Rating: Summary: Creepy and suspenseful Review: A ghost story in three sections linked by the real estate agent who handles the oddly unwanted house, Moloney's third novel offers plenty of chills and suspense. The house is the main character here and not one that's ever going to be well understood, not even by its successive chosen residents: an ambitious young couple; an unhappy single mother and overweight son; an alcoholic writer.
Newly widowed Glenn Darnley meets the house on her first day back at work. It has a faintly haunted look from outside, but inside it's full of surprises - a working fireplace, a real Murphy bed, an unusual antique bathtub with big claw feet and lovely new floors and paintwork. There is a faint antiseptic smell to the yellow bedroom, but that's hardly reason enough for so many prospective buyers to reject it.
Suspense builds as the house begins to manifest - intruders in the night, faint music wafting up the stairs, doors that open and close by themselves. Moloney ("A Dry Spell") makes the heart pound as she picks up the pace with increasingly menacing, grim and eerie apparitions with strange seductive powers, closing each section with a climactic horror that puts the house on the market again.
This is a well-imagined page turner with one problem - there's no protagonist. Likable Glenn holds things together but we only see her between owners. The house is hardly sympathetic and its successive residents are not people the reader identifies with kindly. But this pretty much unavoidable flaw won't stop you from staying up well into the night, listening with one ear for sinister creaks and ghostly steps in the attic.
Rating: Summary: Just what I wanted... Review: a scary book without movie gore! This is a page turner - I won't give away any of the details like some reviewers do, just be aware that if you like your scary books psychological, this is it. The characters are your next door neighbors, the realtor YOUR realtor. And if you like sensual/scary, this is certainly for you!!
Rating: Summary: READ IT! Review: A successful and enjoyable entry in the "haunted house" field. Susie Moloney is a whiz at character development. The only bone I have to pick is the "epilog" or last brief chapter which explains the obvious. No matter, this is a great read and I am a newly converted Susie fan!
Rating: Summary: Watch out for Plot Spoilers! Review: Be careful of reading some of these reviews! The best thing about a scary story is not knowing what will happen next. Fortunately I read "The Dwelling" BEFORE reading the reviews posted here, because far too many plot details are revealed.
Rating: Summary: Finally, a haunted house story that delivers Review: I have read my share of mediocre efforts into the haunted house genre, fortunatly "The Dwelling" is not one of them. This story delivers the goods; its well written, has true-to-life characters, and best of all, it's actually scary. The book almost reads like three novellas, with the common theme being the very creepy house itself. I guarantee that if you are a fan of the haunted house story you will not be disappointed. You may however think twice about that old home renovation. Light on gore and heavy on story, this novel deserves all the praise the reviewers are giving it.
Rating: Summary: Finally, a haunted house story that delivers Review: I have read my share of mediocre efforts into the haunted house genre, fortunatly "The Dwelling" is not one of them. This story delivers the goods; its well written, has true-to-life characters, and best of all, it's actually scary. The book almost reads like three novellas, with the common theme being the very creepy house itself. I guarantee that if you are a fan of the haunted house story you will not be disappointed. You may however think twice about that old home renovation. Light on gore and heavy on story, this novel deserves all the praise the reviewers are giving it.
Rating: Summary: Smooth haunting Review: I have to say that I enjoyed this book as well as all the other reviewers did. Moloney's style is tactful and liquid. I am a big fan of horror, shock, splatter and the like, but I especially like haunted house themes. Nice and creepy..........that's what I'm talking about. The kind of creep that stays with you even when you're not reading the story. The kind of creep that freaks me out when I have to shut all the lights out and go to bed and think to myself, "Now could I handle hearing something like and stay in my house?", or "I wonder what I would do if something unseen just touched me like that?" I put myself in the characters positions and give my over imaginative mind a work out. You know it's a good book when you can put it down and freak your own self out.
Rating: Summary: Spectacular! Review: I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a long time. It is so well written, the story just flows out of the book and into your body. Very eerie, but not too much so. I loved it (read it in a day and a half) and would recommend it to anyone who love tales with an element of the supernatural in them. I'm going to look for and read everything else Susie Moloney has written! About time we had a Canadian author in this genre! I think I'll tell my real estate agent about it too!
Rating: Summary: Stephen King has something to learn Review: I purchased this book because I was interested in a horror novel written by someone from my own city. What on earth in Winnipeg is so scary that it could inspire a haunted house story? I never quite found out, but I very much enjoyed her book anyway. Susie Maloney's prose is lovely and subdued, with the air of patient maturity (unlike many horror writers who are over-the-top. You can practically see them prancing around after an attempt at a frightening scene, wide-eyed and expectant, asking "did I scare you? Huh? Be honest!"). I was taken aback by the frequent comparisons of her to Stephen King. She writes nothing like him! His works are desperate attempts to "shock" with overt images of his all time favorite trash-gore: grey matter and bits of skull, broken ribs, axes, etc. It's tiresome. Then he throws in some racy sex scene that does nothing but make your skin crawl. Yes, yes, terror and sexual stimulation are hormonally linked, but please don't be so desperate! No, Susie Maloney is clean, sophisticated, and concise. Her writing is not an 800 page rant (unlike this review), but refreshing and mature. Her characters are realistic and vulnerable, which, of course, are necessary for her portrayal of the power of the house. It's a quick read, with a suitable ending. Not once did I roll my eyes.
Rating: Summary: Great premise, falters towards the end Review: I read this book after finding it in a bookshelf at work. The book starts out great. The story is compelling, and the house is downright spooky. However, most of the scary details of the house are spelled out in the first half of the book. The entire second half is interesting, but not particularly scary, since by that time, you already know everything there is to know about the house. Also, one thing that bugged me is that there are very few likable characters. As a result, the suspense is lessened because you don't particualarly care if anything happens to them. The plot was intriguing, and I was spurred on to finish, even after things had bogged down a bit. Overall, the style was good, and though it does become significantly tamer towards the end, it is still a good read to find out what happens.
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