This was a great horror book - finished reading this book in two days - couldn't put it down. A real page turner. This was the first time I've read anything by this author, so I'm looking forward to reading the rest of his books. If you like horror novels, you'll love this book! ( )

You can meet the characters that are offered the million dollars to stay the night in the Butler House (it's a real place),and learn their frightening experiences that qualified them to receive the invitation in the previous 8 books. It was interesting to be brought back around to so many familiar characters, to be able to see them all in one setting. I think the idea of the book is brilliant. They all receive visits from mysterious government agents inviting them to take part in a fear study from which they'll receive a million dollars. This unlikely start is actually the best part of the book, as it builds the tension of what is to come nicely. Unfortunately the pacing is a bit off, it takes half of the book to get to the point of the test and then when it does get started it throws it all at you at once. It switches from the tense build up to shock horror very quickly, the writing is still good, but it all becomes a bit rushed. The reveal is also a bit disappointing, although there is a bit of a fun tease there. So while the book didn't quite attain the early promise it is far, far from a bad book. The writing is great and it is...in spite of the subject matter, a fun read, especially if you enjoy purer visceral horror. ( )

Shortly into HAUNTED HOUSE, I thought Konrath had an awesome idea. He took the survivors from his previous horror novels (the Konrath Dark Thriller Collective) and put them all in a new horror novel. It was sort of the ultimate sequel and shared-world novel combined into one. However, it wasn't too much longer afterwards that I started cursing at Konrath in my mind. Most horror novels involve one or more people dying. Here were all these great characters who went through hell and survived; now it is almost certain that some if not most of them are going to die. Not fair!

Anyway, the lure to many of them there was a combination of one million dollars and help to test a medicine to defeat fear. All the characters were dealing with the fear from their previous novels in one way or another. I didn't recognize all of them but those I did remember were going through some serious PTSD. Borderline too much in a couple cases. I don't know if this was on purpose or not but his idea of bringing back the survivors was a great way to immediately build some caring and emotions for the characters. Here's a bunch of characters that were stuck in a terrible situation not just once but twice! In my mind, I was making my Who Dies First list and constantly changing it at each scene. I'm not going to ruin any surprises but I will admit that by the end of the book I was back to praising Konrath. Now I need to fill in the gaps of what I missed and see if he uses the idea again. ( )

A little too graphic for my taste.
( )

Several survivors of horrificly terrifying ordeals have been invited to Butler House, a reportedly haunted mansion in Solidarity, South Carolina. The people received invitations in the mail stating that if they would spend 24 hours in Butler House they would be rewarded with one million dollars. Those who did not immediately respond to the cryptic invite were visited at 3am by, who appeared to be, FBI agents banging on their doors and threatening governmental reprisals if the guests did not attend. Several people researched Butler House and were appalled at the history of torture, murder and depravity that occured within its 150 rooms, especially the cellar. The guests have been promised by a mysterious Dr. Forenzi that it is all merely an experiment in fear from which he hopes to cure the invitees' lingering fears from their previous encounters in horror. Hoping to live their lives free of the daily stress and nightly haunted dreams, not to mention the thrill of becoming millionaires, the guests travel to Butler House. At first it seems that they will be treated royally and must only agree to some minor blood tests but soon they all come face to face with not only the ghouls who tortured them during their previous encounters but with a whole new group of ghostly beings that inhabit Butler House. It is now clear that they have become the subjects of a mad scientist's experiment gone terribly wrong.

All of the guests are characters from other books written by Jack Kilborn/J.A. Konrath but it is not necessary to have read any of those to read this stand-alone. I do think it rather 'spoilerish', however, if you do read the other books because you will already know that these people survived, right? I hoped to enjoy this book a lot more than I did but it just went in directions that were a bit uncomfortable and beyond belief. I know that's supposed to be the point of a horror story but I have read better ones than this that did not need to sink to such depravity.
( )