Rating: 
Summary: The Good House...Another good book
Review: She has yet done it again! Tananarive Due's lastest novel, The Good House, has taken horror and suspense to another level. The way the characters are captured in your minds, its as if your senses are the characters! I enjoyed reading this novel and I am never disappointed when reading a novel written by Tananarive Due.
Rating:
Summary: The house on the hill
Review: Sitting in the home I live in, which was built in the 1930s, I often ponder the saying "if these walls could talk." I can only hope that the things that Tananarive Due describes in THE GOOD HOUSE would not be among the tales my house would tell.Angela always loved the house where her grandmother lived in a rural Washington town named Sacajawea. She came of age there and experienced her first love on the land surrounding it. The house was a place where townspeople would come for cures to their ailments in the form of teas that Angela's grandmother Marie concocts. Now that Angela is grown and Marie has passed, she brings her son Corey to the house each summer to keep him off the streets and out of trouble at home in California. But on one fateful Fourth of July, Angela's feelings toward the house change dramatically when she finds her son has killed himself in the wine cellar. Distraught over the death of her only son, she checks herself into a mental facility for three months. After she is released, the house in Sacajawea sits empty on its hill in the small town while she founds a budding entertainment agency. After the caretakers she hired call her to tell her that someone is interested in buying the house, Angela's friend and client Naomi convinces her to take one last trek to the house that took her son to determine whether she wants to sell the place or not. What Angela finds there is a mighty evil that has been feeding off of her tragedy and that it will take an equally mighty power to destroy it. THE GOOD HOUSE is one of those books that make you jump while reading. Beware of creaks in your house while indulging, as they are apt to give you a strong case of the "willies." This is horror at its best and I await with bated breath the next release from this extraordinary writer. Reviewed by CandaceK
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Rating:
Summary: The Good House is a Good Story!
Review: Tananarive Due gets better and better with each release! Her latest novel, The Good House, examines the consequences of misusing magic and the power of heritage and family. The story is set in the remote town of Sacajawea, Washington where in the early 1900's, Marie Touissant relocates from Louisiana guided by her inner voice to a place that can be described in modern terms as the "epicenter of the sprit world". Marie is a trained, experienced, favored vodou priestess and often uses her powers to help and heal others. Through a series of events, Marie (in anger) misuses her talents, is abandoned by the "good" spirits for her actions, and unleashes a vengeful, unrelenting evil spirit that is determined to destroy her and her progeny. Marie watches helplessly as her daughter is possessed and tormented by the spirit. She patiently waits for the opportunity to redeem herself but time is not her friend and she passes before she can banish the spirit. Fast forward to present day. Marie's granddaughter, Angela, is clueless about her grandmother's secrets; but when tragedy strikes at the family home (The Good House) and a destructive pattern emerges at the expense of her loved ones, she begins to suspect and believe that there is no such thing as coincidence. She must quickly discover the cause of these bizarre fatalities, her dead grandmother's role in it, and a method of containing or eradicating the evil before it consumes her and all her loved ones. This book is a suspenseful page-turner from beginning to end. It is wonderfully conceived and superbly written!! Due exhibits great expertise when she weaves together the spiritual aspects (Christianity, Vodou, Native American and African/Caribbean spiritualism), the history of the great Northwest, racial sensitivities, and family values. It is my opinion that very few authors could have blended such a diverse set of topics so brilliantly. Keep 'em coming, Ms. Due....we can't get enough!! Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub, The Nubian Circle Book Club
Rating:
Summary: The Good House - An EXCELLENT Novel
Review: Tananarive Due has done it again!! The Good House is a super-natural thriller that captures its reader from the very first line. The heroin of this book, Angela Toussaint, has returned to the home in which she was raised in Sacajawea, WA. The home that locals have named the Goode House in part because of its original owner, Elijah Goode, but mainly because of Mr. Goode's "companion," Marie Toussaint, Angela's deceased grandmother. Here at the Goode House, Angela hopes to mend her soul from a tragic loss she suffered two years ago. But as Angela embarks on the road to recovery, she soon realizes that the Goode house might not be as "good" as everyone thinks. Upon her return, Angela discovers that she isn't the only one who has suffered tragedy in the past two years. She will soon realize that something evil was unleashed in the Goode House - something so old and sinister that it invades the very souls of neighbors, friends, and loved ones. Through a well thought out plot, Ms. Due takes her heroin and the reader on a paranormal thrill ride that does not end until the very last page. The Goode House is sure to find new fans and assures the old fans that Tananarive Due is definately here to stay! Excellent read!
