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Harrow House #1
Nightmare House
Once you cross its threshold, Harrow will never let you go. Claiming his inheritance, a young man unlocks long-buried secrets of an occultist’s dark mansion, awakening a nest of hungry ghosts in this spine-tingling supernatural horror novel of the house of infinite hauntings.
For fans of haunted houses and ghost stories.
Note: The Harrow series consists of several books set in or around the haunted estate in the Hudson Valley. Each Harrow story can be read out-of-order because the main continuing character is the dark mansion itself or those people who have or will touch it.
For fans of haunted houses and ghost stories.
Note: The Harrow series consists of several books set in or around the haunted estate in the Hudson Valley. Each Harrow story can be read out-of-order because the main continuing character is the dark mansion itself or those people who have or will touch it.
340 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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2130 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 199 reviews
September 21, 2024
This is a thriller and a horrific one at that. What goes on in this house is not for the faint of heart or the squeamish. How many stars is it worth?
How about five stars? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
How about five stars? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
December 24, 2018
Pretty damn good!
Esteban (Ethan) Gravesend has just inherited his grandfather's mansion home. but this home comes with more than just the usual ghouls and ghosts. This house is chocked full of family secrets and nightmares!
Very well written, easy to follow with characters that are easily relatable. I do wish however that the book was a little bit longer and would have given the last chapter just a little bit more explaining. Other than that the book and the story we're darn near perfect.
This book had me so engulfed and creeped out that everytime my phone went off I would jump. 😳 I like a good haunted house story but this one is definitely a good one. Douglas Clegg weaves a world of mystery and suspense so perfectly that the reader is consumed from the very beginning.
And as for the ending I only had part of it figured out. The rest of it came as a surprise. That is an awesome thing for me to say because usually I have the whole thing figured out by the halfway point of the book.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes a really good haunted house tale.
Esteban (Ethan) Gravesend has just inherited his grandfather's mansion home. but this home comes with more than just the usual ghouls and ghosts. This house is chocked full of family secrets and nightmares!
Very well written, easy to follow with characters that are easily relatable. I do wish however that the book was a little bit longer and would have given the last chapter just a little bit more explaining. Other than that the book and the story we're darn near perfect.
This book had me so engulfed and creeped out that everytime my phone went off I would jump. 😳 I like a good haunted house story but this one is definitely a good one. Douglas Clegg weaves a world of mystery and suspense so perfectly that the reader is consumed from the very beginning.
And as for the ending I only had part of it figured out. The rest of it came as a surprise. That is an awesome thing for me to say because usually I have the whole thing figured out by the halfway point of the book.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes a really good haunted house tale.
March 9, 2024
I don't really like haunted house narratives, because they all seem the same; so it surprises me that I decided to read this as my first Winter Challenge book. However, this one is really pretty good. There was a great deal of emphasis on mood and setting enhanced by the first-person storytelling device. The novel is told with lyrical vocabulary and a languid pace. Some people might not enjoy deliberate exposition, but I think that here it augments and serves the story well.
Nightmare House is very much like a living, breathing entity that is possessed of more than one ghost. When the young heir arrives at Harrow House, he is unaware of the history encapsulated by the house. He only has his own pleasant memories of a place he used to visit during summer vacations with his grandfather. As Esteban/Ethan explores the grounds, he begins to experience the irksome sensations of hidden memories, awakening to the present, and remembering the past.
If you have read Anne Rivers Siddons' The House Next Door, or Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House you will recognize the creeping pace that suffuses this novel; although, I would argue that the slow pace gives the reader an opportunity to experience every creak, recognize it as something familiar and decide not to enter the room.
I think that Clegg fills the novel with an overwhelming sense of history that hangs like a pall over everything and every person that has ever visited Harrow. And just to make certain of that fact, Nightmare House is just the first book of the Harrow House series, promising more histories disclosed. One of the positives for me was also that a full story arc was completed at the turn of the final page. Good, not great, but I enjoyed the story.
