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House of Darkness House of Light #2
House of Darkness House of Light: The True Story Volume Two
Roger and Carolyn Perron purchased the home of their dreams and eventual nightmares in December of 1970. The Arnold Estate, located just beyond the village of Harrisville, Rhode Island seemed the idyllic setting in which to raise a family. The couple unwittingly moved their five young daughters into the ancient and mysterious farmhouse. Secrets were kept and then revealed within a space shared by mortal and immortal alike. Time suddenly became irrelevant; fractured by spirits making their presence known then dispersing into the ether. The house is a portal to the past and a passage to the future. This is a sacred story of spiritual enlightenment, told some thirty years hence. The family is now somewhat less reticent to divulge a closely-guarded experience. Their odyssey is chronicled by the eldest sibling and is an unabridged account of a supernatural excursion. Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated this haunting in a futile attempt to intervene on their behalf. They consider the Perron family saga to be one of the most compelling and significant of a famously ghost-storied career as paranormal researchers. During a séance gone horribly wrong, they unleashed an unholy hostess; the spirit called Bathsheba...a God-forsaken soul. Perceiving herself to be mistress of the house, she did not appreciate the competition. Carolyn had long been under siege; overt threats issued in the form of fire...a mother's greatest fear. It transformed the woman in unimaginable ways. After nearly a decade the family left a once beloved home behind though it will never leave them, as each remains haunted by a memory. This tale is an inspiring testament to the resilience of the human spirit on a pathway of an eternal journey for the living and the dead
502 pages, Hardcover
First published March 7, 2013
306 people are currently reading
2795 people want to read
About the author
Andrea Perron
6 books125 followersAuthor "House of Darkness House of Light" A true story. This collective memoir chronicles the events which occurred between 1970-1980 in an ancient farmhouse in Harrisville, R.I. Volume One draws the reader into the family dynamic, there to dwell with them as they discover the multiple spirits who are sharing space and time with seven mere mortals stunned by the sight. This is a trilogy whose time has come. The world is finally ready for the message it will receive within these pages, described in the media as INTENSE, DISTURBING, RELEVANT. I am the eldest of the five daughters born to Roger & Carolyn Perron. After 30 years the time has come to tell the truth."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
May 13, 2014
This is the most poorly written thing I've ever read. I can't even call this a story, because stories have structure. This is a jumble of thoughts, bad writing and incoherency. I love to read accounts of the supernatural, and there is no doubt that what happened to the Perron family was horrific. But, until they can get a decent writer to tell their story, it will remain hidden inside this unintelligible piece of waste. The movie is excellent, but I look forward to one day reading a clear account of the experiences of the Perron family.
January 26, 2016
We were able to secure two copies of this book for our library by dealing directly with Andrea Perron, the author. I had read volume 1 shortly after it was released, not realizing she had only scratched the surface of her family's story. Volume 2 arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I couldn't put it down. Andrea reveals many more details of her family's ordeal without sensationalizing it. She is a very spiritual person and gifted writer who shares her philosophy and personal journey with grace and empathy for those souls who are stuck in this world of the living. Read with an open mind as well as an open heart.
July 27, 2013
The writing is just as bad with this volume as it was with the first. I feel I wasted my time reading these books. They are so fragmented, repetitive and ramblings. I'm surprised these books were even published.
June 19, 2015
Don't waste your money!
By Clara - April 12, 2014
Amazon Verified Purchase
I read the first book and had serious concerns about the horrific writing. However, after reading this book, I have serious concerns about the lack of intelligence displayed by the author!
This book is riddled with stolen quotes from BETTER writers and again there is a gross over-use of words that I'm not sure the author even understands! It is cliched and completely atheistic!
The author writes, "Catholic doctrine , in particular, is a form of psychological torture as emotional terrorism. It serves no one but itself and is a morbid, historical shameful blight on humanity." Page 228. No wonder evil dwelled in this house!
I found her writing juvenile and completely plagiaristic. I don't think the author has an original thought in her head! I will not be duped into buying the third book in this series and can only suggest no one else waste several hours of their life reading her philosophical crap that only serves to show how ignorant she truly is. No one wants to read her ramblings about judgment and justice or anything else! I'm not convinced she has ever READ a book, and should never be allowed to write one again. She certainly doesn't understand the flow of a story or even how to tell one.
Here are some terms over-used, and some are stolen:
Over the river and through the woods: 8 times
To infinity and beyond: 7 times
Omnipresent, omnipotent, omnipresence, omniscient: 32 times!
Something Wicked: 18 times
Ethereal, ether: 32 times!
Netherworld: 14 times
Boo! (So childish): 16 times
Gravity, gravitate, gravitational, gravitating, gravitated: 26 times
Black hole: 20 times
Cosmos: 19 times
Intrepid: 13 times
God-consciousness (seriously!): 6 times
Sounds of silence (even songs are stolen from) 4 times
Seriously! Somebody send this woman a thesaurus!
By Clara - April 12, 2014
Amazon Verified Purchase
I read the first book and had serious concerns about the horrific writing. However, after reading this book, I have serious concerns about the lack of intelligence displayed by the author!
This book is riddled with stolen quotes from BETTER writers and again there is a gross over-use of words that I'm not sure the author even understands! It is cliched and completely atheistic!
The author writes, "Catholic doctrine , in particular, is a form of psychological torture as emotional terrorism. It serves no one but itself and is a morbid, historical shameful blight on humanity." Page 228. No wonder evil dwelled in this house!
I found her writing juvenile and completely plagiaristic. I don't think the author has an original thought in her head! I will not be duped into buying the third book in this series and can only suggest no one else waste several hours of their life reading her philosophical crap that only serves to show how ignorant she truly is. No one wants to read her ramblings about judgment and justice or anything else! I'm not convinced she has ever READ a book, and should never be allowed to write one again. She certainly doesn't understand the flow of a story or even how to tell one.
Here are some terms over-used, and some are stolen:
Over the river and through the woods: 8 times
To infinity and beyond: 7 times
Omnipresent, omnipotent, omnipresence, omniscient: 32 times!
Something Wicked: 18 times
Ethereal, ether: 32 times!
Netherworld: 14 times
Boo! (So childish): 16 times
Gravity, gravitate, gravitational, gravitating, gravitated: 26 times
Black hole: 20 times
Cosmos: 19 times
Intrepid: 13 times
God-consciousness (seriously!): 6 times
Sounds of silence (even songs are stolen from) 4 times
Seriously! Somebody send this woman a thesaurus!
August 30, 2013
There are no words that can describe my disappointment. I am utterly confused as to how this might be rated anything higher.
February 10, 2019
Back in November I read volume one of this trilogy. I wasn’t sure I would read the rest, although deep inside I knew that once you start a trilogy you can’t stop. Or I can’t. This is difficult because a book should be what an author wants it to be, but big books are expensive and take a long time to read. You want the payoff in writing that sparkles. Or at least makes you eager to pick the book up again. I don’t like giving poor reviews, but as a sometime writer myself I hold myself to high standards. Otherwise the manuscript doesn’t get sent to the press.
The story here is very interesting, but the writing suffers from a number of things. For one, it’s not chronological. The narrative keeps jumping from now to then with few date stamps to let the reader have a context. It’s writing that delights, glories in cliches. Most of the cliches are repeated many times—when you allow yourself over a thousand pages to tell a story repetition is always a danger. There’s also quite a bit of the homily here. Sermonizing. Writing that gets in the way of a message the reader wants to hear.
The reader comes away thinking that Andrea Perron is a sincere, spiritual person. She was deeply touched by something seriously paranormal at the farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island. As I mention in my blog post (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World) about the book, there’s some good intelligence on Ed and Lorraine Warren here. I’m also aware that the time of other people is valuable. That’s why I keep my reviews and blog posts brief. More data is available for the asking. There’s good information here, but you’re going to have to work for it.
The story here is very interesting, but the writing suffers from a number of things. For one, it’s not chronological. The narrative keeps jumping from now to then with few date stamps to let the reader have a context. It’s writing that delights, glories in cliches. Most of the cliches are repeated many times—when you allow yourself over a thousand pages to tell a story repetition is always a danger. There’s also quite a bit of the homily here. Sermonizing. Writing that gets in the way of a message the reader wants to hear.
The reader comes away thinking that Andrea Perron is a sincere, spiritual person. She was deeply touched by something seriously paranormal at the farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island. As I mention in my blog post (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World) about the book, there’s some good intelligence on Ed and Lorraine Warren here. I’m also aware that the time of other people is valuable. That’s why I keep my reviews and blog posts brief. More data is available for the asking. There’s good information here, but you’re going to have to work for it.
May 11, 2016
Let me start with saying the first book was so awful it took me literally two years to finish the 502 pages that was the second volume of this story.
I try to give props and a bit of leeway to self published authors as I am one, decent cover art and editing can be expensive and hard to come by. This was in desperate need of BOTH, how hard is it to buy a good image from Shutterstock, or even use a picture of the real damn house? This book needed about 300 pages of it simply cut away.
For example there are six pages devoted simply to a metaphor about a school.
The book starts out with just pages of prose, pages and pages of it. Stupid quotes that are supposed to relate to the story, family anecdotes (tons of names of people who are not important to the story) that don't move the plot along, though by this point I was leery that there even WAS a plot as the time line of events is a skewed. I could never tell how much time had passed or where among the sequences of events each chapter actually took place.
Example: we are in volume two and AGAIN talking about the day they moved into the house.
Here is a quote which makes me think the author was quite literally trying to make the sisters in this book read like characters from a Louisa May Alcott novel.
"Mr. Kenyon found endearing, as did anyone else who visited the farm, admiring their refined manners, good sense and sensibilities: Little Women"
What now? It's 1970 not 1870.
Sadly hidden among all the crap are tidbits of truly scary stuff. I feel like this story did need to be told, but not by this author or without a REALLY good editor. There were also a few really well written paragraphs hidden in this second volume, the author might not be half bad if she had done an outline, stuck to the important stuff and had focused on the creepy house. I mean the WARRENS helped with this case and they are only in the end. Well accept for a brief bit on page 34 where the author glosses over Lorraine Warren actually coming by writing:
Lorraine Warren had already come to call
I had to stop and say, "what? when? Did I miss it amidst all the horrible prose?"
The girls and mom have SO many ghostly encounters it leaves one to wonder. "How many damn ghosts were IN this house?" Sometimes they are scared of them, other times they are just friendly little watching spirits.
There is a ton of ton of talking about faith, church and God in the second half of this book as well, grated on the nerves a bit, especially the pages and pages devoted to the family being told they should worship elsewhere when rumors about their haunted house begin to circulate in town (84% into the book btw). Then many more pages about how the family's faith developed over the years.
Example of prose from last part of the book:
"It was a moment of realization, cosmic incident creating a seismic shift in her perceptions of the spirit world from core to crust. It was a revelation, a blessed event."
Finally Roger leaves, if you remember the author spends the first novel describing their dad as the world's biggest asshat, at almost 90% done he and Carolyn finally have a fight and he takes off, of course we must read about her "supernatural pain" for almost four pages. He comes back at some point but it's glossed over, the author does tell us Carolyn divorces him at some point in the future, I think after they have already moved from the house.
On page 429 we get some sense of time, the family moved from the farm in June of 1980...... However at this point Andrea is still telling the story, though I don't have any idea what is actually going on....
There are about three chapters right before the end of the book that have action in them, in as much as a resolution to the...I hesitate to use the word plot, climax or conflict. By this point I was so bored reading this I just wanted it to be over. However then there are about three additional chapters of just garbage before then book ends
You wanna know the ending? Do you? I will tell you then.
THIS HOUSE CANNOT BE CLEANSED.
The last sentence?
There is no death. There is only transformation.
Ugh.
I try to give props and a bit of leeway to self published authors as I am one, decent cover art and editing can be expensive and hard to come by. This was in desperate need of BOTH, how hard is it to buy a good image from Shutterstock, or even use a picture of the real damn house? This book needed about 300 pages of it simply cut away.
For example there are six pages devoted simply to a metaphor about a school.
The book starts out with just pages of prose, pages and pages of it. Stupid quotes that are supposed to relate to the story, family anecdotes (tons of names of people who are not important to the story) that don't move the plot along, though by this point I was leery that there even WAS a plot as the time line of events is a skewed. I could never tell how much time had passed or where among the sequences of events each chapter actually took place.
Example: we are in volume two and AGAIN talking about the day they moved into the house.
Here is a quote which makes me think the author was quite literally trying to make the sisters in this book read like characters from a Louisa May Alcott novel.
"Mr. Kenyon found endearing, as did anyone else who visited the farm, admiring their refined manners, good sense and sensibilities: Little Women"
What now? It's 1970 not 1870.
Sadly hidden among all the crap are tidbits of truly scary stuff. I feel like this story did need to be told, but not by this author or without a REALLY good editor. There were also a few really well written paragraphs hidden in this second volume, the author might not be half bad if she had done an outline, stuck to the important stuff and had focused on the creepy house. I mean the WARRENS helped with this case and they are only in the end. Well accept for a brief bit on page 34 where the author glosses over Lorraine Warren actually coming by writing:
Lorraine Warren had already come to call
I had to stop and say, "what? when? Did I miss it amidst all the horrible prose?"
The girls and mom have SO many ghostly encounters it leaves one to wonder. "How many damn ghosts were IN this house?" Sometimes they are scared of them, other times they are just friendly little watching spirits.
There is a ton of ton of talking about faith, church and God in the second half of this book as well, grated on the nerves a bit, especially the pages and pages devoted to the family being told they should worship elsewhere when rumors about their haunted house begin to circulate in town (84% into the book btw). Then many more pages about how the family's faith developed over the years.
Example of prose from last part of the book:
"It was a moment of realization, cosmic incident creating a seismic shift in her perceptions of the spirit world from core to crust. It was a revelation, a blessed event."
Finally Roger leaves, if you remember the author spends the first novel describing their dad as the world's biggest asshat, at almost 90% done he and Carolyn finally have a fight and he takes off, of course we must read about her "supernatural pain" for almost four pages. He comes back at some point but it's glossed over, the author does tell us Carolyn divorces him at some point in the future, I think after they have already moved from the house.
On page 429 we get some sense of time, the family moved from the farm in June of 1980...... However at this point Andrea is still telling the story, though I don't have any idea what is actually going on....
There are about three chapters right before the end of the book that have action in them, in as much as a resolution to the...I hesitate to use the word plot, climax or conflict. By this point I was so bored reading this I just wanted it to be over. However then there are about three additional chapters of just garbage before then book ends
You wanna know the ending? Do you? I will tell you then.
THIS HOUSE CANNOT BE CLEANSED.
The last sentence?
There is no death. There is only transformation.
Ugh.
July 14, 2013
This was an amazing book. A must read for those whom are interested in the supernatural. True accounts.
September 17, 2013
So,I sincerely wish that Ms Perron had written the first book like she did this one.
Why, maybe because there wasn't those irritating "bolded' words that were scattered through out the entire first book.
Though Ms Perron did choose to stick with her favorite phrase of " BOO!" Who was just at the door " I think there might have been ummmmm maybe 7- 8 in this book, for me thats one to many once again that was used.
And she did add another: Well, Blow me down ! which I saw about 4 times.
I really really enjoyed reading about the history of the land and even the house....it made me wish that "this' book ( vol 2) would have been Book 1, and the first book be the continence...this book just made me understand the house and land more.
I enjoyed reading how the family would go out and explore the land and come to discover that not all happenings happened just inside the house.
I really totally disagree with one part of your chapter where the entire family ( Roger, Mom and girls) all went out for walk..while the girls went on to explore.. Roger and Carolyn wanted to see the Bell Stone.
And once moved they saw a dead rabbit .... deliberately sacrificed. As everyone walked away back to the house, you said that it was agreed that even Bethsheba could not have done this act.. that even she was not that cruel..........LOL !! Really Ms Perron ???
This was a lady who was accused of being a witch and a devil worshiper and even sacrificed a baby by killing it with a needle at the base of its skull......... and yet y'all claimed that she couldnt not have been so evil as to kill a innocent rabbit.
And another... please please please stop with the quotes that you give at the start and end of a chapter...I feel like your giving us today's lessons on what we are about to read.
I got to the point where I covered up your quotes so that I didnt have to see them.
And once again I felt that at 70% of the book you ran out of things to write about... so you would just add another chapter on another person perspective/view on what happened on whatever occasion that kept happening in your home... like the notorious seance, I read about it 3 times in 3 different chapters.
Also... your chapters again on your theories and your beliefs... say what you have to say and then just END IT... with those chapters I just skimmed through them.... why ?? Cause you just went on and on and on talking
The end of book 2 was like driving that long last road home when your dead tired and the road just keeps going and going and you feel like your just never going to get there... My God, everytime I finished a chapter ( thinking) ok she ended it.......NOPE, another chapter- more quotes... so I skimmed through those pages
Trilogy - I just cannot imagine what you are going to write about in Book 3 - I betcha though I"ll see "Boo ! Who moved that broom" and your endless quotes.
Why, maybe because there wasn't those irritating "bolded' words that were scattered through out the entire first book.
Though Ms Perron did choose to stick with her favorite phrase of " BOO!" Who was just at the door " I think there might have been ummmmm maybe 7- 8 in this book, for me thats one to many once again that was used.
And she did add another: Well, Blow me down ! which I saw about 4 times.
I really really enjoyed reading about the history of the land and even the house....it made me wish that "this' book ( vol 2) would have been Book 1, and the first book be the continence...this book just made me understand the house and land more.
I enjoyed reading how the family would go out and explore the land and come to discover that not all happenings happened just inside the house.
I really totally disagree with one part of your chapter where the entire family ( Roger, Mom and girls) all went out for walk..while the girls went on to explore.. Roger and Carolyn wanted to see the Bell Stone.
And once moved they saw a dead rabbit .... deliberately sacrificed. As everyone walked away back to the house, you said that it was agreed that even Bethsheba could not have done this act.. that even she was not that cruel..........LOL !! Really Ms Perron ???
This was a lady who was accused of being a witch and a devil worshiper and even sacrificed a baby by killing it with a needle at the base of its skull......... and yet y'all claimed that she couldnt not have been so evil as to kill a innocent rabbit.
And another... please please please stop with the quotes that you give at the start and end of a chapter...I feel like your giving us today's lessons on what we are about to read.
I got to the point where I covered up your quotes so that I didnt have to see them.
And once again I felt that at 70% of the book you ran out of things to write about... so you would just add another chapter on another person perspective/view on what happened on whatever occasion that kept happening in your home... like the notorious seance, I read about it 3 times in 3 different chapters.
Also... your chapters again on your theories and your beliefs... say what you have to say and then just END IT... with those chapters I just skimmed through them.... why ?? Cause you just went on and on and on talking
The end of book 2 was like driving that long last road home when your dead tired and the road just keeps going and going and you feel like your just never going to get there... My God, everytime I finished a chapter ( thinking) ok she ended it.......NOPE, another chapter- more quotes... so I skimmed through those pages
Trilogy - I just cannot imagine what you are going to write about in Book 3 - I betcha though I"ll see "Boo ! Who moved that broom" and your endless quotes.
July 30, 2025
This is a very frustrating read. It shouldn’t take so long to finish a book. I felt like I was wasting part of my life yet I couldn’t put it down because i did enjoy the story once got around all the extra. I wish someone would edit book 3 for me so I can read it peacefully.
There is too much over explaining. She uses a lot of flowery language that loses me after the first or second repetition. It is very rambling, run on and jumbled, to me anyway. It is hard to follow and stay interested in. There are a lot of overly descriptive words and phrases. I think Ms. Perron is trying too hard to appear to be a professional writer and the story gets lost in the extra paragraphs that aren’t necessary to tell the story. I feel like there were a lot of run on sentences. I felt like some of the sentence fragments didn’t make sense, or else reiterated what she’s just said but in different words. Maybe they were just very long sentences but I got lost in words that had already been said or things that had already been explained. It made me want to skim.
In one section she stated "Roger Suddenly Remembered the Ambiguous statement Mr. Kenyon made before leaving his lifelong home." Then she goes on for over a paragraph describing how cold it was in the house. I'm like, "Did I miss the statement? What did Mr. Kenyon say??" finally after a very loooong paragraph or so of how chilly it was... she tells us what he said.
Um... if you make the statement, "Roger remembers what Mr. Kenyon Said" - please follow it immediately with what the heck Mr. Kenyon Said... THEN go on your "how cold is it" tangent. I ended up reading the same few paragraphs 3 or 4 times to see if I missed that conversation. I was completely confused till I finally got to the part where Mr. Kenyon's mysterious statement was made known, way after it was first mentioned. The whole book is like this.
And I am worn out of the misuse of semicolons. Some readers may not notice when punctuation is correct or not but for me, when I am the one reading, it changes the entire meaning in some cases. I found one sentence that had 2 colons, a semi colon and two other commas. What in the world? And unnecessary colons to introduce an exclamation? There’s just a lot of extra of many things. It makes a reader lose the reason they were reading and concentrate on deciphering this mess of words, phrases and punctuation. Some of the detail and descriptive words need only be used once for effect instead of repeatedly, losing the reader in rhetoric. I understand that in a way, this is a tribute to her family. But, that’s not in the synopsis or what I am reading the book for. There should be two versions: one for the public and one for the Perron family, with all the cute anecdotes and all. Don’t get me wrong, some of it is needed to tell the story. But not nearly all of it.
There were an enormous amount of aphorisms in this book. Cliché after cliché. There were nine in one paragraph referring to the same incident. It really is hard to read, in more ways than one.
And what is with the bold print words? I’m reading the Kindle version and was confused into wondering if Kindle app had a new widget or something to click on the bold print words. After pondering, I think she uses bold print in place of italics.
Seriously wondering who was the one to proofread this because really it is in their hands, not the author’s. Just poor editing all the way around.
I felt like the third person was kind of weird. I knew the author was the eldest daughter but she would talk about herself as if she were someone else, one of the “ladies”. ? (FYI it was corny how she kept referring to herself and her little sisters as the “ladies”. Maybe cute the first time but then #2-500 - not cute). I would have enjoyed the book more if it had been in first person.
This is very tedious reading, mostly for the redundancy. The writer doesn't `know when to quit writing on any particular topic.
Worse she tries to psychoanalyze each and every family member’s every move and experience which leaves the reader exasperated.
She fills page upon page with pseudo-intellectual blabbering about the spiritual and philosophical meanings behind haunted happenings in her house without first explaining what the haunted happenings are. She casually name-drops characters she's never introduced and muses about events she's never described! She fails to build drama or even a solid narrative, or follow the least bit of a cohesive timeline. And, she repeats herself over again and repeats herself over again. Annoying, isn't it?
Ms. Perron handily dismantles the proper use of semi-colons in such sentences as: "Cynthia was the first to make contact; physical with metaphysical contact." And she is heavy-handed with interjections such as "Boo!" and "Amen!" These will pop up frequently and at the worst times--like just when she starts getting into some spooky happenings with the family's telephone...but instead of going into details about a phantom ringing telephone, she opts to write: "Boo! Who is it? Who's there? Can you hear me now?" Very odd. Which reminds me that Ms. Perron frequently gets cutesy and self-indulges some spectacularly bad puns. Again, referring to ghosts using the family phone: "The line was dead." Or when speaking about the alleged witch Bathsheba: "Witch way did she go?" Her metaphors aren't much better: "She was omnipresent...like God."
Again, I wanted to like this book. I enjoy a good spine-tingling ghost story, but--just so I am clear here--this isn't one. It's barely even legible. I had a hard time finishing this book--not because I have literacy problems, but because I kept getting so mad at the terrible writing that I kept putting it down. But cheapskate me - I paid for both one and two so I forced myself.
“I believe that Ms. Perron wrote this book primarily for her family and friends, who already know the people and the events, and so the author can't be bothered to fill any outsiders in on the pesky details. So, for the rest of us who are not part of the Perron clan and who already shelled out good money for this book, I have a recommendation. I would recommend this book for those in book clubs, but not for the reason you think. This selection would be great for those clubs that are really groups of women and/or men who like to get together once a week to "read" books, aka, drink wine. So, for all of my fellow drinkers--I mean, readers--this book is for you. Simply take turns reading a passage aloud. Everyone takes a sip when they hear the phrases ‘let there be Light’ and ‘a house alive with death.’ “ This is a great quote from an Amazon review by a reader on the exact same page as me!
I actually did not have a problem with the chronology. Maybe I didn’t notice when I was desperately trying to get through the descriptive 3 page paragraphs.
I enjoyed the actual story minus all the clutter and excessive descriptions; it just took me a lot longer to get into this book and to finish it, than other books I read. I won’t be reading the other book in this series.
The book itself would have been much more interesting if she just tried to tell the story as the person who experienced it, and spent less time trying to sound like a literary scholar spinning a fantastical tale.
Now I feel as if I did the same rambling as she while trying to describe all of the distractions in this book.
Summary: If you are looking to find out the real story of the paranormal activities that happened in this house - don’t read. If you respect literature and well written literary pieces - don’t read. If you don’t have all the time in the world to backtrack and reread and translate flowery writing - don’t read. But if you enjoy deciphering corny, nutty overly descriptive run-on sentences and paragraphs, and have ample time to waste doing it, then this book just might be for you!
There is too much over explaining. She uses a lot of flowery language that loses me after the first or second repetition. It is very rambling, run on and jumbled, to me anyway. It is hard to follow and stay interested in. There are a lot of overly descriptive words and phrases. I think Ms. Perron is trying too hard to appear to be a professional writer and the story gets lost in the extra paragraphs that aren’t necessary to tell the story. I feel like there were a lot of run on sentences. I felt like some of the sentence fragments didn’t make sense, or else reiterated what she’s just said but in different words. Maybe they were just very long sentences but I got lost in words that had already been said or things that had already been explained. It made me want to skim.
In one section she stated "Roger Suddenly Remembered the Ambiguous statement Mr. Kenyon made before leaving his lifelong home." Then she goes on for over a paragraph describing how cold it was in the house. I'm like, "Did I miss the statement? What did Mr. Kenyon say??" finally after a very loooong paragraph or so of how chilly it was... she tells us what he said.
Um... if you make the statement, "Roger remembers what Mr. Kenyon Said" - please follow it immediately with what the heck Mr. Kenyon Said... THEN go on your "how cold is it" tangent. I ended up reading the same few paragraphs 3 or 4 times to see if I missed that conversation. I was completely confused till I finally got to the part where Mr. Kenyon's mysterious statement was made known, way after it was first mentioned. The whole book is like this.
And I am worn out of the misuse of semicolons. Some readers may not notice when punctuation is correct or not but for me, when I am the one reading, it changes the entire meaning in some cases. I found one sentence that had 2 colons, a semi colon and two other commas. What in the world? And unnecessary colons to introduce an exclamation? There’s just a lot of extra of many things. It makes a reader lose the reason they were reading and concentrate on deciphering this mess of words, phrases and punctuation. Some of the detail and descriptive words need only be used once for effect instead of repeatedly, losing the reader in rhetoric. I understand that in a way, this is a tribute to her family. But, that’s not in the synopsis or what I am reading the book for. There should be two versions: one for the public and one for the Perron family, with all the cute anecdotes and all. Don’t get me wrong, some of it is needed to tell the story. But not nearly all of it.
There were an enormous amount of aphorisms in this book. Cliché after cliché. There were nine in one paragraph referring to the same incident. It really is hard to read, in more ways than one.
And what is with the bold print words? I’m reading the Kindle version and was confused into wondering if Kindle app had a new widget or something to click on the bold print words. After pondering, I think she uses bold print in place of italics.
Seriously wondering who was the one to proofread this because really it is in their hands, not the author’s. Just poor editing all the way around.
I felt like the third person was kind of weird. I knew the author was the eldest daughter but she would talk about herself as if she were someone else, one of the “ladies”. ? (FYI it was corny how she kept referring to herself and her little sisters as the “ladies”. Maybe cute the first time but then #2-500 - not cute). I would have enjoyed the book more if it had been in first person.
This is very tedious reading, mostly for the redundancy. The writer doesn't `know when to quit writing on any particular topic.
Worse she tries to psychoanalyze each and every family member’s every move and experience which leaves the reader exasperated.
She fills page upon page with pseudo-intellectual blabbering about the spiritual and philosophical meanings behind haunted happenings in her house without first explaining what the haunted happenings are. She casually name-drops characters she's never introduced and muses about events she's never described! She fails to build drama or even a solid narrative, or follow the least bit of a cohesive timeline. And, she repeats herself over again and repeats herself over again. Annoying, isn't it?
Ms. Perron handily dismantles the proper use of semi-colons in such sentences as: "Cynthia was the first to make contact; physical with metaphysical contact." And she is heavy-handed with interjections such as "Boo!" and "Amen!" These will pop up frequently and at the worst times--like just when she starts getting into some spooky happenings with the family's telephone...but instead of going into details about a phantom ringing telephone, she opts to write: "Boo! Who is it? Who's there? Can you hear me now?" Very odd. Which reminds me that Ms. Perron frequently gets cutesy and self-indulges some spectacularly bad puns. Again, referring to ghosts using the family phone: "The line was dead." Or when speaking about the alleged witch Bathsheba: "Witch way did she go?" Her metaphors aren't much better: "She was omnipresent...like God."
Again, I wanted to like this book. I enjoy a good spine-tingling ghost story, but--just so I am clear here--this isn't one. It's barely even legible. I had a hard time finishing this book--not because I have literacy problems, but because I kept getting so mad at the terrible writing that I kept putting it down. But cheapskate me - I paid for both one and two so I forced myself.
“I believe that Ms. Perron wrote this book primarily for her family and friends, who already know the people and the events, and so the author can't be bothered to fill any outsiders in on the pesky details. So, for the rest of us who are not part of the Perron clan and who already shelled out good money for this book, I have a recommendation. I would recommend this book for those in book clubs, but not for the reason you think. This selection would be great for those clubs that are really groups of women and/or men who like to get together once a week to "read" books, aka, drink wine. So, for all of my fellow drinkers--I mean, readers--this book is for you. Simply take turns reading a passage aloud. Everyone takes a sip when they hear the phrases ‘let there be Light’ and ‘a house alive with death.’ “ This is a great quote from an Amazon review by a reader on the exact same page as me!
I actually did not have a problem with the chronology. Maybe I didn’t notice when I was desperately trying to get through the descriptive 3 page paragraphs.
I enjoyed the actual story minus all the clutter and excessive descriptions; it just took me a lot longer to get into this book and to finish it, than other books I read. I won’t be reading the other book in this series.
The book itself would have been much more interesting if she just tried to tell the story as the person who experienced it, and spent less time trying to sound like a literary scholar spinning a fantastical tale.
Now I feel as if I did the same rambling as she while trying to describe all of the distractions in this book.
Summary: If you are looking to find out the real story of the paranormal activities that happened in this house - don’t read. If you respect literature and well written literary pieces - don’t read. If you don’t have all the time in the world to backtrack and reread and translate flowery writing - don’t read. But if you enjoy deciphering corny, nutty overly descriptive run-on sentences and paragraphs, and have ample time to waste doing it, then this book just might be for you!
May 4, 2015
I really wanted to like these books but they just aren't that good. Some of the stories are amazing and that's probably why I kept reading all the way through, but I struggled to finish this one. The only part I was really into was the 70 or so pages about the Warrens visiting the house and all that happened around that time. If you want to know the real story of the Conjuring house and are fascinated by spirits then I would recommend, but you will have to overlook a lot. For instance, the timeline is foggy, every chapter begins and ends with a stupid wisdom quote, and some of this book seems to be dragged out to make it a trilogy.
June 16, 2020
I believe I can safely say, this book (this volume) never fails to enlighten me. Not only am I writing a bunch of quotes down I resonate well with, but the story had only enlightened me further. Not that I was ever an unbeliever in the paranormal, hell I grew up in one! Thankfully it has never advanced the stages as it had for the Perron family, but there are some striking similarities...
May 28, 2020
Profound follow up to Book One
Andrea Perron not only shares the story of her family's time in their amazing farmhouse, she offers
profound observations upon the nature of the paranormal interactions, including the fact that good always did triumph over evil, no matter how harrowing the circumstances.
Andrea Perron not only shares the story of her family's time in their amazing farmhouse, she offers
profound observations upon the nature of the paranormal interactions, including the fact that good always did triumph over evil, no matter how harrowing the circumstances.
August 30, 2013
I had to read this after the first one, as I am a little strange about that but I did not enjoy it anymore than I did the first book. I think the story is interesting and there are some good parts but I just could not get past the writing style.
April 1, 2014
great story, could have been told in a tenth of the pages
May 26, 2022
A lot of what I had written in my review of volume one still holds to what I would say in reviewing the second book. However, I do think that Perron's "thesis"/reasoning behind this memoir is to show that they were a family living amongst spirits rings even truer in the second volume. As with the first, this isn't a linear story and at times it can be a bit frustrating, but I still hold firm to my belief that there is a point behind this. After further reflection, it may also be very difficult to attempt a linear story, as so much had occurred in their ten years living at the Arnold estate.
Andrea definitely has a flare for story telling and that also is reflected throughout the book. My favorite part of this book was seeing their perspective on their time with the Warrens. It is clear that today (as in: time of the book's publication) she holds no grudges to how the Warrens handled the situation. I know I would have been frustrated, but not as furious as Roger was. And who could blame him for punching Ed? Not the best reaction per se, but still an understandable one. As Andrea says in this section of the book, they were way over their heads and didn't have the best outlook on what was really occurring in the Perron home. The compassion Andrea has for them is something I've never seen before and is rather encouraging to those who struggle with compassion.
There were so many interesting and well-described incidents involving the spirits in the home that made this book difficult to put down. Seeing that there was a benevolency with some spirits is not something typically seen in similar books. Again, the title is a great description of what it is like in a home such as this one. It certainly was a house of darkness and a house of light!
Andrea definitely has a flare for story telling and that also is reflected throughout the book. My favorite part of this book was seeing their perspective on their time with the Warrens. It is clear that today (as in: time of the book's publication) she holds no grudges to how the Warrens handled the situation. I know I would have been frustrated, but not as furious as Roger was. And who could blame him for punching Ed? Not the best reaction per se, but still an understandable one. As Andrea says in this section of the book, they were way over their heads and didn't have the best outlook on what was really occurring in the Perron home. The compassion Andrea has for them is something I've never seen before and is rather encouraging to those who struggle with compassion.
There were so many interesting and well-described incidents involving the spirits in the home that made this book difficult to put down. Seeing that there was a benevolency with some spirits is not something typically seen in similar books. Again, the title is a great description of what it is like in a home such as this one. It certainly was a house of darkness and a house of light!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 18, 2024
Better than the first one, but still desperately needs to be edited, goes off subject and on many tangents of religion, philosophy and jumps around too much in time, can be hard to follow along. All of this puts a damper on the actual horror of the story, the main reason for me reading the book. It's interesting well everything that happened to the family, the hauntings, and history of the house, just really really needs to be properly edited. These books should be properly edited and then rereleased. These books took me twice as long to read thanks to all the nonsense and off subject chapters that should have been cut out all together, all that makes it an extremely challenging read. Challenging as in, to not put the book down and to power through to reach the good parts buried within.
January 3, 2022
The chapter on the Warrens was 5 star quality. Other than that, it seemed unnecessarily drawn out. The author went kept repeating stories and was over the top wordy in places. I also didn’t like the lack of chronology. It’s ok to tell a story without being chronological, but this jumped around artlessly. Went from a climactic seance/possession scene that was really intense, directly into a completely random story about pet rabbits being slaughtered. Did not flow and was pretty confusing. Still a good read altogether and did, as I mention contain the best chapter in the two books in my opinion. 3.7 ⭐️
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 12, 2024
Very verbose, timeline meanders, events are non linear, but definitely provides more information on things that happened and their effects on the family. This one is more in depth and intense than book 1, but wanders off into philosophy/theology in an effort to justify the family’s views of what was happening and why they stayed in the house despite the physical and emotional toll it had on the them. Somewhat negative towards the Warrens (Ed & Lorraine) who were the main characters of the Conjuring movie. Feels like the author is holding back in my opinion. Overall a pretty spooky read. There are 3 books in this series. This is book 2.
March 15, 2025
After reading the first book, it was easier to understand Andrea’s style this time around. This book was good, great insight into the Warrens, spooky experiences and their family’s story. You have to read between the lines at times to understand the full picture of their experiences. Keep in mind, this book series is not just a retelling of a life inside a haunted house, its retelling of Andrea’s life story. You have to be patient with the chapters of her philosophical thoughts. It’s her story tell and she decides what makes it complete.
January 28, 2019
My review is really of the series as there is no significant difference between the volumes. Read my review of Volume 1. The summary is to buy the Kindle version and skim read. Volume 2 has less story and more new-age baloney than Volume 1. I know you will keep reading thinking that she is going to get to the point and just tell the story... Let me me dispel the illusion, she doesn't... Class dismissed.
January 11, 2020
I enjoyed the recounting of Andrea’s family story and the love held by the family. I do not, however, like the structure or writing style of the author. The timeline of events is disjointed, going back and forth in no clear order and the style of writing is overblown with a lot of unnecessary fluff. The story could have easily been told in one volume.
May 11, 2021
I feel sorry for the Perron family. Because from this long drawn out written recording of an eledged haunting it leaves out a possible alternative of the families real problem which probably was not paranormal at all. Which no one in the family ever received any kind of help for which could have helped them more than writting a book about it.
July 15, 2019
Not as good as the first one.. but better than the 3rd
January 8, 2021
More thrilling than the first
As much as I enjoy this series, the author does tend to repeat phrases ALOT. Regardless I very much enjoyed this book. More than the first.
As much as I enjoy this series, the author does tend to repeat phrases ALOT. Regardless I very much enjoyed this book. More than the first.
January 23, 2025
The truth
I have always wondered what really happened to the Perron family in that farm house and now I know. I really hate that the Warrens lied about it all.
I have always wondered what really happened to the Perron family in that farm house and now I know. I really hate that the Warrens lied about it all.
June 5, 2025
the bit with ed and lorraine Warren is written fine. The rest of the book is all over the place, going back and forth in time, going off topic, etc.
March 8, 2024
Good lord these are hard going. I'm usually all in on a ghost story but the writing is hard work and the constant quotes annoy me. There's hundreds of them.
But the story is interesting and I do enjoy the bits that I picked the book up for. There are a lot of paragraphs that I've taken to skipping completely as they seem very unnecessary but its fun when you get back to the parts about the ghosties and the things that go bump in the night. You probably could have removed about 200 or more pages with the bits I skipped.
It was also a lot of fun to read about how Ed got a smack in the face cos I think he deserved it.
I can't put a trilogy away though so will be back after I read the third one.
But the story is interesting and I do enjoy the bits that I picked the book up for. There are a lot of paragraphs that I've taken to skipping completely as they seem very unnecessary but its fun when you get back to the parts about the ghosties and the things that go bump in the night. You probably could have removed about 200 or more pages with the bits I skipped.
It was also a lot of fun to read about how Ed got a smack in the face cos I think he deserved it.
I can't put a trilogy away though so will be back after I read the third one.
September 11, 2021
I really enjoyed reading the first volume and the story of what happened with the Perron family but this book was so poorly written and everything was thrown all over the place where you would start to lose track of what was being written. She goes so into depth about ethereal beings and the cosmos it starts to deter from the actual events. Not a big fan of the random thrown in quotes that don’t make any sense.
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