The House Next Door

""The madness lay next door."<br/><br/>3.5⭐<br/><br/>I have pretty mixed feelings on The House Next Door. I loved some of it, and didn't care for other parts. The synopsis of this book seemed so perfect for me with the mix of horror and domestic suspense. I really enjoyed this book overall, but I felt like something was missing at times. <br/><br/>I wish it would have been a bit more sinister. It kept feeling like it was building to something, and then it would just sort of flatline. However, I was invested the entire time I was reading.<br/><br/>I feel like the ending was rushed, and not explained very well. I was intrigued by the final reveal, but I wanted more information and foreshadowing. It didn't necessarily feel believable because there wasn't enough in the rest of the book to back it up, but I think it had potential.<br/><br/>This book was written in the 70s, and I wasn't really wild about the concept that the potentially haunted house would utilize its evil to "turn people gay". So dumb &#x1f602;. This felt like too much of a moralistic tale at times, and the things that were happening in the house just weren't sinister for the most part. <br/><br/>Again, I liked the concept of this book, and I think I would like to see it adapted as a modern movie. It's a fun story, but it had a few too many plot holes for my liking."

"HECK. YEAH. One of the very very few books to freak me out. Bless. "

"Wow!!!! Warning: References to animal violence, severe verbal/mental abuse, homophobia and racism.<br/><br/>So as part of my wife's and my ongoing home-made coarse on horror/thriller/supernatural content written by women throughout the centuries, we came to Anne River Siddons who helped pioneer the age of more intimate horror and psychological horror in smaller settings. This book is stunning in its absolute complete destruction of the characters.<br/><br/>You meet the Kennedy's. They are an upper-middle class couple who live in an affluent neighborhood and have all the privilege of a southern white couple of that name. Its the mid 1970's and the lot next to them is vacant at the start of the book. It is purchased and the the first couple to join the neighborhood in awhile comes over the meet them. Before the house is even finished, trouble ensues. But its not till more happens to other families that the Kennedy's agree that something is truly wrong with the house itself. The horrors I warn of are all tied directly to that house and the occupants who become it's victims. <br/><br/>The amazing thing about this book is that the narrator, Calquit Kennedy doesn't hide anything from the very start. You learn all about these things in steady fashion with forewarning and a deep, abiding sense of dread. Even knowing it's coming, the author does a masterful job of building the suspense. The reader on this one, Barbara Rosenblat is brilliant in delivering the narrator's calm, perpetually collected manner even as she is pulled further and further into the nightmare along with her husband to the point of questioning their own sanity. <br/><br/>Being a product of the 1970's the homophobia and racism in an upper middle class suburban neighborhood seems accurate to the time and style of language used. It was not celebrated while it was also acknowledged. This is a very dark book. Plan to have something funny and light to listen to or read afterward."