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Renovation
It all started with a leaky roof.
Or did it?
Something bad is happening in the small picturesque town of Oak Shade, Florida.
The Brennier family has just moved into their new home, and they are excited about the prospect of a new life. A new beginning.
But things don't always go as planned.
Almost immediately, their beautiful home starts to fall into disrepair. And there's that strange thing happening in the attic…
Their call for help to a local repair company quickly becomes a different cry for help.
And their lives begin to crumble as the situation gets stranger and more disruptive.
It soon becomes clear that all is not as it seems, and a simple renovation could mean the deconstruction of their lives.
Renovation
Or did it?
Something bad is happening in the small picturesque town of Oak Shade, Florida.
The Brennier family has just moved into their new home, and they are excited about the prospect of a new life. A new beginning.
But things don't always go as planned.
Almost immediately, their beautiful home starts to fall into disrepair. And there's that strange thing happening in the attic…
Their call for help to a local repair company quickly becomes a different cry for help.
And their lives begin to crumble as the situation gets stranger and more disruptive.
It soon becomes clear that all is not as it seems, and a simple renovation could mean the deconstruction of their lives.
Renovation
- GenresHorror
291 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 1, 2016
12 people want to read
About the author
Sara Brooke
29 books20 followersSara Brooke is a horror and suspense novelist living in South Florida. A lifelong avid reader of all things scary, Sara's childhood dream was to write horror books that force readers to sleep with their lights on.
Her first novel, Still Lake, was released Spring 2012.
Her first novel, Still Lake, was released Spring 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 6, 2016
Renovation might be the perfect example of a book that I really wish I had liked more than I did. It’s premise is promising (a home renovation company straight out of the pits of hell!), and as a homeowner who was dealing with some roof issues that ultimately escalated with a worker falling from our attic and through the bathroom ceiling (he’s fine, thankfully!) it could not have been a more timely read. Unfortunately, it just didn’t hit the mark for me, and the more I think about this book and try to offer a critical evaluation of it as a whole, the more it continues to fall apart for me.
At times the writing felt a bit amateurish and uneven overall, but what really killed it for me was an early attempt at titillation that quickly fell into utter silliness that jarred me and left me trying to recover for damn near the rest of the book. New homeowners, Barb and Mikey, are christening their new bedroom, but their sexy times are ruined when Brooke interrupts to tell us they are “beginning their sex dance.” Nothing ruins eroticism faster than bad writing or kooky lingo, or some roaming hands and a grinding body that breaks away to do the Ickey Shuffle. There’s a fair amount of sex in this book thanks to supernatural influences and cultish practices, but every single time the story began to veer in that direction I cringed inwardly at the idea of all these characters doing goofy little sex dances as they prepared to get down with their bad selves.
Beyond that, some of the dialogue felt clunky and unnatural, to the point that I often wondered who the hell actually speaks this way? Particularly the twelve-year old, Greg, who, apparently beyond never having been taught about stranger danger, is practically a walking and talking construct built solely for delivery of exposition. [SPOILER – ]
And although other characters behaving oddly makes sense in the context of the plot, a lot of it just feels forced and too much, too soon. There’s no tension or pot-boiling suspense, or a creeping sense of dread. Everything moves too fast, which makes the characters seem off-kilter in unnaturally manic ways. I didn’t have a very good grip on who these characters were before they all went bonkers, which meant I didn’t really care about why they were going bonkers and what repercussions would follow.
Beyond all that, nothing about Renovation felt particularly new and fresh. It’s one thing to take old tropes and put a new coat of paint on them, but that doesn’t even get managed here. This book not only feels like the old house at the center of its story, but like the cookie-cutter suburban community in which its set, where every house looks like every other house. It’s all just same-old, same-old. To make matters worse, though, is the ruination of a perfectly good climax with a Lord of the Rings-style multi-resolution, with at least one ending, and a whole new set of characters, too many. This book really had no need for its last two chapters, which attempts to both restart the story and finish it, simultaneously trying to drum up both dread and hope, but producing neither.
This review bums the shit out of me. Honestly, it does. Like I said at the start, I wanted to like this book way more than I did. I even started to rate this book higher by at least a good star and a half, but as I got to writing about it, I found I could not actually justify my initial rating. That’s fucking frustrating, let me tell you. What’s worse is, there’s evidence of a decent book within the pages of Renovation, hints that there, maybe, could have been something better if more time and deliberation had been spent. Unfortunately, like the characters within, I just want to burn it all down.
[Note: This review is based on an advanced copy provided by Sinister Grin Press via Hook of a Book Media and Publicity.]
At times the writing felt a bit amateurish and uneven overall, but what really killed it for me was an early attempt at titillation that quickly fell into utter silliness that jarred me and left me trying to recover for damn near the rest of the book. New homeowners, Barb and Mikey, are christening their new bedroom, but their sexy times are ruined when Brooke interrupts to tell us they are “beginning their sex dance.” Nothing ruins eroticism faster than bad writing or kooky lingo, or some roaming hands and a grinding body that breaks away to do the Ickey Shuffle. There’s a fair amount of sex in this book thanks to supernatural influences and cultish practices, but every single time the story began to veer in that direction I cringed inwardly at the idea of all these characters doing goofy little sex dances as they prepared to get down with their bad selves.
Beyond that, some of the dialogue felt clunky and unnatural, to the point that I often wondered who the hell actually speaks this way? Particularly the twelve-year old, Greg, who, apparently beyond never having been taught about stranger danger, is practically a walking and talking construct built solely for delivery of exposition. [SPOILER – ]
And although other characters behaving oddly makes sense in the context of the plot, a lot of it just feels forced and too much, too soon. There’s no tension or pot-boiling suspense, or a creeping sense of dread. Everything moves too fast, which makes the characters seem off-kilter in unnaturally manic ways. I didn’t have a very good grip on who these characters were before they all went bonkers, which meant I didn’t really care about why they were going bonkers and what repercussions would follow.
Beyond all that, nothing about Renovation felt particularly new and fresh. It’s one thing to take old tropes and put a new coat of paint on them, but that doesn’t even get managed here. This book not only feels like the old house at the center of its story, but like the cookie-cutter suburban community in which its set, where every house looks like every other house. It’s all just same-old, same-old. To make matters worse, though, is the ruination of a perfectly good climax with a Lord of the Rings-style multi-resolution, with at least one ending, and a whole new set of characters, too many. This book really had no need for its last two chapters, which attempts to both restart the story and finish it, simultaneously trying to drum up both dread and hope, but producing neither.
This review bums the shit out of me. Honestly, it does. Like I said at the start, I wanted to like this book way more than I did. I even started to rate this book higher by at least a good star and a half, but as I got to writing about it, I found I could not actually justify my initial rating. That’s fucking frustrating, let me tell you. What’s worse is, there’s evidence of a decent book within the pages of Renovation, hints that there, maybe, could have been something better if more time and deliberation had been spent. Unfortunately, like the characters within, I just want to burn it all down.
[Note: This review is based on an advanced copy provided by Sinister Grin Press via Hook of a Book Media and Publicity.]
October 19, 2016
The Brennier family have moved from their Miami digs to small town, northern Florida hamlet of Oak Shade. Soon after Mikey and his wife Barbara move into their new house, it starts raining and the roof starts leaking. Ah, the joys of being a new homeowner. As Mikey is out looking up at his roof, a construction van stops by and two greasy, non-assuming guys hop out and offer their services. Mikey, not wanting the damage to get worse, takes the guys up on their offer. Guess he should've checked some references first. All hell breaks loose as soon as the guys start work. The leaks get worse, mold is found, cockroaches, and Barbara starts acting funny and smelling like the stinky construction guys. Not good.
Renovation is my first read of Sara Brooke and it comes off as the bastard child of John Saul and a bad Lifetime movie. The beginning was so painful to read that I almost quit a few chapters in. Then it started getting better to only get ridiculous at the end. In fact, the story should've ended at 90%, but then it started all over again for no apparent reason. The dialogue was clunky and amateurish, especially when Brooke tried to ladle on the numerous sex scenes. In, what I take was her attempt at titillation, came out embarrassing to read. The same way it's embarrassing listening to someone that thinks they're a great singer and they end up sounding like a cat yowling on a fence.
It's really too bad that I can't give a better review. There's actually a good premise here. The story had the makings of a horror tale out of the 80's, like what J.N. Williamson used to write, and thats a good thing. Unfortunately, instead of fleshed out characters, we were given paper-thin ones that were amazingly unrealistic, bad dialogue, and horrible descriptions of sex scenes.
2 1/2 Goat-headed Devils out of 5
You can also follow my reviews at the following links:
https://kenmckinley.wordpress.com
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/A2J1...
Renovation is my first read of Sara Brooke and it comes off as the bastard child of John Saul and a bad Lifetime movie. The beginning was so painful to read that I almost quit a few chapters in. Then it started getting better to only get ridiculous at the end. In fact, the story should've ended at 90%, but then it started all over again for no apparent reason. The dialogue was clunky and amateurish, especially when Brooke tried to ladle on the numerous sex scenes. In, what I take was her attempt at titillation, came out embarrassing to read. The same way it's embarrassing listening to someone that thinks they're a great singer and they end up sounding like a cat yowling on a fence.
It's really too bad that I can't give a better review. There's actually a good premise here. The story had the makings of a horror tale out of the 80's, like what J.N. Williamson used to write, and thats a good thing. Unfortunately, instead of fleshed out characters, we were given paper-thin ones that were amazingly unrealistic, bad dialogue, and horrible descriptions of sex scenes.
2 1/2 Goat-headed Devils out of 5
You can also follow my reviews at the following links:
https://kenmckinley.wordpress.com
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/A2J1...
July 10, 2018
This author is one of my favorites. this was an awesome read. absolutely loved it. Loved the characters, the writing and the story. the whole story was something new, never read about something like that and it was so cool. do yourself a favor and read it and her.
October 12, 2016
Renovation is reminiscent of This House Possessed (1981) with the addition of demons. A mostly happy family moves to a small town to start over only to find that their dream home isn't quite what it seems (queue the creepy music) luckily for them a renovation company just happens to be driving by,,, unluckily they have their own agenda. I had a hard time getting into this story, the characters just never became real for me. Some of the scares were effective, the shower scene with Janice was absolutely horrific for me. This book was just mediocre for me, entertaining enough to finish but I wouldn't reread it. A middle of the road 3 star read.
September 13, 2016
"Renovation" by Sara Brooke starts off with a familiar premise: a family has just moved to a new house, but lo and behold it seems the home inspection didn’t catch that the roof is leaky, which the family finds out soon after settling in. Suspense builds as the reader wonders whether Mike and his family will be able to escape the clutches of the “renovation crew” that has descended upon their house and is wreaking havoc. If you like your horror with a hefty dose of creature feature mixed in with some highly erotic elements, you will definitely enjoy "Renovation."
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews