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3.3 AVERAGE
3.3 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
tense
fast-paced
What the ACTUAL fuck! This book went from 0-100 in the last chapter. I was really struggling to decide if this was a friendship story masquerading as a horror story, a haunted house story, or something else. Well let's say we landed on something else entirely.
The book was a slow burn that had an interesting premise. Throughout the first half of the book it bounced back and forth between convincing haunting story and a friendship story where two childhood friends seek to mend a broken friendship. It really began to build in the second half and then in the course of three chapters, THREE, it went off-the-rails and the ending left me speechless. I am sill undecided if that speechless is a good thing or a bad thing.
I will say that as a haunted house story it had potential. Ocker's intense love of the genre bleeds through his characters putting his passion for horror, and specifically haunted house stories, on full display. That should have made for an awe-inspiring tale, but the comedic tone of the story diffused any tension that managed to build and ruined that element of the book.
The friendship story, and the subsequent conflict, was hinted at throughout the book, but doesn't really get discussed until the final chapters. This was annoying and just felt like a soap opera-esque cliffhanger used to try and keep the reader invested in this plotline. On the other side of the ending, this choice makes sense, but I am not convinced that I like this ending at all and thus really struggle to judge a verdict on this choice.
Don't pick up this book expecting Matheson's Hell House, which having just finished that book a few weeks ago was my mistake. Expect a slow tale of broken friendships, revenge, and a light haunting complete with an off-the-rails ending that, love it or hate it, will leave a mark on the reader.
The book was a slow burn that had an interesting premise. Throughout the first half of the book it bounced back and forth between convincing haunting story and a friendship story where two childhood friends seek to mend a broken friendship. It really began to build in the second half and then in the course of three chapters, THREE, it went off-the-rails and the ending left me speechless. I am sill undecided if that speechless is a good thing or a bad thing.
I will say that as a haunted house story it had potential. Ocker's intense love of the genre bleeds through his characters putting his passion for horror, and specifically haunted house stories, on full display. That should have made for an awe-inspiring tale, but the comedic tone of the story diffused any tension that managed to build and ruined that element of the book.
The friendship story, and the subsequent conflict, was hinted at throughout the book, but doesn't really get discussed until the final chapters. This was annoying and just felt like a soap opera-esque cliffhanger used to try and keep the reader invested in this plotline. On the other side of the ending, this choice makes sense, but I am not convinced that I like this ending at all and thus really struggle to judge a verdict on this choice.
Don't pick up this book expecting Matheson's Hell House, which having just finished that book a few weeks ago was my mistake. Expect a slow tale of broken friendships, revenge, and a light haunting complete with an off-the-rails ending that, love it or hate it, will leave a mark on the reader.
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If you want a mix of scream and goosebumps, then this is the book for you. Not quite the slow-paced, genre-defining piece of Haunted House Fiction that was promised to me by the blurbs on the front, but it was an overall good read for most of the book. I do think that this might be one of the most disappointing endings for a book that I've ever read. It kinda comes out of nowhere and soured the rest of the book for me. But by that point the constant horror movie references were really beginning to get to me.
Also I wasn't joking about the goosebumps thing. Like every chapter ends with some kind of cliffhanger that is immediately resolved on the following page. I just wish this had a cool 3-D cover and possibly some slime. I think that would've improved my reading experience immensely.
Also I wasn't joking about the goosebumps thing. Like every chapter ends with some kind of cliffhanger that is immediately resolved on the following page. I just wish this had a cool 3-D cover and possibly some slime. I think that would've improved my reading experience immensely.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
This was a good story. This was a great ending. I really didn't see the ending coming but it was done well. It's suspenseful and totally worth the read.
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
3 star because I wanted more action. Pumped to 4 because it was very well written with well developed characters.
First of all...
The cover completely mislead me to believe that this was an actual psychological horror/thriller type novel. What I got was more of a...drama, bromance, and jump-scare kind of deal.
