The Birthing House

by Christopher Ransom

It was expecting them.

Conrad and Joanna Harrison, a young couple from Los Angeles, attempt to save their marriage by leaving the pressures of the city to start anew in a quiet, rural setting. They buy a Victorian mansion that once served as a haven for unwed mothers, called a birthing house. One day when Joanna is away, the previous owner visits Conrad to bequeath a vital piece of the house’s historic heritage, a photo album that he claims “belongs to the house.” Thumbing through the old, sepia-colored photographs of midwives and fearful, unhappily pregnant girls in their starched, nineteenth-century dresses, Conrad is suddenly chilled to the bone: staring back at him with a countenance of hatred and rage is the image of his own wife….

Thus begins a story of possession, sexual obsession, and, ultimately, murder, as a centuries-old crime is reenacted in the present, turning Conrad and Joanna’s American dream into a relentless nightmare.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Supernatural, Mystery, Paranormal, Fantasy

308 pages, Hardcover

Published August 4, 2009

About the author

Christopher Ransom is the author of internationally bestselling novels including The Birthing House and The People Next Door. He studied literature at Colorado State University and worked at Entertainment Weekly magazine in New York, and now lives near his hometown of Boulder, Colorado.

Reviews

[Alexis · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Birthing House: Worst comes the book you can't even finish.
I got halfway through and just gave up.

Forget this book, let it be lost within the rest of the built to fail readings of the horror genre.

I'll never get the stain this novel has left on my love for books out.
I'll never again buy any book without reading countless reviews before hand (i mean the truthful reviews!).

Before we even begin to get into the book and start reading we as readers are lied to. On the back of the book The Birthing House is put forth as 'The scariest book since The Shining'(by Stephen King). Shamefully the author (who should be banished) gave us an empty promise that this novel (if it even deserves to be called a novel) is an additive thriller that will leave us terrified.

Tactful, and moronic. All writers, readers ect.. know that if you as in the reader don't like the main character/hero of the novel then the story just falls apart piece by piece until the reader finally snaps and returns, bins, or my personal favourite BURNS the book! :p

I must say I'm not being a really good reviewer by the means that I'm not telling you whats wrong with the book, what is it that makes me want to find the author and hit him over the back of the head. Well simply there's nothing good to say about the book, because the whole book in general is just a load of S***! It's not just one thing here and there, it's everything. There's not one reason for me to say, "that some parts where good, i liked the part.." etc, 'cause that would be me lying to you.

I tried so hard to finish this book, but it actually caused me physical pain just to continue on to where i did.

Well, to make up for the brain cells I've lost whilst reading half of this book I'm away to read something by KING.

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a catastrophic disappointment! I love thinking about the history of old houses, so this sounded like an ideal spooky read for me. Somewhere within the first 50 pages, it all unraveled and became naught but a mess.

First, I really don't like the author's style. His sentences don't seem to flow at all, only appearing on the page in fits & starts. There are way too many sentence fragments for my liking. In addition to that, the narrator's voice just feels too forced. When you suspect someone has threatened/is threatening a loved one, and the adrenaline is running high, who in their right mind says, "If something has hurt them, I will run amok." YOU WILL RUN AMOK?! WTH?! All along this guy has been dropping the f-bomb and swearing left & right, but when his adrenaline is up and panic surging, the best threat he has is that he will "run amok"?

With such an aversion to the narrator's voice, I had difficulty engaging with the protagonist. This became even more troublesome with long, confusing (surreal?) passages, such as the dream/sex sequence with his wife (maybe?). I can barely dig into the story as is and then you're going to concoct gauzy semi-stream-of-consciousness sequences? Now I'm even LESS engaged, if that were possible.

Then there are the characters themselves. I can't help but feel as though Conrad is a bit of a Mary Sue - just too many personal details about the character that don't come off as insightful or meaningful so much as indulgent: the snakes, the rescue dogs, the bookselling. None adds into a cohesive character, just Ransom indulging in a bit of whim by giving his own interests to Conrad. As for Conrad's wife, Jo: what in the world is redeeming about this woman? Their fights are completely incomprehensible; she jumps from topic to topic and gains offense reading into things that I had NO CLUE where she got it. Again, the thought process didn't follow logically. While fights in real life may not always be entirely logical, either, fiction needs to have some connective thread for the reader.

Finally, I'm not entirely certain about the house's history. Women just came and birthed babies and went home? It seemed like there were some more permanent residents or were those just the nurses? What about the doctor's sick mantra: take a life to give a life. So, you were guaranteed a death of SOMEONE in every birth yet people still came to him to deliver their children? WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD ANYONE DO THAT?! Also, was the doctor Alma's father AND her rapist? I'm still unclear on that one.

Was the narrator crazy or the house haunted? Somewhere in the middle, Ransom began to lean towards the first and the house diminished significantly in importance. Then suddenly, in the last quarter, the house regains its original stature. This plot ambivalence frustrated me. I scare easily and this book did not scare me in the least because I spent too much time snorting in derision or just plain confused.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pardon the pun, but this book was stillborn: the horror factor was lukewarm, the gratuitous swearing and sex (I'm sure some readers may think that they weren't gratuitous but they really do feel that way, like they were added for effect rather than organically coming from the book), and the prose were just not doing it for me. I got flashes of The Others (the Nicole Kidman movie, not the Tyrone book), Amityville Horror, Stephen King, Mickey Spillane and Horror Writing for Dummies. Not even halfway through and I gave up.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeing as the reviews for this seem to be so bad, I thought I'd better mention that my review is not a critical one. So I don't know if it's just a personal preference and taste thing. Or maybe I'm just easily pleased compared to others. Who knows? But I know I seem to be in the minority when I say I really enjoyed this book. I found parts of it genuinely creepy, which isn't something I say too often. Granted, it's far-fetched and slightly confused (to be fair, what horror novels aren't?) but if you take it as it is and don't think too much into it, it's a good read.

So, whether you liked the book or not, that's my opinion. Take it or leave it. Now let's go back to our lives and remember that writing good books, particularly in the horror genre, is bloody hard work! *throws mic on floor*

[Aoibhínn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I absolutely hate false advertising. On the back of the cover of this book it proudly states it's "the scariest novel since Stephen King's The Shining". This is not true, it's a complete lie and a huge insult to Mr. King! Like everyone else that has apparently brought this book, I fell for this and I was drawn to the spooky cover and the synopsis on the back of the novel that sounded so good.

The novel doesn't live up to the expectations of the description on the back. What is book really is is an extremely poorly written novel that isn't even the slightest bit scary, written by an a truly awful author. The dialogue is terrible and appalling, the plot is absolutely dreadful, and there isn't even one likeable character in the entire book. No actually that's not true, I liked the two poor dogs, everyone else could have died on the first page for all I cared. All the characters are poorly developed, emotionless, and unrealistic. Conrad Harrison, the protagonist in the novel, was a complete wanker who annoyed me severely throughout the whole novel. And his wife, Jo, was a total bitch.

Ransom's writing style was atrocious and immature. Whole paragraphs in this novel made no sense whatsoever. It felt like it was written by a horny 12-year-old. The plot was confusing and uninteresting. I had a big problem with the creepy photo-album, which I thought was going to be a big part of the story, but it was destroyed by the protagonist a few chapters into the novel. That photo-album was probably the only creepy, most interesting thing about the novel and it went up in flames right at the start.

I think the person at Sphere Publishing that decided that this novel should be printed needs to be sacked. Don't waste your time with this one because the only place it belongs is in the trash can. One star!

[Lizzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA yeah right!

This is a book about the power of semen. It also has a retarded ghost (not "retarded" as in "lame"; literally the ghost of a mentally disabled person who is modeled after the character Nell from the movie "Nell" - the one who says "tay inna winn, missy chickobay!" [it is particularly telling of the author's talent that he actually, there on the page, compares this ghost to Nell himself. As in, I did not draw this conclusion on my own. Somewhere in this book there is a sentence that basically reads: "Then the ghost said 'omma bahbee lovies!" and it reminded me, the protagonist, of that character Nell from the movie 'Nell'".])

My only wish is that this book could be made into a suitable low-budget film that I could watch for free on On Demand, because I know it would be the awesomest drinking game ever. I would drink every time the dumbest thing in the world happened. I would be drinking approximately every twelve seconds. I would die from alcohol poisoning. The circle of terror would finally be complete.

I am now going to go make my roommate read it because that seems like it would be a bonding thing. This is quite truly the worst book I have ever read, and I can't keep something like that to myself.

