Crooked House

by Thomas F. Monteleone

Pikadon's stairways lead nowhere. Its doors open to reveal solid, impenetrable walls. Its hallways form an unsolvable, twisting maze. Against its colossal structure people seem as insubstantial as ghosts. Pikadon is full of ghosts. Once the sun goes down, the labyrinthine corridors are haunted by the shambling, moaning dead. Blind and deaf, crippled, skin shredded by atomic blasts, the imprisoned dead stalk the imprisoned living.

Genres: Horror

346 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1987

Reviews

[Nigel S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

...the book is actually about this crazy haunted house that sports all these incomprehensible additions, hidden rooms, and doors and staircases that go no place. It's basically the Winchester House (oh, for f---'s sake; look it up), except these ghosts were all killed by the atomic bomb. That's actually a pretty decent idea for some horror, but the story just rambles all over creation and nothing much really happens. Well, except for a bunch of racism...

More here:
http://www.mrsatanism.com/books/crookedhouse.htm

[Remi VL · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 (only giving 2 cause I finished it)

There is constantly a hint of an interesting story in Crooked House, which is what kept me going, but between the endless conversations about the minutia of architecture, all of which felt very superficial, the random arbitrary flights between the house and the main characters home for no apparent reason, and every character having the depth of an SNL sketch extra... There's not a lot to like here.

Add all that to the fact that the protagonist feels like an 80s sex-comedy villain; white, rich, waspy ivy league graduate, racist, sexist, outright sex offender... But now he's got a career that he's too entitled to work at properly, as mediocre architect burning away his nest egg.

Oh, also, the house is may be haunted? By what you ask? Read it and kind of find out.

[Thebossinthewall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was able to finish it. The writing is what I'd expect from paperback horror. Middling I guess. The main character's personality is often what people refer to when they say "Douchy." Which is interesting because he's not likable, but not in an annoying/don't want to read sort of way. However there's a sexual assault in the book during which the victim all of a sudden starts to want sex and everything's ok after that. That old fucked up cliche. So honestly I'd just avoid reading it. Even if that assault doesn't bother you it's not that great of a read.