3/5 Stars
“House” by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker is written in a very simple
way. It uses words that have no flair and starts out in a very cliché manner. A
husband and a wife are directed down an old dirt road as a “shortcut”, once
they have driven several miles their tires blow out and are forced to take
refuge in an old house… that is occupied with “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”
rejects. The basement of this house is reminiscent of “House of Leaves”, always
changing as you walk through it. The occupants of the house were given the set
of rules written on a can:
1.
God came into my house and I killed him.
2.
I will kill anyone that comes into my house as I
killed God.
3.
Give me one dead body, and I might let rule two
slide.
You have until dawn.
And the struggle for survival began. Because, when people
are given the choice between their own life and someone else’s, it comes down
to the question, “Do I kill or be killed?”
As I read I do not get a sense of actually being there, I do
not feel like I am watching these events take place. I feel like someone is
trying to tell me a story, but they aren’t painting a very good picture. I
continue to read to see if the “twist” at the end is as good as other reviews
have stated.
The twist in this book was predictable; I saw it coming from
the beginning. Also, with no religious talk throughout the rest of the book,
the last few pages push religion on the characters and ultimately, the reader. Being
a Christian, this doesn’t bother me; however, it is not something I want to
read in a novel meant to scare me.
Side Note: Apparently, a few years back “House” was turned
into a movie. Also, I had seen the movie previously and gave it a four out of
five star rating on Netflix. I have no recollection of this. After watching the
trailer, I still don’t remember this movie.
