'Mick woke up with a start,body trembling. He was staring at the floor, head hanging over the cot. He twisted over and sat up, rubbing his face,blinking to bring the room back into focus. Tears in his eyes, a fading scream sinking back into his throat.'

Plot

The Nash's are an ordinary family, leading ordinary lives. Next door to their house, a huge eyesore of a house has been erected, and the occupants are a mystery to everyone.

It isn't long before the Render family move into the house. The Renders appear to be perfect, but deep down they're hiding a dark secret, and by the time Mick realises, it's too late.

Mick must uncover the terrifying truth about the people next door in order to save his family, but truly shocking secrets are about to be uncovered.

My thoughts

I bought this book a few months ago in a 3 for £5 deal in The Works, and thought that October would be a great time to read this, as I'm taking part in a Halloween Horror book challenge. My first impression of this book was that it's fairly long, at 488 pages. I'd seen a few bad reviews for this after I bought it, but I'm not often put off by negative reviews, as I like to form my own opinion.

The way the book was written was very interesting, with many different points of view. The majority of the story is told through Mick Nash, but there are also several chapters told from the point of view of Amy Nash, Mick's wife, and even the children, Kyle and Briela. I really enjoyed this aspect, it was great to see how each character perceived the developments in the story, especially the children, as their thoughts can often be overlooked.

There's another point of view that is at first a mystery, but as the story develops we discover who the mysterious narrator is. This was very interesting, as it appears to be telling a different story, but as you read on, the different points of view come together and the mystery is cleared up.

This was my first Horror book, and while it wasn't terrifying it was definitely creepy and as I have a vivid imagination I got chills a few times while reading this. The book is long, but once I got into the story the number of pages soon became irrelevant as I was hooked and waiting for the mystery to unfold. I also think that the length of the book was necessary, as it really gave me time to get to know the characters and it made the twist even more shocking for me. So overall, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a creepy book with an unexpected twist. ( )

I feel cheated. Although intriguing in places enough to keep me reading, the story is patchy and badly thought through, with random scenes that don't fit in or match the story. It seems padded out, like the writer got bored in places, and towards the end of the book it seemed he'd given up altogether. I'm still waiting for this 'shocking', unforgettable 'twist' ending that never materialised. The blurb is misleading, and builds you up for a jaw dropping moment that just never happens. It reads like cheap, soft, teen horror-fiction. Not what I'm into at all, and not what I was expecting. ( )

I really love the cover that Steve C. Gilberts has done for this book. Great job.

The story is good. I really liked reading this one. Smooth writing, interesting plot, intriguing characters. I just followed along to see where this was all going to end up. I think the ending could have packed a little more punch, but it was still satisfying enough that I didn't feel cheated after reading 400 pages.

I checked out Christopher Ransom's web page and see he has written many other books -- I would definitely commit time to reading his other writing. ( )

While this book has a great start and a really impressive nicely tied up surprise ending that you won't see coming the middle does drag some but not enough to stop you from reading at a furious pace to see what happens. ( )

Hatte mir mehr erwartet. Die Idee aber ist nicht schlecht, nur fehlte mir irgendwie die Spannung und der Grusel. ( )