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Phantom House
In a small suburban town, there sits a house infested with paranormal brutality.
What if the cops came to your door and forced you to spend the night there?
What if the cops came to your door and forced you to spend the night there?
441 pages, Paperback
Published September 29, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 18, 2023
*Book provided for an honest review. *
Hamartia: a tragic or fatal flaw that leads to a character's downfall.
“Phantom House” explores this concept with each character in a subtle and intelligent way. However, the novel itself does also fall prey to its own hamartia.
The book’s hamartia is its creativity. This should be an advantage, but its flaw is in its inability to reign in those ideas for a tighter, more cohesive story. It feels like it is trying to be too many things, but each one gets dropped along the way to start another. None of the genres feel like they get enough legs to stand on their own by the end.
There are police procedural, cult action, haunted house, and paranormal parts. While all of these could work, they leave loose ends and questions.
The police procedural is how we start out. But that falls into too many clichés, the female police officer is harassed for being a woman, and ends up sleeping with the expert that is brought in after initially not being able to stand each other.
Then I was excited when the cult angle was brought in, however, it did end up feeling more like a vehicle to show off the big villain, rather than a full idea and mythos.
The haunted house is a background character until we get halfway through the book. Then we finally get to the supernatural too. This was also a letdown since we have had this supposed “expert” about the history and paranormal dangers of this location, yet even he seems unsure of what is happening and why.
Why would the little old lady who lives next door know more than he does? He is supposed to be some sort of historian and caretaker. And why was his deceased dog brought up repeatedly? It felt like it should have been a detail important to the story since it was mentioned so many times, but it just… wasn’t.
How having someone live there would keep the possible end of the world from happening is never explained. How are they supposed to survive the situation? The families are unknowingly moved into a haunted house, basically like lambs to the slaughter. They don’t know how to protect themselves, or even that they need to.
Speaking of slaughter, I do want to warn you there is a dog death immediately at the beginning of the book. Just a forewarning.
Not all was bad though, I don’t want to leave that impression. There are contemporary social issues weaved throughout the book, that make sense and were nice to see included in a present-day haunted house story. This made this feel like the most modern haunted house novel I have read, completely flipping the creepy old house trope.
There are also great subtle connections made in small ways throughout the book. Now that I have finished it, I want to re-read it to see all the connections I may have missed the first time. It takes an intelligent writer to know how to include those little details and slip them in so effortlessly. For example, how each main character’s hamartia manifests in the story.
If you are a fan of Stephen King-esque crazy endings (i.e. “IT”), this book is also for you. It also leaves a setup for a second book.
The book is simply overflowing with ideas, but none of them are bad. I just wanted to rope them all in somehow and have a tighter plot, and a bit more structure. I would still recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t mind the chaos of an interesting story. 3 Stars
Hamartia: a tragic or fatal flaw that leads to a character's downfall.
“Phantom House” explores this concept with each character in a subtle and intelligent way. However, the novel itself does also fall prey to its own hamartia.
The book’s hamartia is its creativity. This should be an advantage, but its flaw is in its inability to reign in those ideas for a tighter, more cohesive story. It feels like it is trying to be too many things, but each one gets dropped along the way to start another. None of the genres feel like they get enough legs to stand on their own by the end.
There are police procedural, cult action, haunted house, and paranormal parts. While all of these could work, they leave loose ends and questions.
The police procedural is how we start out. But that falls into too many clichés, the female police officer is harassed for being a woman, and ends up sleeping with the expert that is brought in after initially not being able to stand each other.
Then I was excited when the cult angle was brought in, however, it did end up feeling more like a vehicle to show off the big villain, rather than a full idea and mythos.
The haunted house is a background character until we get halfway through the book. Then we finally get to the supernatural too. This was also a letdown since we have had this supposed “expert” about the history and paranormal dangers of this location, yet even he seems unsure of what is happening and why.
Why would the little old lady who lives next door know more than he does? He is supposed to be some sort of historian and caretaker. And why was his deceased dog brought up repeatedly? It felt like it should have been a detail important to the story since it was mentioned so many times, but it just… wasn’t.
How having someone live there would keep the possible end of the world from happening is never explained. How are they supposed to survive the situation? The families are unknowingly moved into a haunted house, basically like lambs to the slaughter. They don’t know how to protect themselves, or even that they need to.
Speaking of slaughter, I do want to warn you there is a dog death immediately at the beginning of the book. Just a forewarning.
Not all was bad though, I don’t want to leave that impression. There are contemporary social issues weaved throughout the book, that make sense and were nice to see included in a present-day haunted house story. This made this feel like the most modern haunted house novel I have read, completely flipping the creepy old house trope.
There are also great subtle connections made in small ways throughout the book. Now that I have finished it, I want to re-read it to see all the connections I may have missed the first time. It takes an intelligent writer to know how to include those little details and slip them in so effortlessly. For example, how each main character’s hamartia manifests in the story.
If you are a fan of Stephen King-esque crazy endings (i.e. “IT”), this book is also for you. It also leaves a setup for a second book.
The book is simply overflowing with ideas, but none of them are bad. I just wanted to rope them all in somehow and have a tighter plot, and a bit more structure. I would still recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t mind the chaos of an interesting story. 3 Stars
September 4, 2023
Oooo that ending! It was a real shocker. The first half of the book set the stage .you get the feel of the creppy town, meeting fun interesting characters. Love the interactions between Detective Keller and Dr. Max. All the tensions ratchets up for an explosive ending. Check this book out. It is definitely a keeper!! 5 stars for sure!!
September 25, 2023
Seriously one of the most interesting Horror novels of the last decade, incredible. An absolute page turner I couldn’t put down until the mystery was over and where that thread will lead is somewhere you least expect. Fleshed out characters, dark and moody setting it’s reminiscent of works of the great horror novelists. Not perfectly polished but it doesn’t need to be. Absolutely fantastic!
August 31, 2023
Phantom House is not your typical haunted house story. We've all seen those when creepy things happen to a family in the house. This book is more of what happens the morning after the nightmare. Fresh characters, fast-moving plot, perfect read for spooky season!
September 4, 2023
I enjoyed the characters in this one. Detective Keller and Dr. Gomez were interesting to follow as they unravel the mystery of the Phantom House. Also the villain. The small town sheriff with a creepy destiny to fulfill. This was great stuff for spooky season.
November 8, 2023
This book provided plenty of twists and turns. It was certainly not predictable. Every time I thought I had it figured out I was wrong, wrong, wrong. I gave it 5 stars for that reason. If you want to read a horror novel that is unlike any other horror novel, read this book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews