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Summary: It makes you think about the house even when......
Review: I stay up late to read this book. It is scary, very interesting, true classic "Haunted House" story. It makes you think about the house when you are not reading. Susie Moloney sure master to keep you read pages to pages till the very end.
The haunting activies in this story are pretty real to real life cases, and that makes the book so good. It makes you start wonder if you are alone in your own house.
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Summary: Creepy and compelling read!
Review: I stayed up late two nights in a row reading this book! It is creepy, compelling and scary without being gory and missing the gratuitious violence so many books thrust upon innocent readers. The book concentrates on a haunted house that is unique in that it has several ghosts for reasons divulged near the end of the book. It is so entertaining that I read several passages twice! I highly recommend this book.
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Summary: The Dwelling
Review: If you like haunted house stories, this is a good one. Not a lot of blood and guts and no stock explanations for the spirits. Moloney tells you just enough about the house and its "inhabitants" to frighten you into turning the pages. She develops the characters very well and the final inventory of the house's spare parts wrapped things up nicely. Recommended.
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Summary: delightful haunted house story
Review: It's a beautiful home and should be easy for realtor Glenn Darnley to sell, but the people that she shows 362 Belisle to feel as if it is haunted. She finally sells it to Dan and Rebecca Mason who think it is their dream house. It turns into a nightmare as they hear strange noises and Dan finds himself having sex with a ghost who sometimes assumes human form.Rebecca puts the house on the market. Glenn sells it to Barbara Parkins, an angry and pain-filled divorcee, and her son Petey, a young child who is so overweight he becomes the school freak. It is different at home because the ghost children like him, play with him, and want Petey and his mother to join them. After Rebecca and Petey disappear, the house is again put on the market. Glenn sells it to Richie Branley, an alcoholic suffering from writer's block. At first he thinks the words on his computer, the strange noises and the visions of his father and an older man are part of his alcoholic haze. However he learns soon enough that the house is alive and doesn't want him as a tenant as it has somebody else picked out. THE DWELLING is a delightful haunted house story that effects the people who live in it in destructive ways. The tale reads as a series of three novellas connected by the realtor. Fascinatingly, the house takes center stage while the characters play important support roles. Susie Moloney's novel will appeal to fans that like the works of Peter Staub and Stephen King. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: Only my hairdresser knew!
Review: My hairdresser passed this book on to me because she thought it was "esoteric." I almost didn't read it -- I don't like scary stories or hauntings, but this one was something special. Susie Moloney really knows how to craft a story, or in this case, four stories! The book is magnificent, worthy of Margaret Atwood or Richard Matheson. Moloney's research must have been quite extensive, as her characterizations are right on, from the most detailed nuances of practicing alcoholic behaviour to the logistics of installing an oversized bathtub. The stories are circular yet linear at the same time, and the end is decidedly satisfying, with just enough information (never too much) to allow the reader to draw her own conclusions and paint her own pictures. This book will make a great film if Hollywood or Toronto ever gets hold of it... and hopefully, they will let Moloney's novel be the framework and not kill the novel's quality with too many special effects and things that go bump in the night (remember what Hollywood did to Tryon's "The Other"?). These hauntings are smart and subtle, causing readers to ask why rather than just having the hell scared out of them. A great read and a real page-turner.
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Summary: Started out okay
Review: The author did great with character development and descriptiveness at the beginning, but the story just seemed to fall apart during the part involving the second set of residents. Everything after that was less explained, and the book ended as though the author had grown tired of writing and gave up.
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Summary: a different take on the haunted house story
Review: The Dwelling is a different kind of haunted house story. From the very begining it's obvious that there is somehting wrong in this ordinary suburban home. It's inhabited by ghosts and seems to have a mind of its own as well. Three families, all with desperate problems, buy it one after another and the house deals with them. The first and most interesting are a young married couple; Becca and Dan. Becca is too snooty, cold and hard and her talented,dreamy husband is too soft. The house dislikes Becca but wants to play awhile with her husband. The second family consists of a miserable woman and her even more miserable 8 year old son. The house and several of it's ghosts offers them a solution but it's one that most of us would probably reject. The final family consists of Richie and his son. Richie is a talented writer who can't go one hour without a drink and is rapidly turning into a mean drunk. Something in the attic reaches out to Richie and something in him reaches out to it. Laced in between the adventures of the happy homeowners is the story of Glenn, the sensible, sane and newly widowed realtor who sells the house to all these people. She likes the house and can't understand why it seems to have so much bad luck. The Dwelling is not a gobs of grue type of horror novel. If you grew up on Uncle Stephen King or delight in Poppy Brite this is not the book for you. It's a cool, intellectual type of horror that belongs more to the Shirley Jackson school. Terrible things happen in this book but they are written up in such a subtle way that you may need to go back a re-read certain sections to figure out what just happened. You don't see the bogey man in the closet but you do feel his breath on your neck in the dark. You don't get a pages long description of the ghoul under the bed but you know he's there waiting to caress your foot if you let it stick out from under the covers. It's that type of book.
I liked it and I really appreciated the non ambiguous ending.
My only nitpick--and it's a tiny one is the use of the elderly neighbor. She appears for a deliciously spooky scene and is abruptly withdrawn. I got the feeling that she has a bigger part in the story but it was edited out except for this one brilliant scene.
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Summary: nobody is home
Review: This ghost story was a huge yawner for me, it was cliche, boring, I didnt care about any of the characters, or even care who was haunting the house by the end. I was only curious enough to know why the heck all these spooks were even bothering being there to haunt in the first place, and the answer lies in the epilogue at the end, a one page deal that catalogs the ghosts reasons for being there, i think it was meant to shock the reader, i was like "oh, okay, whatever" If your curious just read the last page at the library, its more interesting then the whole book.
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Summary: Masterful
Review: This is a welcome throwback to the well-crafted horror novels of the 1970s. This novel richly deserves the accolades it has earned. The writing is evocative and well-crafted. Creepy, understated, and surprisingly good. This novel is a page-turner to say the least. I can't recommened this novel enough. Susie Moloney is a wonderful writer. I sincerely hope this novel does very well in the mass market. It's a much needed "shot in the arm" to the horror genre. It's the best horror novel that I've read in a very long time. Highly-recommeneded.
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Summary: Great start, but it goes flat and ultimatly unsatisfing
Review: Well, the book had real promise and I really enjoyed the first part of the book. Up untill the second tenets moved in I was thrilled, and scared. The rest of the book was just moe of the same. The writing was very well done, but the plot fell apart. The major fault I had was that too many questions were left unanswered and there was little or no resolution. I can't recommend this book, although, I do expect better things from thiss author. She is a goo writer.
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