Homebody

Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining
Review: If you like Orson Scott Card, Homebody won't disappoint you. If you love Orson Scott Card stories, it may leave you wanting more.

Homebody is about a simple man with a bad past who buys a house with an even worse history than he does. The story is simple and straight forward and is relatively predictable.

Don Lark, the main character is flushed out well, but somehow everyone else seems a little hollow. The characters seem a little too convenient and there is very little, if no background characters. Unfortunately, Lark's character believes in the story of Sylvie, the old ladies and the house too easily. Not enough struggle in the acceptance of the supernatural.

The story is good and you'll enjoy it. However, readers who go out of their way for a Card book for the depth of the characters and the storyline will be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Real characters+intelligent dialogue=Enjoyable reading!
Review: Orson Scott Card's "Homebody" is an engaging tale about a haunted house. The characters that we're introduced to are intelligent and extremely well developed. I found myself thoroughly engrossed in the plot, and interested in their welfare and in their fates.

Don Lark is a man with his own haunted past. He makes his living buying old "dead" houses, and living in them while he renovates them. When he finds another home in need of renovation, he buys it, moves in, and begins work on it. As the days pass, he finds a cast of characters, each with their own hidden secrets and depressing pasts. Together, through the course of the novel, they work together to discover the secrets the old house holds, and to come to terms with their own problems and limitations.

Orson Scott Card is very successful in creating a story in which it's all too easy to become engrossed with. If you liked movies such as "Poltergeist," or "Amityville Horror" you'll enjoy Homebody all that much more. Don't be fooled into thinking that "Homebody" is just another 'haunted house' tale. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Rating:
Summary: Non-horrifying horror
Review: This novel, by one of the great modern science fiction authors, was not what I was expecting. Homebody isn't science fiction, it's more of a light horror/romance. I almost stopped reading during the first half, because the story seemed like a misplaced romance novel, a genre I have absolutely no interest in. The second half was definitely an improvement over the earlier chapters, but the overall book was a disappointment. The plot and its twists were extremely predictable, and it never really reached what I would consider horror. I was annoyed by the disappearance of the first female lead--she was written as if she would be a main character, then she diappeared halfway through and was never heard from again. Very sloppy.

I think I'll stick to Card's sci-fi, if this is what happens when he switches genres...