[Jillian · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't even!!! What the hell I read the whole book and I'm still not sure what it's about. I was so confused there was no plot really and the timelines didn't make sense, and the ending well I'm not sure there even was one I would give this book no stars if that was a choice. Ughhhh I'm completely at a loss with this book . It was one of the most frustrating reads I have ever read. I still don't know why there was so much sex talk when no one was having any sex , and the iced tea thing there was never an explanation. A lot of this story was left undone and if I wanted to fill in the blanks on a story myself I would have written one and not wasted my money on this book. Plus the main character Conrad was just really super creepy he was like just trying to put any girl In a wife's space,he was even making creepy moves on the neighbors 19 year old pregnant daughter, it's like he was obsessed with her. The story was jumping around from place to place like he would have an idea and write a few pages and just try to find a place for it, there was like 2 pages about being on an iced tea island and taking a bath in the iced tea waterfall I think the guy must have been craving iced tea super bad cause there is a lot of iced tea drinking and dreaming and thinking about going on in this book. Also there was this whole thing about him raising snakes that felt like he added it as an after thought and how the snakes were illegal to own bit if he had snake babies he could get a paper published and sell them for a hundred thousand dollars ? So weird I don't know I'm still scratching my head?

[Cynnamon · Rating 1 out of 5]

English version below

***************

Dieser Geisterhaus Roman hat sich für mich leider so wie seine Durchnittsbewertung entwickelt, nämlich relativ schlecht.

Unser Protagonist ist ein erfolgloser Arbeitsloser mit einer schwächelnden Ehe, der durch den Tod seines Vater zu Geld kommt. Kaum ist er flüssig hat er die grandiose Idee, ein grusliges Haus im Hinterland für sich und seine Frau zu kaufen und bringt sie mit emotionaler Erpressung dazu, aus der Großstadt mit ihm dorhin zu ziehen. Kurz darauf verabschiedet sie sich jedoch zu einer längeren Schulung in Detroit und er bleibt allein zurück.

Vielleicht hätte mir das Buch gefallen, wenn der Protagonist nicht so ein unsympathischer Schwächling und Trottel gewesen wäre (das Haus kann ja wohl nicht komplett an seinem defizitären Charakter schuld gewesen sein). Und dass er den größten Teil des Buches entweder an Sex denkt oder sich einen runterholt, und dieses vom Autor detailliert beschrieben wird, fand ich eher ekelhaft als anregend.

Vielleicht hätte mir das Buch gefallen, wenn die Nebencharaktere irgendwie interessant gewesen wären. Aber die Ehefrau war fast so unsympathisch wie der Protagonist und die Nachbarn konnten mich auch nicht hinter dem Ofen hervorlocken. Außer der Ehefrau und den Nachbarn gab es tatsächlich niemanden anderen erwähnenswertes.

Und vielleicht hätte mir das Buch gefallen, wenn ich mich wenigstens ein bisschen gegruselt hätte. Aber auch das ist nicht passiert. Dafür habe ich oft gegähnt.

Zumindest bin ich bei der Stange geblieben und habe das Buch zu Ende gelesen, deswegen vergebe ich auch 1,5 Sterne, aber ich runde ab.

------------------------

Unfortunately, this haunted house novel has developed for me like its average rating, namely relatively bad.

Our protagonist is an unsuccessful unemployed man with an ailing marriage who inherits some money after the death of his father. Once he's liquid, he has the brilliant idea of buying a spooky house upstate for himself and his wife, and uses emotional blackmail to get her to move there with him from the big city. Shortly thereafter, however, she says goodbye to a lengthy training session in Detroit and he is left alone.

I might have enjoyed the book if the protagonist hadn't been such an unsympathetic weakling and dork (the house can't have been entirely to blame for his deficient character, surely). And that for most of the book he's either thinking about sex or jerking off described in detail by the author, I found more gross than stimulating.

I might have enjoyed the book if the supporting characters were somehow interesting. But the wife was almost as unpleasant as the protagonist and the neighbors couldn't lure me out from behind the stove either. In fact, apart from the wife and neighbors, there was no one else worth mentioning.

And maybe I would have liked the book if I had at least been a little scared. But that didn't happen either. But I did yawn often.