Nightmare House is very much like a living, breathing entity that is possessed of more than one ghost. When the young heir arrives at Harrow House, he is unaware of the history encapsulated by the house. He only has his own pleasant memories of a place he used to visit during summer vacations with his grandfather. As Esteban/Ethan explores the grounds, he begins to experience the irksome sensations of hidden memories, awakening to the present, and remembering the past.
If you have read Anne Rivers Siddons' The House Next Door, or Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House you will recognize the creeping pace that suffuses this novel; although, I would argue that the slow pace gives the reader an opportunity to experience every creak, recognize it as something familiar and decide not to enter the room.
I think that Clegg fills the novel with an overwhelming sense of history that hangs like a pall over everything and every person that has ever visited Harrow. And just to make certain of that fact, Nightmare House is just the first book of the Harrow House series, promising more histories disclosed. One of the positives for me was also that a full story arc was completed at the turn of the final page. Good, not great, but I enjoyed the story.
June 24, 2018
I would never call a work of architecture evil; nor would I suggest that a house could be anything but a benign presence. It is always the human elements that corrodes the stones and the wood and the brick and the foundation. It is the human heart that bends the floors and burns the rooms and imbues the structure with the spirit of error and false remembrance.
A nice start to a haunted house story... I wish it could live up to the potential it starts out with.
I get what Clegg was going for in this book. I really do and it makes me want to like it more. In theory I should love this, in execution though it is rather disappointing. This is an author who has written several modern, more gruesome horror novels attempting to do a quiet classic gothic story. I respect that, and as much as I love classic gothic ghost stories, I wanted to enjoy it (and indeed some parts are rather wonderful), but overall it can’t live up to the idea.
The book is extremely awkward, with changes from 1st person to 3rd as it moves along. It gives justification for this, but it really feels like the author was having trouble continuing one way, so he switched it up only to go back toward the end. It is also very disjointed and the dialogue feels off the entire time. It is so off in fact that it becomes borderline surreal and dreamlike, which works in some sections and just feels inappropriate in others.
Another awkwardness is that towards the end when two characters are investigating the house, the one wants to press forward seems to alternate between the two every couple of pages as if the author couldn’t decide who was actually the curious/brave one of the two.
I do not in any way mean this as an insult towards the author, but in many ways this feels like a rough draft for the novel that was just sent to print either as filler or a contract obligation. In fact, there is some strangeness involving when it was published as well. This is chronologically the first novel in the Harrow series, and indeed it has a copyright year of 1999, making it dated first. It was actually published though (from every source I can find) in 2002 making it the third book in order of publication. I hate to theorize what happened, but I can’t help but wonder if Clegg started writing his gothic haunted house story, did not like the results and went on to write his more modern second (first) book in the series. After that one worked, and the one after that was published as well, perhaps it was decided to fill in some back-story and this novel was published as is? It is just a theory and I am in no way stating this to be the true history of the book, but all the strange aspects of it make me wonder if it was just thrown together.
I was a little over halfway through the book thinking I may simply give up or that it would be doomed to a 1/5 star rating, but then the constable showed up and told his story. This section was utterly brilliant, and had it just been this as a short story and a few more details, it would have been a solid four or five stars. Thus the score went up, but overall it is a disappointing book with but a few brief moments of brilliance. 2/5
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August 9, 2021Well I tried to make it through this story, but I am going to have to put it down as one of my dreaded dnf reads.
A small backstory though just for the heck of it:
Estaban Gravesend has inherited a mansion from his uncle which supposedly is haunted. As Estaban settles into the mansion he tries to learn the secrets and mystery of why the house is haunted.
That is about all I am going to say on the backstory.
Thoughts:
Okay so the reasoning for the dnf is because too much world building all the way up to near half of the story and there is no haunting that Estaban has to experience until near the 50% mark which there was just a dribble - nothing to spook you out of your skin. The dialogue is off as well and to me the storyline didn't flow along. There is also a change up between first person and third person with the character Estaban as sometimes the author will have him in first person and then it switches over to the third person. My opinion is: stay in either one or the other as it is just too confusing with jumping around.
I was not feeling anything with any of the characters in the book and I fell asleep a few times just trying to get through the storyline. To be reading a haunted house story and to fall asleep is not good as it shows there is something lacking in the entertainment of the book. I can see now why some reviewers struggled with this book as I felt the struggle too. Since this book is a dnf there will be no star rating. If I did give a star rating it would be for the cover only as the book cover is way creepier than what lays within the pages of this book.
A small backstory though just for the heck of it:
Estaban Gravesend has inherited a mansion from his uncle which supposedly is haunted. As Estaban settles into the mansion he tries to learn the secrets and mystery of why the house is haunted.
That is about all I am going to say on the backstory.
Thoughts:
Okay so the reasoning for the dnf is because too much world building all the way up to near half of the story and there is no haunting that Estaban has to experience until near the 50% mark which there was just a dribble - nothing to spook you out of your skin. The dialogue is off as well and to me the storyline didn't flow along. There is also a change up between first person and third person with the character Estaban as sometimes the author will have him in first person and then it switches over to the third person. My opinion is: stay in either one or the other as it is just too confusing with jumping around.
I was not feeling anything with any of the characters in the book and I fell asleep a few times just trying to get through the storyline. To be reading a haunted house story and to fall asleep is not good as it shows there is something lacking in the entertainment of the book. I can see now why some reviewers struggled with this book as I felt the struggle too. Since this book is a dnf there will be no star rating. If I did give a star rating it would be for the cover only as the book cover is way creepier than what lays within the pages of this book.
November 14, 2015
I'm blaming all this on the narrator. I usually don't complain about them at all but the guy reading this book was not good. by the end of the book I was just angry and glad it was over. the story may have been ok, it was just hard to get past him.
October 23, 2023
I should have read the reviews on this novel before diving in. They are spot on. Douglas Clegg can write a fine modern horror novel, so I was looking forward to seeing how he adapted his style to a more old-fashioned gothic. Not so good apparently.
The premise is classic. A man inherits his wealthy grandfather's mansion, Harrow House, which is a sprawling castle built to his specifications, supposedly with hidden rooms, secret passages, and access to the caves built beneath. This sounds like my dream. His grandfather was evidently a mysterious person, and no one really knows why he built such a strange nightmare of a house. It doesn't take long for the new owner to figure out that the history of the house is much more complex than just the result of his grandfather's eccentric taste.
The characters are all painted with their own qualities to make them quite unique, which I do like. The love interest, an insubordinate housekeeper, is a bit too mouthy and sarcastic, but she eventually grows on you just in time for Clegg to write her out of the story. Perhaps the most likeable and interesting of the cast is the constable, who serves more as the town's psychologist than an officer of the law, but he serves mostly as the main source of exposition.
The main drawback of the novel was the writing itself, which was the last thing I expected to be a problem here. The novel takes place in 1926, and so it was neat to have the writing style match that of the time, including having it be in the first-person, which was the perspective of choice in fiction in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. But you could see the author's modernity slipping into the prose, and eventually he just decided to abandon the whole idea, and switched to third-person and a more pedestrian form of storytelling. It is quite jarring, and ultimately disappointing for those of us who were getting in the mood. Then we switch briefly to the first-person perspective of the local constable, then to the third-person perspective, then back again to the first-person perspective of the original narrator, then back to third-person again, and then ending in the first-person. What is the point of all this? I find the prose of Douglas Clegg to be much more mature and polished than most horror writers, so I don't know how he could have made such amateurish choices.
I also wasn't a huge fan of the haunting itself. There were some classic elements that were done well--a dead body in a walled off room and a family secret. But when it came to the supernatural depictions, there was no awe or sense of creepy mystery. There were no whispers in the night, no shadows at the foot of the bed, no pianos playing by themselves. When the ghosts come, Clegg immediately throws everything at the reader. We get explosions and fires and broken dishes and falling ceilings and stinky smells and creepy children and weird memories and evil voices rambling about things that make no sense, all at once and told at a feverish pitch. It wasn't scary, just disorienting.
The novel as a whole has a rushed feeling. There was no building tension or suspense, and despite the characters all having their own personalities, there didn't seem to be any time for me to invest in them or to care about their fates. The end comes at the expense of an abrupt change in tone and does not feel earned, nor is it satisfying.
