Reviews

Harmony House by Nic Sheff

Only show reviews with written explanations

Graded By: Brian
Cover Story: Weird Title
Drinking Buddy: Nope
~~Testosterone~~ Estrogen Level: Flatline
Talky Talk: USA Up All Night
Bonus Factors: Haunted Mansion, THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU!
Bromance Status: Fifth Grade Campmate

Read the full book report here.

bankotsedo's review

Go to review page

2.0

...what? I just, what? Nothing happened for 90% of the book, then BAM a ton of stuff happened and I don't understand why most of it happened. I don't? I'm confused???

puzzlethevampireslayer's review

Go to review page

4.0

Damn this was good. The story reads like an American Horror Story screenplay and it was AWESOME.

zoewashburn's review

Go to review page

1.0

I didn't finish this book. The writing was horrendous, the characters were awful, and the overall storytelling was dreadful. Don't even bother trying to read this.

aprilsarah's review

Go to review page

3.0

2.5 stars.

thoughts_ofabookworm's review

Go to review page

3.0

Harmony House follows Jen Noonan who moves with her father to a new place following her mother's death. Her ultra-religious father becomes increasingly fixated on the fact that Jen is being taken over by the devil and is in need of saving. Jen is having visions of things that have happened in the past at the house but will she be able to piece it together and save herself and her father before it's too late?

*My thoughts contain spoilers to the book*

This story unfolds very quickly, I think taking place over the span of the first week they move into the house. Although the story itself is very well-written and engaging, there are some things that I felt could have made it more enjoyable. While there are meant to be parallels between the past and the present, noted through Jen's visions, there are things that weren't explained as well as they could have been. For example, there's not enough background on Jen's dad, Anselm, and how he was involved with Harmony House as a child and the parallels between Sister Margaret and Jen's mother, also named Margaret. The other thing that seemed kind of just thrown in there were Jen's 'powers.' There is no mention of what these powers are, why she has them, and what other purpose they serve besides being the way out at the end of the story. Overall, fast-paced and easy to read but definitely leaves something to be desired.

readbyashleyd's review

Go to review page

2.0

I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I enjoyed the premise of the book very much. I'm a sucker for any kind of haunted house type story. But then on the other hand, it was so juvenile at times that I actually cringed and the story was just so poorly fleshed out. Some details are just so vague and things are brought up, only to be left completely unexplained. This could have been a great book if it had it been properly fleshed out but ended up being just mediocre.

lpcoolgirl's review

Go to review page

5.0

This book was awesome and creepy and so enjoyable! Great mystery and characters, and I really enjoyed disliking to hating her dad!

vebarger's review

Go to review page

3.0

I wanted to like this one more than I did. I'm sure others will like it better than I did, but in the end I was just sort of left thinking, "meh." The ending was also rather disappointing.