Not bad, not without it's drawbacks

I really wanted to get excited for this one and, for a good part of it I was. There's just a few things that kind of drew me back from my enjoyment. I THINK this is a debut novel, so hopefully those things may get ironed out in future works, or maybe they aren't issues and I'm just being too picky. Who knows?

To start off, the premise was a good one for me. And I liked the slow(ish) burn way in which the book began. Gave you a chance to get to know the main characters and some of the secondary ones. Unfortunately, one of the things about the main characters struck me as odd. The relationship they have is literally too perfect (this is further compounded later on when one of their kids nearly dies due to one of the parents not watching it when they totally should have been, only for the other parent to be like 'ah well, at least the worst didn't happen and we still all have each other ...) Is it just me, or would you also have expected a bit of tension when the near-death of your child was involved?

I'd have liked a bit more of a build up to the horror elements in this one. What we got was a pretty overt display of what was going on rather than some sort of creepy factor that really aids a haunted/possessed house title. Just knowing what was what really took some of the dread/scare factor away for me. That being said, it was still a well told story for the most part, so it's only a minor detraction. Another minor detraction for me was the time jumps. They aren't massively frequent, but for me I just prefer books without them. That's entirely a me thing, though.

Oddly enough, my negative points would go a long way towards making this a fantastic tv movie. So it's not all a bad thing as it does help the overall vision of the piece to a degree.

Other than a few bits being a bit too perfectly in the right place at the right time, and there not being too much of a sense of dread throughout, I enjoyed this one and look forward to seeing future works by the author

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A Good Story!

An enjoyable story of generational trauma. Spooky enough to keep you hooked. Although for the life of me, i just cant understand why the narrator who is British would read the first person narrative in his native accent but switch to an American accent for the speech only.

If you can get over this you'll enjoy this book.

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1 person found this helpful

Ok but fizzled out towards the end

An ok story and performance.

For me it grew and grew but then just sort of went nowhere.

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Scary and satisfying

Absolutely gripping, I was on tenterhooks pretty much all the way through. Narrator was excellent, just right for this abominable tale!

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Good

Enjoyable and easy to listen to. Couldn't wait to listen to next installment. worth a read

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Chilling!

I really enjoyed both story and narration. A proper haunted house story. Christopher Weeks read wonderfully as usual.

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The feeling of fear

The best horror story I have heard for a long time. You could feel the malevolence and heightened tension in each chapter. Great.

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unexpected plot

I really liked that I didn't expect what happened next. multiple parts left me guessing and needing to hear more

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Great narration and story

One of the best narrations, wasn't distracting or annoying at all and read very well to convey the creepy atmosphere, which is also down to the writing of course, kept my interest throughout and possible the only horror book ever to have my blood run cold. Really good story and I feel it wouldn't be out of place as one of The Conjuring movies, just throw Ed and Lorraine Warren into the mix.

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Enjoyable haunted house story

I really enjoyed this, a solid 'family haunted in new house' story. Well written, though not particularly original (but what is, these days?)
I'm disappointed that I don't see anything else written by the author as I'd love to see more of their work.
I also enjoyed the narration.

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