The Dead House by Billy O'Callaghan
Arcade Publishing - DRC
My first thought when I requested this book was that it was going to be a cookie-cutter haunted house story. You know, a group goes to an old house and finds out it's haunted. Maybe all the characters die but one that passes on the story? We've all read at least one story like that. But I couldn't have been more wrong. And I really, really don't like admitting when I'm wrong.
The Dead House is told from the point of view of Mike, an art dealer who goes to visit his friend and artist Maggie. We learn that Mike helps Maggie purchase a new house, a run down cottage in Allihies in Ireland after Maggie is nearly beaten to death by her then boyfriend. Maggie claims that the cottage is perfect (even though it needs a lot of rennovations) and will allow her to paint again after her tragedy. Once the cottage is finished, Maggie invites Mike and a few friends to a housewarming in the new cottage. During that time a Ouija board is brought out and the group is never the same again.
O'Callaghan's writing takes the reader to another place. I haven't read a book like this before. Just as the story revolves around artists and art, the writing style seems to do the same. The writing is so descriptive that immediately the reader can see the landscape in his or her head. Not many books have done this for me in quite this way. I really appreciated the way the writing sucked me into the story. I felt like I was there with Mike and that the evil he comes in contact with was with me too. The horror that was involved wasn't cliche or stale like I thought it would be. It was more psychological and brought to light in a way that kept me guessing.
However, at some points the sentences seemed too long and at points I lost the pace of the story wondering when a sentence would end. But those times were few and far between so it didn't cause too much of a problem. The only other real "problem" I had with the story was the abrupt ending and epilogue. The story seems to end in mid-thought and runs into an epilogue that didn't seem to fit. The continuing story in the epilogue could have just been added to the end of the book with no qualms. There was no jump in time or change of narration, so it threw me off. Not a huge problem, just a hiccup for me personally.
Overall, The Dead House was a neat little horror story that made me question I whether I will ever even look at a Ouija board again.
I give The Dead House by Billy O'Callaghan 📖📖📖.5 / 5 bookies and recommend it to horror lovers and general readers alike.
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