At least I stuck with it and finished the book, which is why I'm giving it 1.5 stars, but I'm rounding down.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, a first novel, published by a major Brit house, marketed as horror and freely available in supermarkets and coming complete with great blurbs and a very favourable comparison to Stephen King and “The Shining”. Does it live up to any of that? No, I don’t think so. The story is fairly straightforward, a marriage is in crisis and in an effort to reinstate the status quo, the protagonists move to the Mid-West. Except Conrad, a failed everything whose father has also just died, isn’t particularly likeable and his opinion of his wife Joanna changes from chapter to chapter, depending on how it suits the story - she’s a slut (with Conrad’s ex-best friend), domineering, submissive, lying, open, happy, sad - whatever you want. We also meet two other women - Holly, the ex from way back and Nadia, the pregnant teen from next door. The Holly situation is meant to mean something big, but it just reads like the male fantasy of a teenaged girlfriend. Nadia veers in her character, going along agreeably with Conrad because he offers her money, without his really explaining what it is that he wants of her. As it is, the books biggest problem appears to be a lack of an editor, it’s at least a third too long, maybe a half. I was lucky enough to read three quarters of it during a trip to France, so I had to keep going but at times it was very tedious - in the middle, I went through 100 pages and the only thing that happened in all of that was Nadia’s boyfriend getting killed. The ending feels tacked on and rushed and, even though we have mention of ‘the doctor’ at the start, we don’t actually ‘see’ the character until page 370 of a 400 page book. I kid you not. It also fails as a horror novel - the gore, when it comes, is either done so that you don’t really catch it or it’s focussed on to such a level that it becomes desensitising (such as with Nadia). Worse, this had the potential to be really scary - an old house, long dead women, babies crying in the night - they’re all there but none of them are utilised well and all of the times they appear are so clearly signalled, you know they’re coming half a dozen pages before., And don’t get me started on the stupid stick-doll or the author’s insistence on ‘tricking’ the reader several times, by attempting to confuse the clicking of the walking doll with the clicking of Conrad’s dogs claws on the wooden floors. I don’t know what Michael Marshall Smith read, but it can’t have been this, nor what the person read who compared it to “The Shining” - this is an overlong, bland, not badly written but not well edited novel that doesn’t appear - to me - to do anything it promises on the cover. Give it a miss.

[Maciek · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very poor book. I was seduced by the cover - it's great. However, the author needs to note that esxcessive use of words "fuck" and "shit" and all their declensions does not make a book "mature" or "cool". The premise is interesting - a guy moves to a new house, where he finds a 100 year old photo of unknown women...among them his wife.
But the writing is bad, the characters cardboard, the relationship so devoid of substance that one might think it came from a Hollywood movie...
One of the indirect quotes - "A man is happiest just after he came". That was supposed to be deep or what ? Another note - graphic sex scenes do not add any value to the book if they are just graphic and useless !
I read it to the very end because I wanted to know if the author sold his idea - he didn't. Overall, it's not an impressive debut - it's a badly written haunted house flick.

[Jessica Gard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Greatest line "The kid was as quiet as... something pretty quiet."

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone! I have been struggling through this for a few days now, and I wish more than ever that I had the ability to just give up on books! Christopher Ransom tries too hard to come across as deep through over the top metaphors that simply comes across as shallow and poorly worded. Not only have I found this book to be poorly written across the board, it is full of gratuitous sex scenes that do nothing but take away from a plot that has very little redeeming quality to begin with.

The scenes in the book that are supposed to come across to the reader as scary or disturbing are so poorly described that I am have found myself re-reading whole pages just to try to figure out exactly what is supposed to be happening. If I had a choice to give a book less than one star, this piece of trash would receive it.

....

Finished. Worst book ever. If it wasn't on my Nook I would burn it.

[Ian Mapp · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was chosen because it was constantly on the best seller list in airport bookshops when I was travelling earlier in the year. I thought there must be a reason and the blurb on the back about it being the best horror since the shining convinced me to read.

About 2/3rds of the way through, I was going to give this poorly written book the benefit of the doubt that the poor reviews here and on amazon were simply due to that comparison - it wasnt scary but plodded along. However, having read the last third of the book when I can only say that the story descends into chaos where I did not have a clue (or care) about what was going on, this has to go down as the one of the worst books ever written. And I include the ones that I didnt enjoy and stopped wasting my time reading in that list.

The story builds nicely. Conrad Harrison is recently berevead out of work with a marriage that he thinks is failing. With his inhertitance he buys a family home in Wisconsin and moves in with his wife hoping for a fresh start. The house is haunted and his wife (before witnessing the hauntings) goes on a business trip for 8 weeks leaving harrison with his horrors.

Except, its not that horrific and the tension doesnt build. The house is a former house for children to be born in and the old occupant provides Contrad with a photo album - that appears to have a picture of his wife. He lusts after his pregnant teenage neghbor and his past with the love of his lfie is revealed.

Then it all goes utterly spanners. What the hell happens in the last 100 pages is anyones guess and if you are brave enough to read this pile of tosh, then good luck in deciphering it.

[Zippy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really disappointed in this book. It is fairly well written and the premise sounded really interesting but it just didn't deliver.

I didn't find anything scary at all in it, maybe this is becuase I didn't connect with any of the characters so didn't actually care what happened to them, but I found the so called "horror" parts boring.

Disappointing, I had high hopes for this book, but I will probably try more by the author at another time, because I feel he may have promise.

[Teresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

absolute tripe.

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is awful. Once again I am kicking myself for being tricked by good graphic design. I wish that only books with a good plot were allowed to have pretty typography. My husband and I listened to this audiobook on a long road trip and both hated it. But husband couldn't give up, he really wanted to find out what happened. And honestly, we both wanted the protagonist to die. We had high hopes that all the crazy plot lines would be tied up, but alas, were disappointed.
I have many, many questions about this book, but here are the main ones:
- why the heck do we care about Holly and her pointless storyline??
- why oh why did Conrad burn the photo album????????????????
- why did Nadia suddenly decide that Conrad wasn't a total creeper?
- how did the dogs get in the basement???
- why didn't Jo call when she went to the hospital?
- how did the snake get pregnant? why did Ransom ignore the snakes for hundreds of pages????
- why didn't the female dog get magically pregnant???
- why were the Laskey's kids all deformed? what happened to the other kids?

Here is the one thing I learned from this book:
Christopher Ransom is a douchebag who really loves iced tea.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 - I'm feeling generous.
Every so often you just have to question your life choices. I am currently questioning my choice to purchase and subsequently read this book.
It started off okay, and each chapter found me increasingly shaking my head and loudly demanding "fucking what??"
It's all over the place. I'm still not convinced that was actually one book. Did i actually read something? Was it a feverish dream?

[Linda (NOT RECEIVING NOTIFICATIONS) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Perusing the shelves in the used bookstore at my local library, I had to pinch myself when I stumbled upon Christopher Ransom's The Birthing House a month before the official release. "The Birthing House Delivers" on the back cover with all the recommendations from other authors made it sound wonderful. Warning: save your money!

A first novel usually falls into one of two categories. It is uncommonly bad and full of first-timer errors. Sometimes it includes brain-blackout by the editor. It is an arduous read and it should get better but never does. The second group includes wonderful well-written stories. The book is a pleasure to read and you actually feel happy for the author because the narrative is that good.

Suffice-it-to-say, The Birthing House fell into the first category. It is about one man's struggle with who he is. Conrad Harrison had just inherited a windfall of money and his wife's love is confusing at best. He is thirty years old with no job, a house he bought without his wife present and in a town he has never been to before. He slowly sinks into the history of the house, its unlucky inhabitants and the town's shuttered and troubling past. Hmmm, it should get better, right? No.

While reading I felt as though I was viewing a puzzle with missing pieces; the narrative wasn't cohesive. Mr. Ransom tried to explain some of Conrad's past but I wanted to know more. Why did he and his wife continue to stay in a dismal marriage? How did they both become so lonely? Tell me more about his previous relationship with his father. And what about the house and it's past? What drove the doctor and the women to stay together? It is hard to believe that everyone was crazy.

I kept hoping that everything would fall into place but I was still confused at the end. There is a little sex, some gore and a few murders but nothing felt right. It wasn't scary or suspenseful. I wanted to empathize with the victims but I couldn't because the story felt empty. I wanted more.

I wish Mr. Ransom the best with future novels, I just hope he learns from his mistakes. Oh, and have someone else edit his future books. I can't put total blame on an author if the editor doesn't do his or her job.

[Elizabeth Nesbit-comer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. It sounded so good when I picked it up, but was ultimately just really confusing. Looking at other reviews I see that I am not the only one who totally did not understand the story.
My main complaints
- He never really explains why one of the ladies in the picture looks like his wife.
- I don't get what the doctor was doing. He kept saying take a life to create a life, but then he killed a baby... so the house requires you to kill someone to get pregnant?? or do girls who don't want their babies go there?? Why did Alma live there?? This whole part of the book from her perspective didn't make much sense at all.
- Alma possesing people randomly was never explained well.
- Who killed Nadia??
- Why was his wife so distant and not wanting to come home,and why did he never mention to her that they hadn't had sex so it couldn't be his baby. Did she somehow also forget they hadn't had sex in a long time.
- The whole relationship with Nadia was just disturbing and I hated the way the dogs were treated in this book.
Really I gave this two stars because I like haunted house stories, but I really won't be reading any more of his books.

[Melanie Bouthillette · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boooooring! What a bunch of word vomit with no outcome. The plot made no sense and the characters are barely likable. I finished it because I always finish books in the hopes the ending will pay off, not in this case. I'm still confused about the whole story and glad it's done and over with.

[Alyson Dickerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I Learned from this Book: Christopher Ransom likes iced tea a LOT! So the protagonist drinks a lot of iced tea in this novel, which is supposed to be a scary one full of ghosts, hauntings (real and imagined ones, literal and figurative ones), twists and turns, and who knows what else. The only thing that works in this novel is that it was only JUST interesting enough to keep me reading until the end. When I got to that final part, the one that explains everything to us, dear readers, I was so disappointed that I nearly tossed the book into the corner of my bedroom. However, I borrowed it from my friend Chris so I resisted the urge. I often wonder why horror authors find it compulsory to throw in multiple sexual situations in their novels. Is sex scary?? Really? Or is it just something so that we don't get so disgusted with the flimsy story that we stick with the book? Ok, so the premise here is that a young man who is somewhat estranged from his wife comes into some money after his father dies in a freak accident. On his way home from Chicago (they live in LA), he gets lost and happens onto Black Earth, WI. He stops for a bite to eat (which turns into two meals at once. kinda weird.) and browses the ads in the local newspaper. Well to make a long story short, he buys a vanilla bean Victorian, he and his wife and dogs move in, she leaves on a work related trip, and he discovers the house used to a "birthing house" way back when. Naturally he hears a baby cry, finds an old album of photos, sees figures, and gets all creepy. Not creepy enough. This is a very inconsistant novel and I'm wildly disappointed. Maybe I'm still riding that Sarah Waters high.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, a warning. If you do read this book make sure you don't pick it up before you're about to go to sleep, it will keep you awake.
Conrad comes home one day to find his wife Jo in a somewhat compromising situation with their mutual friend Jake. So it seems appropriate that he's just bought them a new house out in the sticks of Wisconsin. This can be a new begining for them, a fresh start.
With Jo away on an eight week business course Conrad is left to settle into the house on his own. The house is an old Victorian Birthing House, a place where women would come to bring new life into the world. The house breathes history. When Conrad is given an old photo album by the previous owners he sees an old Victorian photograph of stern looking ladies in black. Staring up at him, with empty eyes, is his wife Jo.
From that moment on, strange things start to happen. Things go bump in the night, and there seems to be another human presence with him.
Striking up a friendship with his next door neighbours, they ask him to look after their house, and keep an eye on their pregnant daughter while they're away. Nadia has also noticed strange things occuring in the house over the years and once the trust builds up between them they set out to find the key to unlocking the mystery of the old house.
I won't spoil the ending for you, but it kept me completely enthralled, every chapter leaves you teetering on the edge of a precipice, and you're compelled to keep reading just so you can find out what comes next. A thrilling read......except right at the end where it just ends. It doesn't do justice to the rest of the book at all. Disappointing.

[Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book had a good premise that was poorly executed. The characters were very poorly developed, unlikeable, and selfish. The reader is supposed to feel for them as they are faced with the "horror" of the birthing house, but the feeling overall is good riddance. Conrad, the main character, is dealing with a lack of closure over the death of his absentee father and the lingering feelings he has for Holly, the one that got away in addition to the potential infidelity of his wife. Jo, his wife, is minimally developed and pops in and out of the story so randomly that when the big twist involving her is revealed, it lacks impact. Nadia's only redeeming quality is that she is a pregnant unwed young woman and even that doesn't save her from being killed in a grisly fashion.

The book also contains several problems with deciding what it is. Is the house haunted? Is Conrad going mad or haunted by a ghost? It is implied in the first page that there is a ghost following him. Is it the literal ghost of Alma or a metaphor for his baggage? Why did Alma pick him? Why does the woman in the old photograph look exactly like Jo? Does Conrad cause the disturbances in the house with his own problems? What happened to Nadia's baby after an Alma-possessed Jo kills her?

It tries to be a bit of everything without successfully executing a single style. The back story with Holly was a stretch to develop Conrad's madness about being a father. The eventual history of the birthing house that is revealed only adds to the confusion of the book. Poorly written and poorly executed.

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom

“The Birthing House” is Christopher Ransom’s debut novel. Mr. Ransom’s books were recommended to me by a Goodreads friend, and I ordered two from Great Britain (specifically, “The People Next Door” and “The Haunting of James Hastings”) but by happy coincidence, “The Birthing House” arrived as a Library reserve, and so I actually read the first novel first (this does not often occur).

“The Birthing House” is a very scary novel: it’s haunted, it’s ghostly, it’s in places gory; the relationships are almost all frightening in different ways. There are abusers and abusees, some really perverted individuals, a history of “wrong.” The House itself is seriously haunted, and I don’t think I’m giving away any more than what anyone can read from the blurb. I classify this novel as “literary horror” which simply means: expect writing that is going to extend your attention, content that will not just scintillate but provoke your thought processes, and a story line that will stretch your imagination.

There, you have it-now go on and enjoy it.

[Ashleigh · Rating 1 out of 5]

A complete and utter waste of my time!

After Conrad's father dies and he finds his wife Joanna maybe cheating, the two pack up their lives in Los Angeles and move to a quaint house in Wisconsin. Instantly strange things begin happening and Conrad soon finds out this is a birthing house..

So I understand all the negative reviews. Nothing happens in this book. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I thought the premise was interesting and had never heard of a birthing house, so I thought it could be a cool thing to explore in a thriller/horror. Nope. How is this book classified as either of those things? It's just 300 pages of a guy talking/thinking about his past sex life, his non-existent sex life with his wife, and his fantasies about the pregnant teenage girl next door. It's icky and gross.

Nothing scary happens. Nothing freaky. It's just a huge disappointment. Mehh.

[Hil · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book deserves a higher rating if only for the line "It was like dancing in a cave with a wet seal", which made me laugh out loud!

I feel the need to try and boost the overall rating for this book as so many people have given it 1 star. I didn't find it THAT bad, and it was his first book so let's give him a chance. Some of the best writers take a while to develop their style and if they didn't persevere maybe we'd never see their masterpiece in the future. I had the advantage of not hearing any 'hype' beforehand and noting the awful reviews here after I'd just started it which didn't raise my hopes at all. Overall, it was a good read, though not a scary scary book.

*WARNING - SPOILERS*
The plus points of this book for me, apart from the lovely turquoise-silver cover picture which I kept gazing at, were the bits I found quite creepy (though not scary). For me these were the 'clicking' doll down the side of the bed (initially anyway, till he forgot about it so soon); when Nadia was telling him about babysitting the kids who were staring at the ceiling in the dark, and she ended up sitting playing with the creepy dolls for hours and hours; when he comes home to find the dogs all cut up and shoved in the basement, barking at the wall (though again, he gets over this so soon); when he goes to the basement and collects the dead baby bricked up in the wall, puts it in the crib and then tells Nadia he can never let her leave - the apparent descent into madness was great, building when Jo returns and it seems he may have been insane for a long time...but then ultimately I think he was just possessed by Alma because it seems he didn't go down for the dead baby at all as it was still in the wall at the end.

I also liked the relationship between Conrad and Nadia, seeing how it developed and listening in on their conversations and story-telling (although some of it was just padding - "what book were you reading?" "Does it matter?" NO!) Conrad was depicted as a man who was attracted to dominant women and admired and lusted after them while at the same time hating feeling demeaned by them. Jo wasn't very likeable and seemed bossy and hard, though really was an innocent party (even though she killed Nadia (I think) she was possessed by Alma at the time.

The bad points were the unanswered questions I was left with - perhaps there were a lot of red herrings dotted about the book that came to nothing, disappointingly, but they weren't tied up neatly. I still don't know what happened to the dogs that night - it is hinted that Alma broke the mirrors so she wouldn't have to look at herself, but I'm not sure how Alice's ear ended up almost sliced off. (Perhaps we were supposed to think it was Eddie - red herring) Why did Alma look exactly like Jo, according to the old photo? Why the hell did he burn the photo album after looking at only a few photos? Why was the neighbour, Steve, so angry with him? Just because he suspected he was guilty? I THINK the explanation of the Laski Kids' deformities is summed up hastily in the last chapter ("a maiming here, a stillborn there") but it isn't explained why some had the same names, and why they all behaved like weirdos. (Perhaps it was simply "bad genes" as Leon said in the bar.) It's like he set up lots of possible endings at the beginning when he wasn't sure where he was taking the story.

The 'Holly' chapters seemed ultimately pointless, but I suppose served to show where he'd come from and what he'd lost, which is the shared loss that caused Alma to lure him to the house - I think!

As others have said, the graphic sex/masturbation scenes were not necessary, even in a book about birth and creating life, and gave me the impression that the writer was quite immature (though I don't think he is that young).

The writing style was difficult to read in places, and those bits in italics bugged me - I think they were supposed to be his thoughts but then I wasn't sure if it was meant to be the house possessing him.

[Christie (The Ludic Reader) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Conrad Harrison takes a wrong turn after leaving his father’s funeral and ends up in Black Earth, Wisconsin. He stops for food, glances at the paper someone left behind, and sees a listing for a house he decides to check out. When he goes to meet the real estate agent, Conrad had to admit that the house “made his heart beat faster.”

Faster than you can say “sold,” Conrad has bought the house. Then he returns home to Los Angeles to tell his wife Joanna. Except that when he gets home he discovers that Jo is not alone.

Christopher Ransom’s debut novel The Birth House is a lot of things, but sensical ain’t one of them. Okay, yes, I get it that Conrad was itching for change and that catching his wife with another guy (although not really) could certainly be impetus for said change, but he bought a house in a hick town without consulting his wife. Was it grief over the death of his father and the fact that he had a huge insurance cheque burning a hole in his pocket? The reader will never know because we never learn very much about his relationship with his dad other than he wasn’t around much. Clearly his relationship with Jo is at a crossroads because almost as soon as they move to Black Earth, Jo is head-hunted and takes a new job which requires her to leave for eight weeks of training.

That means Conrad is all alone in the house. (Well, not completely alone; he has his dogs.)

Cue creepiness.

First there’s the guy who used to live in the house with his wife and kids, all of whom have birth defects.

Then there’s the book of the house’s history, delivered by its former owner. The book explains that the house used to be a birthing house, a place women went to have their babies, but it freaks Conrad out so much that he burns the book in the fireplace.

Then there’s the woman who appears at night.

And something weird is happening with Conrad’s snakes. (Yes, he keeps snakes except that they seem more like a convenient plot point than an actual thing that could potentially escape and wreak havoc.)

And let’s not forget about the mind-blowing orgasms Conrad has in his…sleeps? dreams?

As if that’s not enough, Conrad has a back story involving a girl called Holly and while his wife is away he befriends the nineteen-year-old daughter of his next door neighbours who just happens to be pregnant.

Conrad just keeps getting dumber and dumber. And so does the book.

Blech.

[Siobhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn’t my favourite read by the author but it is an okay read if you like his writing style.

There were a few moments in this book where I found myself flickering back a few pages just to remove my confusion to make sure I was understanding it properly, but for the most part it was gripping (perhaps the fact that my mind was filled with possibilities is what left me confused, yet such a debate isn’t really of importance).

Despite my mild confusion at points, the story kept me gripped from the start leaving me unable to put it down to find out what was happening with the twists and storyline. It was actually my first Christopher Ransom read and worth it despite what the two stars might suggest (the two stars are more so a reflection of this book compared to his other books).

It isn’t quite the ‘sleeping with a light on’ horror that you would expect but it is still worth it.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure why this book has had such bad reviews.

It was a fairly tense read, not hairs standing on end scary but spooky enough. I admit this wasn't overly well written but i believe this was the authors first book so i'm impressed.

I would almost give this a 4 star as the plot was good enough. The reason i hold back to a three star is i found in places the writing a little too messy and even after re-reading sections i couldn't fathom what was really happening and who was who..... (only makes sense if you have read it).

Good plot, the writing could do with a little tidying up, but enjoyable overall.

[Paula Brandon · Rating 1 out of 5]

A great concept, appallingly executed. The characters behave in bizarre, non-believable ways just to keep the plot going. When the main character burnt and destroyed the book that was troubling him, I gave up. I flicked to the end, what I read there made absolutely zero sense, so I decided I wasn't going to bother with the rest of it if I wasn't going to be given a decent conclusion!

[Dez Nemec · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried not to prejudge this book with all the bad reviews. I feel like it had so much potential. But after 125 pages, it just was not going anywhere. I give up. DNF.