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Summary: This book is a must read!!!!
Review: Tananarive Due is a brillant storyteller, her mastery of the written word can actually transport you to clearly visualize the characters and the locales in her writing.
This is a story of a family, it begins with the grandmere Marie who leaves New Orleans to find her santuarty in a small town in Washington State with her young daughter. The daughter plays a small part in the book. The granddaughter and great grandson are much like their grandmother who has "SIGHT" and dabbles in the world of voodoo. These gifts are unknown to the granddaughter and great grandson at first until the grandson finds some papers and tries some spells and unwittingly releases some evil spirits that the grandmother had banished some 70 years prior.
The grandmere dies before she has the opportunity to share the legacy and the curse with her grand daughter. The grandmother is still spiritually attached to her grand daughter, but she can't hear the warnings because she is so involved in her own grief. She is forced to face some very evil and diabolical forces and finally realizes her grandmother is still with her,
guiding her. This is such an engrossing and wonderfully written book. It deals with love, hate, jealousy, evil spirits. If you enjoyed My Soul to Keep or the Living Blood you'll also enjoy The Good House. I strongly recommend this book.
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Summary: THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC
Review: THE GOOD HOUSE is a fairly good ghost story, replete with voodoo and evil demons (the baka). Ms. Due's prose is polished and well written. Most of her characters achieve a good realization, and her book seems well planned and focused. However, as suspense works go, the suspense comes in small doses and seems protracted and manipulative. The strongest presence in the book is the teaming of Corey Hill and Sean Leahy. Their friendship seems strongly bound by their "differences" and in their doom-making "ritual" that unleashes the terrifying baka. The book is cinematic in its structure, and there are few really frightening sequences. However, Ms. Due virtually negates her ghost story by its "miracle" ending. I like happy endings, but this one is so contrived and ridiculous, it leaves a bad taste.
Due is obviously a talented writer, and her skills are evident. This just isn't that good a book.
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Summary: The Good House will hold you under its SPELL
Review: The Good House is one of those books, that will have you turning the page way into the night. It was suspenseful and kept me alert. The author's words made me feel as if I was part of the story. Ms. Due has a way of bringing the characters to life. I would love to see The Good House as a movie.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Story With A Weak Ending
Review: The Good House was a good horror novel with strong characters that were fully realized. Ms. Due seems to be a good writer with lots of details in her novel. There were a few parts that slowed the book down that I thought weren't really necessary, but they did contribute to more fully developed characters. The real place where I think this book fell short was the ending. After all the death and horror of the book to have such a *poof* everything is perfect and wonderful ending was a let down. This was a good spooky read with a weak ending.
Rating: 
Summary: Way too long!
Review: This book had a lot of potential. However, it's biggest downfall is it's length. I was very interested in the story, but I found it painful to finish. I just wanted it to end. The author got my attention with good character development and a great story set up. Then there was just too much drivel. For example, the author kept rehashing previous plot points through the view point of another character. This was interesting, but happened too many times. Don't get this book if you are not into the whole voodoo thing. And don't expect it to be scary.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Great
Review: This is the first book I have read by this author and I wasn't very impressed. I do like the theme of the book (evil spirits, voodoo, secrets in the family ... ), but she took way too long to get to the points she was trying to make. Maybe you call that suspense, but in this case it was dull. She was entirely too repetitive in discussing points throughout the book, once or twice is fine but this was overkill. Not to mention, for a horror book, it wasn't very scary. Over-all I don't think I will be buying her other books.
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