House by Ted Dekker (2006, Package)

Excellent book! I just finished it and it was awesome! The plot of the story and characters are great! As two couples are trapped inside a house in the backwoods of Alabama, blood boils and new friendships form as the four prisoners try to escape. Confusing at times but the authors clear up everything at the end as the characters figure everything out! Great book and the movie should be great too!

HATED IT! I read this in one sitting, in an afternoon. I picked this up at a resale shop (thank goodness, because if I paid list price for this, I wouldn't been upset). I read all the previous reviews and I have to wonder if most of the reviewers even read the same book as I did! Good? NO. A page-turner? Only to hurry up to get to the end. Clear message? NO.

The characters of Leslie, Stephanie, Jack and Larry were so cardboard and without any interesting characteristics that I couldn't identify with any of them. Jack, who was supposed to be the one who "understood" or seemed to be the "most pure" for lack of a better phrase, didn't have any depth other than to run around and try to save the female characters.

Did the survivors really come to understand what went on? I didn't really understand- the supernatural force became the image of what people think a demented serial killer looks like (White)? Why did White talk about Life as if he were a human? The inbreeds were lesser demons put in the game to torture the human players and these demons embodied people that the players were familiar with, played out situations which illuminated the players' sins.....

The house and its contents were illusions to the players until the end when they saw the house and its furnishings as they truly were, a comparison to the way we create a self to show the outside world, but in reality we humans are base, sinful creatures that must turn to the light in order to be safe.

So many loose ends, though- the book ends without any kind of exposition to try to help the reader. The ending was so predictable after running around in circles, with characters saying the same thing over and over....I would have like to believe that Jack and Stephanie were a couple at one time, but their interaction was stilted, even as a couple on their way to divorce.

If you want to be confused, or like solving puzzles (or not really solving them), then maybe this book is for you. Unanswered questions are fine by me, but I'd at least like to understand the underlying currents without being fed only riddles for answers, as the character of Susan does at the end.

I had read neither author before this book. I will try to pick up some of their other books just for some comparison. I hope this review helped you in your decision whether or not to purchase this book. If you found it helpful, please vote yes- I check to see how many people are reading my reviews. Thanks.