Day 15 – 52 Books in 52 Weeks

First, I’d like to slap Joshua upside the head because he told me to read this book and I’m up way past my bedtime because I couldn’t put it down and now I have to blog about it. Anyway, the book is House by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. It’s sort of a supernatural thriller. Being a Stephen King fan, he thought I might enjoy this book.

The premise is four people getting trapped in a haunted house with three lunatics and shortly thereafter all are being hunted by someone from the outside. The basement, to which four of them flee, ends up being a maze of doors that open and shut on their own, mirrors that don’t reflect humans, rooms that might be recognized in a different setting, all of which seem to lead back to the same boiler room no matter which way they go.

The story, I thought was predictable, however, you’re talking to someone who’s good at predicting what will happen and what kind of twists will be thrown in for good measure. That said, this book was a page turner and I refused to set it down for any length of time (I usually had it pried open with something heavy so that I could keep reading as ate dinner or packed for my trip this weekend).

The ‘horror’ story begins as most: couple gets into trouble in the middle of nowhere and finds themselves at an inn. Where they run into another couple in the same predicament. Then you meet the three “owners” who aren’t exactly normal. This, of course, sets up who the characters are.

Then you get into some action as a stranger tries to break into the house. Or does he? Finally he sends down an old soup can with these words written on it:
“Welcome to my house.
House rules:
1. God came to my house and I killed him.
2. I will kill anyone who comes to my house as I killed God.
3. Give me one dead body, and I might let rule two slide.
Game over at dawn.”

And the fun begins… and you won’t set the book down until you’ve read the last line on the last page.

The only problem I had with the book (besides it cutting into my sleeping time) was that I didn’t think the characters of Leslie or Stephanie were done as fully as they could have been. Because this book is so character driven (and I mean both by the characters themselves but mainly how they act/react/think, i.e. their character) that each person’s character probably should have been brought out just a bit more and that done primarily with Leslie and Stephanie.

I don’t want to give any more away. There are lots of twists and turns. A couple things that I haven’t seen before, which I won’t mention because it might give something away (but it’s good)… and it was actually nice to read a horror book that didn’t have swear words on every other page.

Well, I’m out. Gotta be up early to get on the road. Spending time with my family (a late Christmas), so I should be back Monday night (if I get any reading done before then).

My next two books are Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Elijah by Charles Swindoll.

See you Monday and as always, Happy Reading!