in her family for generations."

~ Jacket copy

After reading Daughters Unto Devils, I desperately wanted to get my hands on Lukavics next book.  While there were unanswered questions in her first novel, it managed to leave a chill in my bones and kept my light on for many nights following.  The concept of this book sounded interesting, and it reminded me of myriad ghost stories I heard growing up.

Lucy Acosta has always grown up with the image of what an Acosta is: "An Acosta must never lack control.  She must keep her back straight, and her clothes ironed, and her expression placid.  She must refuse to be seen unless her hair and makeup have been set . . ." (277).  Even though she has always strove to follow her aunt's impeccable example, her composure beings to slip when her aunt disappears and her cousin begins a fast decent into madness.

Where do I even begin?  I had high hopes for this book.  The beginning grabs the reader's attention and draws them in with promises of mystery and a sinister story.  However, as the book progress, everything falls apart and fails to deliver.  

In some ways, the story was anti-climactic.  The book built and built and built without a true resolution.  Further, many of the details were undeveloped and felt haphazardly thrown into the story.  For example, not only was Lucy's cutting predicable, it felt as though it was included merely because it seemed right.  Maybe the author felt it added depth to the character, but . . . It felt like a failed attempt.  In addition, most of the supporting characters left me with the impression that they were nothing more than an afterthought that provided filler.  The isolation might have been a plot device, however, Lucy barely had any interaction with them.  

Looking at Lucy for a moment, she mentions that she just knows her aunt could never be a killer (p. 214) and—after systematic emotional abuse—deep down, she knows her father cares (p. 219).  I found this to be quite problematic.  Not only is her father's care completely outside of the character we've seen up to this point, Lucy spends too much time inner-focused up to this point, the bold statements—while too vague—belie everything the audience is shown and hints at some watchfulness on her part. While that may be completely within the realm of possibility, why were we not shown this side of her before?  For the most part, Lucy only sees her father through a specific Margaret-filtered lens.  These comments felt as though they were the author's way of trying to rectify our previous views of characters like her father or as a failed lead in to something more sinister.  

Furthermore, Margaret is a far more compelling character.  While abrasive, she had a vibrancy that Lucy lacks.  It was hinted that the girls were no longer in the school system because of Margaret and possible fights.  That is seen in her treatment of Vanessa.  At some level, I wish the author had switched the characters.  Lucy lives too much in her head, spends her time being pulled every which way by Margaret, and agonizes over whether she should cut herself.  Further, her behavior toward her father is incongruous with her response to Margaret and everyone else (mousy vs. bitch). 

The beginning of the book was quite engaging, yet it quickly dwindled and died completely.  The ending left me with more questions than it sought to answer.  Why was Lucy's mother given the estate?  Why was her father so distant?  How much did he know about the Mother?  Who is the Mother?  Why did the women choose an Acosta as the caretaker of the estate?  What fully happened to Penelope when she was gone?  Who was/is Clara?  Aside from bringing in more acolytes, what is the roll of the Daughter?  Etc., etc., etc.

There were some good parts to the story and the imagery was amazing.  Sadly, however, this book failed to delivery on all counts.