Rating: 
Summary: Nothing scary here.
Review: I bought the book thinking I was getting a scary haunted house story but soon found out otherwise. It was page 151 out of 430 before anything that seemed to be supernatural happened. The first 150 pages could have been condensed to about 40 or 50 and have been just as effective. There was one storyline that went nowhere. The main character was very likable and Card's descriptions of the house were quite good. The story was fairly predictable but I still enjoyed reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing scary here.
Review: I intially bought the book thinking it was going to be a scary haunted house story but soon found out otherwise. It was page 151 out of 430 before something you realized to be supernatural happened. In my opinion the first 150 pages could have been reduced to 30 or 40 pages and have been just as effective. Although this book is not what I thought it was going to be, I still enjoyed reading it. His descriptions of the house were quite good. I give this book three and a half stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to put it down!
Review: This is the first novel of his I have read. It is a typical ghost story, but aren't those the best? The elderly women next door are a good comic relief. There are a few parts that run a little slow but it is a good story.
Rating:
Summary: change it up..
Review: I have been in love with Card since eighth grade and this is one of my least favorite Card novels. Not that 'Homebody' is not good, but it is not representative of his other works. If you are looking for a change, you might enjoy this one. However, if you are still hungry for more Card, try 'Songmaster'.
Rating:
Summary: Card veers away from his usual; results are excellent
Review: Card in general is more interested in watching people use their free will to make choices for good or evil (e.g., "Ender's Game," "Xenocide," "Wyrms"). Here, however, he departs mostly from that theme and write a decent mystery - horror novel. Who is the mystery resident of the house that Don Lark has purchased and decided to fix? What is so special about this house? What about that tunnel in the basement? Why did the neighbors try to warn him away with vague threats? All this and more is answered in a book that moves mostly quite briskly, with some interesting revelations along the way. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Versatile writer
Review: As a fan of the Ender series and Tales of Alvin Maker, I was eager to see what one of my favorite sci-fi and fantasy authors could do in the horror genre.Wow. Card's greatest strength as a writer is in creating characters of great humanity: far from 2-dimensional cardboard cutouts, characters such as Don Lark are honest, wise, caring and self-sacrificing, and they show these qualities in thought-provoking ways. For example, Don Lark: can a man be fulfilled unless he has someone to provide for? This book also bears many similarities to the Alvin tales in that once again we have a character who builds things. Lark in this story refurbishes old houses as a method of escape (from his past) and denial (of his future), but again we have a craftsman who finds his purpose in the act of creation. One wonders if Card is telling us something about his own mission and values as a craftsman of books. The cover to this book is a great design, too: it's a door that opens (by turning the page) to show a staircase. Isn't that what books are, in a way--a door into the house of the imagination? But this house has its creaks: the dialogue is too clever and witty at many points--in other words, too tightly packed. Funny as hell, but I'd have to either be a genius or have an incredibly sharp sense of humor to talk like that. A part of the ending (the fates of Sylvie and Lissy) is well-telegraphed--but then the climactic battle scene caught me by surprise. The pacing throughout the book was a little slow, but that just might be my age; an older(?) reader used to subtler dramatic tension might find nothing wrong with it. Pacing aside, though, I blasted through this book quickly, and it was a welcome distraction.
Rating:
Summary: A good ghost story (with a slightly hokey ending)
Review: In the mid-1990's, Orson Scott Card ventured away from his usual science fiction and Mormon books to try his hand at a more commercial genre: ghost stories. Homebody is the last of a trilogy of ghost stories published by HarperCollins. Homebody is Card's spin on the old-fashioned haunted house story. During the first two-thirds of the book, Card uses the motif sparingly, giving only hints of the supernatural to provide thrust to the plot. The tale centers around three lonely people in North Carolina, each alone, each trapped by guilt, each able to find friendship and forgiveness within the beauty and tragedy of an abandoned house near the local college. The concluding act is something of a letdown, as Card's great character-driven subplots give way to ghosts and magical spells. The most interesting female character, a mother grieving over her decision to abandon her family, is written out prematurely to set up a love story between the leading man and a vagrant woman, who (predictably) turns out to be the ghost of a murdered university student. Despite its flaws, Card's writing is a refreshing change. Most modern American writers write about characters with severe sexual, emotional, and personal dysfunctions (if you don't believe me, take a quick scan of the [book club] over the last two years). But an Orson Scott Card book is like a Frank Capra film. The characters are wholesome, idealistic, and noble. Even their mistakes are well-intentioned. They are usually plagued by self-doubt, but in the end, they always manage to do the right thing, for the right reason, with the right result. Card writes about normal people making responsible life decisions. He creates good people you can actually care about. And he is a good enough storyteller that even a ghost story with a slight hokey ending is worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: This Old (Haunted) House
Review: Homebody by Orson Scott Card is a ghost story. Card tells the story of an old house and the man, Don Lark, who tries to make his living by bringing it back to life. The fixer-upper Lark buys has some problems even Norm Abrams can't fix. Blood, sweat and tears go into making a house a home; Card knows this and he conveys the deep emotion that goes into building. His house is alive, in a way it is a Frankenstein's monster cobbled together from dead plaster and lumber. He loves wood; he shows the sensual and primeval pleasure men get from taking something that was once alive and building with it. That instinct to build may be the closest thing men have to a maternal instinct. The "ghost story" may be the genre, but Card is writing a book about what it means to be a "real man" today. He brings up issues of building, destroying; control, anger; discipline, despair; fighting and running away, whether the battle is with a bully, outside problems, or oneself. Again and again, Card deals with the issue of protecting your own. Card poses the questions, "Who is the real man? What does it mean to be powerful? " To paraphrase, who is more of a real man: John Gotti, Donald Trump or Norm Abrams? What is the right blend of manly traits? If you lean toward Norm Abrams, you'll like Card's character, Don Lark. There are some downsides to Homebody. The "good" characters are well developed, but the villains tend to be cartoonish. The plot runs along, twisting and turning, till the end, where runs out of steam. It seems as if Card had covered his issues and just wanted to cap off the book. Even with these caveats, it passes the true ghost story test; it's scary and eerie. It also makes you think. I've never read any of Card's books before but I intend to read more.
Rating:
Summary: Different, but not bad
Review: This novel seems to be the first in a different genre for Card. It didn't feel like a horror story like a Stephen King novel for example, but it definately does have its creepy moments. Card, as usual, builds strong characters and conveys to us their inner feelings and motivations. Some of his characters are so strong that we hate to see them leave, just as we hate to see people we love in our own lives leave. In some areas the plot was predictable, but still enjoyable. If you like Card's manner of storytelling, you'll enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Cards ill advised attempt to be Stephen King.
Review: This novel has the feel of one of Stephen Kings lighter novels, such as "insomnia". The bad part about this is that Card doesn't have a dark enough imagination to make a horror type story work on its own. The novel tells a story about a man running from a troubled past, who is renovating an old abadoned mansion in South Carolina. The rest of the story is one badly remade clique after another. The gost of the house has to come to terms with its death, an enemy must be brought to the house to bring justice. The real surprise here is how badly Card wrote these characters. The main character is explained like a character descrption on a play, all modivation, but without the actor to make it real. This work has only the shell of Cards' normal character and is strangly deviod of his normal philisophical ideas. This work feels like it was thrown out to please an editor. Card said in the prelude to the Worthing Saga that stories become true when they reach a level of quality and reality. Sorry but this book is not true.
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