For all these reasons, I can't help but feel this was an early origin story to Clegg's Harrow series that was rushed into completion and publication. If this novel is meant to hook people into the series, I am not likely to read the other books of Harrow.
SCORE: Two nightmares out of five
The premise is classic. A man inherits his wealthy grandfather's mansion, Harrow House, which is a sprawling castle built to his specifications, supposedly with hidden rooms, secret passages, and access to the caves built beneath. This sounds like my dream. His grandfather was evidently a mysterious person, and no one really knows why he built such a strange nightmare of a house. It doesn't take long for the new owner to figure out that the history of the house is much more complex than just the result of his grandfather's eccentric taste.
The characters are all painted with their own qualities to make them quite unique, which I do like. The love interest, an insubordinate housekeeper, is a bit too mouthy and sarcastic, but she eventually grows on you just in time for Clegg to write her out of the story. Perhaps the most likeable and interesting of the cast is the constable, who serves more as the town's psychologist than an officer of the law, but he serves mostly as the main source of exposition.
The main drawback of the novel was the writing itself, which was the last thing I expected to be a problem here. The novel takes place in 1926, and so it was neat to have the writing style match that of the time, including having it be in the first-person, which was the perspective of choice in fiction in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. But you could see the author's modernity slipping into the prose, and eventually he just decided to abandon the whole idea, and switched to third-person and a more pedestrian form of storytelling. It is quite jarring, and ultimately disappointing for those of us who were getting in the mood. Then we switch briefly to the first-person perspective of the local constable, then to the third-person perspective, then back again to the first-person perspective of the original narrator, then back to third-person again, and then ending in the first-person. What is the point of all this? I find the prose of Douglas Clegg to be much more mature and polished than most horror writers, so I don't know how he could have made such amateurish choices.
I also wasn't a huge fan of the haunting itself. There were some classic elements that were done well--a dead body in a walled off room and a family secret. But when it came to the supernatural depictions, there was no awe or sense of creepy mystery. There were no whispers in the night, no shadows at the foot of the bed, no pianos playing by themselves. When the ghosts come, Clegg immediately throws everything at the reader. We get explosions and fires and broken dishes and falling ceilings and stinky smells and creepy children and weird memories and evil voices rambling about things that make no sense, all at once and told at a feverish pitch. It wasn't scary, just disorienting.
The novel as a whole has a rushed feeling. There was no building tension or suspense, and despite the characters all having their own personalities, there didn't seem to be any time for me to invest in them or to care about their fates. The end comes at the expense of an abrupt change in tone and does not feel earned, nor is it satisfying.
For all these reasons, I can't help but feel this was an early origin story to Clegg's Harrow series that was rushed into completion and publication. If this novel is meant to hook people into the series, I am not likely to read the other books of Harrow.
SCORE: Two nightmares out of five
August 3, 2017
Clegg is a well established horror author who started back in 1989 and whose work I have recently discovered. Nightmare House was one of six Clegg novels I have on my shelf waiting to be read. I started with Nightmare House as it is the shorter of his books. It is also the latest novel I have of his, having first been published in 1999.
It is a haunted house story, with the main character discovering family secrets that are revealed over the course of the book. It has it's creepy, scary moments and the atmosphere of dread builds as the characters explore the menacing and dark hidden parts of the house.
The writing does not flow and has a static and short style to it. The conversations between characters are stilted and at times it seems they are in a world of their own, unaware of each other. This detracted from the overall experience, hence the 3 stars rating.
Still looking forward to my next Clegg book. Will start with his first book, Goat Dance, and go from there.
It is a haunted house story, with the main character discovering family secrets that are revealed over the course of the book. It has it's creepy, scary moments and the atmosphere of dread builds as the characters explore the menacing and dark hidden parts of the house.
The writing does not flow and has a static and short style to it. The conversations between characters are stilted and at times it seems they are in a world of their own, unaware of each other. This detracted from the overall experience, hence the 3 stars rating.
Still looking forward to my next Clegg book. Will start with his first book, Goat Dance, and go from there.
August 1, 2018
Don't be fooled by the rather pulpy, sensational title - Nightmare House is a well-written, old-fashioned novel which brought to mind Turn of the Screw by Henry James and Wilkie Collins. I'm glad I decided to take a chance with it, clued in from the synopsis that it was not going to be a cheap thrill. And when it opened to an epigram from "The Lady of Shalott," I quirked an eyebrow - this should be interesting. There was a time in my life when I was obsessed with Tennyson's poem and the related Pre-Raphaelite paintings. (I kind of still am, actually.) I had to smile in appreciation once I saw how Clegg developed this theme throughout Nightmare House in a most ingenious interpretation. As far as I know, this novel stands apart in the "oeuvre."
"I would never all a work of architecture evil; now would I suggest that a house could be anything but a benign presence. It is always the human element that corrodes the stones and the wood and the brick and the foundation. It is the human heart that bends the floors and burns the rooms and imbues the structure with the spirit of error and false remembrance."
Although it is set in the 1920s, Nightmare House is written in the style of a full-blown Victorian gothic. Clegg masterfully sets the tone with ominous foreboding when Ethan Gravesend arrives at Harrow estate, his inheritance. Of course not long after arrival, he makes a horrifying discovery whose mystery he tries to solve - leading him to the center of his worst nightmare.
"I would never all a work of architecture evil; now would I suggest that a house could be anything but a benign presence. It is always the human element that corrodes the stones and the wood and the brick and the foundation. It is the human heart that bends the floors and burns the rooms and imbues the structure with the spirit of error and false remembrance."
Although it is set in the 1920s, Nightmare House is written in the style of a full-blown Victorian gothic. Clegg masterfully sets the tone with ominous foreboding when Ethan Gravesend arrives at Harrow estate, his inheritance. Of course not long after arrival, he makes a horrifying discovery whose mystery he tries to solve - leading him to the center of his worst nightmare.
September 3, 2013
Sometimes you can read a book at just the right time and enjoy it more than you know you would have at another moment in time. This is one of those reads for me. I read it in a couple of hours while trying to download a program on my computer that was giving me problems. The story was a little slow to start off, but it captured my interest.
I'm a sucker for haunted houses and although this one did not disappoint, it did however, fall short. The second part of the story where the characters explored a part of the house that had been walled up was good and I wanted more haunting things to happen. It kinda reminded me of Rose Red for a minute.
I'll look into the other Harrow House reads. It'll be interesting to see what else Mr. Clegg has come up with.
An enjoyable, laid -back read.
I'm a sucker for haunted houses and although this one did not disappoint, it did however, fall short. The second part of the story where the characters explored a part of the house that had been walled up was good and I wanted more haunting things to happen. It kinda reminded me of Rose Red for a minute.
I'll look into the other Harrow House reads. It'll be interesting to see what else Mr. Clegg has come up with.
An enjoyable, laid -back read.
January 4, 2018
A well-written disappointment. A whole lot of "meh". My favorite part? Reading bits of the Lady of Shallot, one of my favorite poems. My least favorite? Just about everything else. This book had potential, probably make a decent movie. There just wasn't much to it.
July 4, 2019
Nope. It's a short book & full of repetition just in the first few chapters. Repeating a description does not make for atmosphere, just frustration. Repeating facts from the previous page is even worse. The narrator didn't do it any favors, either. So I abandoned it.
January 23, 2018
Ethan inheirits his grandfather's house, Harrow House. Returning to the strange home after years away, he remembers childhood visits there. He meets the household servants and tries to settle into his new life. But, Harrow House holds some very dark secrets.....family secrets so terrible that nobody entering the house is ever quite the same again.
I really, really, really wanted to enjoy this book.....I love spooky tales and ghost stories and the Harrow House series sounded just like what I enjoy. But.....I listened to the audiobook version of the story. And.....to be honest, I couldn't stand the narrator. Michael Taylor has a very deep, booming male voice, and to me it just didn't fit the nature of this book at all. When Taylor attempted to do female voices or elderly male voices, his tone was just awkward and, for me, annoying. It really put a damper on my enjoyment of this book. Taylor's voice might fit a western story, a regular children's story, or maybe a comedic type book....but, in my opinion, it was not a good choice for a horror or suspense novel. I finished listening.....but couldn't fully immerse in the story because I just hated his voice and narration style. This happens sometimes with audiobooks.....it doesn't mean he is a bad narrator. His style, in this case, just isn't for me. Others might have a different opinion and love it.
The story itself seemed rambling and not all that scary or suspenseful.
All of the audiobooks for the Harrow House series are narrated by Michael Taylor. So, I will be leaving this series after finishing book 1. Just not for me.
I really, really, really wanted to enjoy this book.....I love spooky tales and ghost stories and the Harrow House series sounded just like what I enjoy. But.....I listened to the audiobook version of the story. And.....to be honest, I couldn't stand the narrator. Michael Taylor has a very deep, booming male voice, and to me it just didn't fit the nature of this book at all. When Taylor attempted to do female voices or elderly male voices, his tone was just awkward and, for me, annoying. It really put a damper on my enjoyment of this book. Taylor's voice might fit a western story, a regular children's story, or maybe a comedic type book....but, in my opinion, it was not a good choice for a horror or suspense novel. I finished listening.....but couldn't fully immerse in the story because I just hated his voice and narration style. This happens sometimes with audiobooks.....it doesn't mean he is a bad narrator. His style, in this case, just isn't for me. Others might have a different opinion and love it.
The story itself seemed rambling and not all that scary or suspenseful.
All of the audiobooks for the Harrow House series are narrated by Michael Taylor. So, I will be leaving this series after finishing book 1. Just not for me.
May 29, 2016
Meh. That's pretty much my thoughts regarding this book. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it, either.
I do feel pretty let down, though. From the synopsis, I was expecting a truly scary tale. Sadly, that's not what I got. It wasn't frightening in the least. The characters were flat, the writing could be a bit scattered at times, and the explanation of what exactly was happening at the house was...well, I don't want to say confusing, because I could follow along with what was happening, but more complicated than it needed to be, maybe?
I did find the part where the constable was explaining the history of the house interesting, though. That's what bumped it up to a two-star read for me.
Doubt I'll go further with the series.
I do feel pretty let down, though. From the synopsis, I was expecting a truly scary tale. Sadly, that's not what I got. It wasn't frightening in the least. The characters were flat, the writing could be a bit scattered at times, and the explanation of what exactly was happening at the house was...well, I don't want to say confusing, because I could follow along with what was happening, but more complicated than it needed to be, maybe?
I did find the part where the constable was explaining the history of the house interesting, though. That's what bumped it up to a two-star read for me.
Doubt I'll go further with the series.
Want to read
October 28, 2012I attempted the audio and Michael Taylor has to be one of the more annoying narrators I've heard. The engineering of the book was awful. I only made it 10 minutes into the audio. I will keep this on my list for a possible read, but it won't move up in my list any time soon. YUCK!
February 21, 2021
I really wanted to like this book, but I just didn't. This is not completely the authors fault, but has more to do with a very poor choice of narrator for the audiobook and expectations not meeting the reality of what sort of book this was. I thought I was getting a sort of horror slasher haunted house i.e. The Shining, but instead, this felt more like a throwback to The Haunting of Hill House. Unfortunately, I did not find Nightmare House to be any more scary than Hill House. But again, that is not the fault of the author, but my own desire at the time. I might have enjoyed this book more if I had researched it more before diving in.
The narrator just did not do this story justice, but again this is just my opinion. I am still going to try the next book in this series, Mischief. Now that I know this is Douglas Clegg's attempt at suspense and not horror, I might not be so let down by this series.
The narrator just did not do this story justice, but again this is just my opinion. I am still going to try the next book in this series, Mischief. Now that I know this is Douglas Clegg's attempt at suspense and not horror, I might not be so let down by this series.
March 19, 2021
This is a classic style gothic haunted house story. It's set in 1926, but has the feel of being set in a time period much earlier. There's ghosts of course, along with family secrets and ancient legends. I liked the tone of it as it invoked novels written back in the 1800s. This is more about overall vibe and tone rather than specific happenings or characters, and Clegg does a good job at getting a creepy vibe across.
Overall I enjoyed it and at some point will probably pick up another book in the series, and will definitely read more from Douglas Clegg.
Overall I enjoyed it and at some point will probably pick up another book in the series, and will definitely read more from Douglas Clegg.
June 7, 2022
good but not earth shattering
September 20, 2019
Okay, I confess I only read up until Page 226, but I finished the main story. THe prologue I guess is a connecting story with different people? Anyway, it's a charming little read.
January 29, 2011
Rarely does a book make me stop breathing or make me want to say eewww, nononono.... Or run away! But, Nightmare House did all of that. The web into which the reader is drawn is so tightly woven there you remain, well after you finish the tale. To think this is the third book. I didn't even realize this until looking on Good reads! Well it is a stand alone novel so it didn't matter. Enjoyed this book, and loved the rich descriptions of everything!
May 19, 2022
Nightmare House was quite the experience…
I’ll be completely honest in confessing I had never heard of this book (this series) at all, but for some reason, when I saw the audiobook and read what little description it provided, I was intrigued…
I definitely do not regret listening to this!
At first, I was a bit confused by the early descriptions and then timeline changes between the events of the story and the present time in which the main character is actually telling us the story.
But then I started to get sucked into the story very quickly, the descriptions of this eerie and labyrinthic house (it gave me vibes of the Winchester house and its many rooms… you’ll understand it if you’ve seen the movie or know the story of the house and then read or listen to Nightmare House).
Ethan, whose real name is very different and he makes sure to tell us that at the start of the book, has just arrived at Harrow House, as it was left to him by his late grandfather.
Ethan has only vague memories of being in the house as a small child, but as the days move on, he starts to remember more things that happened when he was a child and how terrifying and haunted the house really was.
Now as an adult, he starts to realize that the rumors and whispers of Harrow House being haunted may be true after all, and that his grandfather was not the person he thought. Maybe he didn’t even know his grandfather at all, for what Ethan comes to discover hidden within the walls and rooms of Harrow is too daunting, horrifying and ghostly to be just mere rumors.
I really liked how the creepiness and bone-chilling events increased at an almost alarming rate with the progression of the story.
The secrets revealed and the events left me shocked, as I didn’t expect a lot of what happened.
I’m hoping this isn’t a spoiler, but given that Ethan finishes telling this story in his old age, it left me wondering what else happened at Harrow House in all the years in between this story and the end of the book, but I guess that is why this is just the first book in the series, and I’m very eager to read or listen to the next one as soon as possible.
I’m very curious…
I appreciated the little reference that was given to the fact that the infamous and very real Lizzie Borden also came into contact with Ethan after a certain set of events.
Thank you to NetGalley and OrangeSky Audio for letting me listen to this audiobook in exchange of my opinion and honest review.
#NightmareHouse #OrangeSkyAudio #NetGalley
I’ll be completely honest in confessing I had never heard of this book (this series) at all, but for some reason, when I saw the audiobook and read what little description it provided, I was intrigued…
I definitely do not regret listening to this!
At first, I was a bit confused by the early descriptions and then timeline changes between the events of the story and the present time in which the main character is actually telling us the story.
But then I started to get sucked into the story very quickly, the descriptions of this eerie and labyrinthic house (it gave me vibes of the Winchester house and its many rooms… you’ll understand it if you’ve seen the movie or know the story of the house and then read or listen to Nightmare House).
Ethan, whose real name is very different and he makes sure to tell us that at the start of the book, has just arrived at Harrow House, as it was left to him by his late grandfather.
Ethan has only vague memories of being in the house as a small child, but as the days move on, he starts to remember more things that happened when he was a child and how terrifying and haunted the house really was.
Now as an adult, he starts to realize that the rumors and whispers of Harrow House being haunted may be true after all, and that his grandfather was not the person he thought. Maybe he didn’t even know his grandfather at all, for what Ethan comes to discover hidden within the walls and rooms of Harrow is too daunting, horrifying and ghostly to be just mere rumors.
I really liked how the creepiness and bone-chilling events increased at an almost alarming rate with the progression of the story.
The secrets revealed and the events left me shocked, as I didn’t expect a lot of what happened.
I’m hoping this isn’t a spoiler, but given that Ethan finishes telling this story in his old age, it left me wondering what else happened at Harrow House in all the years in between this story and the end of the book, but I guess that is why this is just the first book in the series, and I’m very eager to read or listen to the next one as soon as possible.
I’m very curious…
I appreciated the little reference that was given to the fact that the infamous and very real Lizzie Borden also came into contact with Ethan after a certain set of events.
Thank you to NetGalley and OrangeSky Audio for letting me listen to this audiobook in exchange of my opinion and honest review.
#NightmareHouse #OrangeSkyAudio #NetGalley
December 8, 2013
I liked the setting, in an upstate New York mansion built by an eccentric grandfather of the main character. There were interesting characters, such as townspeople who seemed like they might be going to morph into some strange water creatures, a woman rumored to be a witch, and the recently deceased grandfather, whose ghost I expected to turn up at any minute. But it didn't, and some of the interesting things hinted at early on did not materialize. Instead, the story took some odd turns and became overly complicated at the end, when everything is explained in one night by the town policeman.
June 2, 2017
Another good audiobook ruined by a poor narrator. Not sure if I'll listen to any other books in the series.
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August 8, 2011this book started out Ok. it was great for a haunted house type book. But not your standard one... there wasnt a lot of door slamming and lights flickering. Although this book was rather slow i thought it was a good read for the most part. at points it did ramble on and got boring but it was fun. I dont think it was that scary but maybe if it were an actual movie it would be. at points where the main character was walking in the dark alone i felt it couldve felt more tense. i forgot he was alone because of all the rambling happening at those times. i only recommend this book if you like haunted house books but arent looking to be too scared or if you dont mind a slow read.
October 9, 2013
It was really short, and gave less detail than I was expecting. It wasn't bad, but it could have been better. Also, I read this first, though I understand it wasn't written first, so its possible the information I want is in another book. I was frustrated the big names were dropped, but their actual part in the story was left out.
It did spook me enough to make me imagine things in the dark and jump when my dog snuck up on me.
It did spook me enough to make me imagine things in the dark and jump when my dog snuck up on me.
June 21, 2013
I am so disappointed in this book. I had such high hopes but I had no idea it would be a complete and total dud! It was supposed to be a scary book but there was no fright and not even a twitch. The characters were worse than flat and the protagonist fell in love with someone in the book but I don't see how when they were barely around one another.
This is the LAST Douglas Clegg book I ever intend on reading.
This is the LAST Douglas Clegg book I ever intend on reading.
May 20, 2016
An interesting, spooky, evil haunted house tale written like a period piece. It's pace came in short staccato bursts as was popular in early fiction, so it does read exactly like some turn of the century classic horror novels that I have read.
The story builds with a sense dread, almost like you're viewing things from the corner of your eye, rather than anything visceral. I agree with a previous reviewer - it is quite similar to "Rose Red" - albeit inferior. Nonetheless an enjoyable read.
The story builds with a sense dread, almost like you're viewing things from the corner of your eye, rather than anything visceral. I agree with a previous reviewer - it is quite similar to "Rose Red" - albeit inferior. Nonetheless an enjoyable read.
October 14, 2012
Nightmare House had a great premise that really never reached its full potential. Clegg does a great job of building suspense, but I don't feel like he really knows how to deliver a great ending. I tried one other book, but I definitely won't be picking up the rest in the Harrow House series.
April 14, 2013
I love a tight buildup of suspense and tension. I love horror. I love being scared. I love gothic old houses. Unfortunately, this book only had one of those four things ... and an old house just isn't enough.
January 13, 2016
This is the least entertaining D. Clegg book I've read and my complaints are in line with what the other two star reviewers have already said. Had it not been so short, I would not have bothered finishing.
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