The beginning of the book started out okay with building up the scene that leads to the familiar feel of the start of a haunted house novel; Man tries to get into legendary haunted house for a book deal and sets to plan out his camp out for 12 days. But man...those first two nights in that house were brutal. I mean that in the sense that it was just slow. It was like reading a novelization of "Haunted House Hunters" on TLC than anything else, but I digress.
The introduction of Thomas got the novel moving to a bit of a faster momentum (or maybe I was just beginning to skim to some of the "hopefully" interesting parts), but I was more entertained mostly by their humorous antics in the house than being afraid for my life. Keep in mind...still nothing scary. Maybe a mysterious sighting or noise here and there, but nothing that set my mind on edge or raised the hairs in the back of my neck.
Then! Things start to get interesting with some telenovela tropes with Elsa cheating on Felix with Thomas and that set things to HUGE levels of suspense. "Was he going to murder Thomas in a fit of rage?" "Was this going to end in a fight that leaves two of our main characters the actual ghosts of the Rotter House?" I had to pause for a second to get my bearings settled because I was more, "Holy shit, I did NOT see this coming!!" After screaming and freaking out for a good while and settling down with some calming tea, I forced myself into the last few chapters of the book.
I'm very mixed with how I felt about the ending. Honestly, I felt that as much as it was an interesting twist of events, it almost seemed like it was smacked on there to give the book a "horrifying" conclusion. Give readers an "A-Ha!" moment. I was unfortunately not buying it. There was so much potential that could have been added to parts of the book to give readers the anticipation of that ending instead of getting this surprise thrown at their faces.
All in all, it was not a terrible book, but I would definitely not recommend this to anyone who is not patient enough to read through a few chapters of slow build up until the middle of the book when things start to get slightly interesting. I would also not recommend this book for anyone in search of a horror novel to read. I would label this book more of a drama/bromance/suspense novel, but horror? Nope.
Still pretty fun read, though!
The cover completely mislead me to believe that this was an actual psychological horror/thriller type novel. What I got was more of a...drama, bromance, and jump-scare kind of deal.
The beginning of the book started out okay with building up the scene that leads to the familiar feel of the start of a haunted house novel; Man tries to get into legendary haunted house for a book deal and sets to plan out his camp out for 12 days. But man...those first two nights in that house were brutal. I mean that in the sense that it was just slow. It was like reading a novelization of "Haunted House Hunters" on TLC than anything else, but I digress.
The introduction of Thomas got the novel moving to a bit of a faster momentum (or maybe I was just beginning to skim to some of the "hopefully" interesting parts), but I was more entertained mostly by their humorous antics in the house than being afraid for my life. Keep in mind...still nothing scary. Maybe a mysterious sighting or noise here and there, but nothing that set my mind on edge or raised the hairs in the back of my neck.
Then! Things start to get interesting with some telenovela tropes with Elsa cheating on Felix with Thomas and that set things to HUGE levels of suspense. "Was he going to murder Thomas in a fit of rage?" "Was this going to end in a fight that leaves two of our main characters the actual ghosts of the Rotter House?" I had to pause for a second to get my bearings settled because I was more, "Holy shit, I did NOT see this coming!!" After screaming and freaking out for a good while and settling down with some calming tea, I forced myself into the last few chapters of the book.
I'm very mixed with how I felt about the ending. Honestly, I felt that as much as it was an interesting twist of events, it almost seemed like it was smacked on there to give the book a "horrifying" conclusion. Give readers an "A-Ha!" moment. I was unfortunately not buying it. There was so much potential that could have been added to parts of the book to give readers the anticipation of that ending instead of getting this surprise thrown at their faces.
All in all, it was not a terrible book, but I would definitely not recommend this to anyone who is not patient enough to read through a few chapters of slow build up until the middle of the book when things start to get slightly interesting. I would also not recommend this book for anyone in search of a horror novel to read. I would label this book more of a drama/bromance/suspense novel, but horror? Nope.
Still pretty fun read, though!
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes