This was exactly what I wanted out of a spooky house book. I liked the characters. I liked the pacing. And there was just enough “WTF!” to keep me reading without going overboard. And the ending was great. Definitely recommend. ( )

Let me start off by saying I've read some REALY great books this year, and each one seems to get better than the next. With that being said, The Exorcist's House by Nick Roberts is no exception. Being a family man, the constant fear running through me while reading this felt so real. The pace never let you settle back for a breather. Every thing culminates into an ending that will make the hairs stand up on your arms. This is definitely a must read for horror fans. Great job, Nick! ( )

The plot was compelling and kept me engaged enough to want to find out what happened next. I thought the story was interesting and different, but I don't read a lot of exorcism horror so take that into account.

The body horror was excellent! The author really knows how to paint a gruesome picture and I loved that.

The writing needs work, though. There was a lot of telling and not showing. The POV seemed weird at times. Even though we were in one character's head we would be told what another character was feeling, and I felt like we were just bouncing around too much. The audience doesn't need to be in everyone's head and know all the details all the time.

Overall, I feel like the author has potential and just needs to work on finding a writing style. ( )

You know how sometimes, you're following a recipe, but you decide to change it up a bit, add a little extra here, or leave out something there and, when you sit down to enjoy it, it blows your mind?

Yeah, this ain't that book.

You know how, sometimes, you're following a recipe, but you decide to change it up a bit, add a little extra here, or leave out something there and, when you sit down to enjoy it, you take that first disappointing bite and then spend the rest of the dismal meal trying to understand what went wrong?

Yeah, this is that book.

Roberts hooks himself up with some decent—if all-too familiar—tropes. We've all seen it before, this story's as old as the hills...or Hill House. Then he folds in the tropes we've seen from [book:The Exorcist|179780]. How do I know? Well, his main characters are named Hill, and the previous owner was named Blatty. So, the author's wearing his influences on his sleeve.

As you've guessed by now, this book didn't work for me at all. But the big question is why, right?

Well, near as I can figure, it's a combination of a few things.

First, the characters. Dan Hill (no, not the "Sometimes When We Touch" guy from the 70s) is not all that captivating. He's a generic dad-joke telling father who isn't that great in his chosen field of psychiatry (though we're told he's pretty good, the evidence says otherwise). His wife Nora is a teacher with a bit of a secret that, while it should be a bombshell, seems both quite unlike her and also not that much of a bomb...more of a firecracker at best. There's other problematically dull characters, but these are the two we get the most of.

Then, there's the actual story. Stuff happens, but it seems to have very little impact. Some spoilers here, so, be warned, but I'll give you a non-spoilery one first.

There's a point where ol' Daniel is so obsessed with the house he's caught flat-out not listening to one of his patients in therapy. And the patient laughs it off. Dan decides to cancel the balance of his appointments for the day, including the next patient, already waiting. It's made clear that she really kind of needs this appointment, but Dan blows her off and tells her to reschedule.

Okay! So, this lack of focus means she's going to backslide and hurt herself, right? Or worse, right? Because of this horrific Exorcist's House, right?

Wrong. The patient is never brought up again. No guilt. No dread. No consequences. It's all the missed opportunities like this that just derail this novel.

Okay, on to the real spoilers: Dan has a horrific experience fairly early on in the book...which should have been placed later and milked for all the dread it was worth. Same with Nora and Luke's experience. But, both experiences are conveniently forgotten almost immediately. Dan also experiences massive losses of time. And the impact? Oh well, no big deal.

And, while we're on the topic of low impact, this all builds to the very predictable and very expected possession of Dan and Nora's daughter Alice. Okay, expected, but hey, if it's done well, then have at it, right? I mean, half the fun of the original Exorcist book and movie was that we knew Regan was possessed. But, all that build-up to an exorcism that took maybe ten-ish minutes? Really?

Come on, man! Make them work for it a bit. Again, no palpable threat when it can be defeated in ten minutes with a couple of ghosts and a dog.

And my last spoiler...does anyone actually die here? Because these guys are worse than Tolkien's eagles for swooping in and saving the day.

Okay, enough spoilers.

Okay, so bland characters, no real stakes...anything else?

Unfortunately, yes. This was overly predictable. A name is mentioned, and you know damned well they'll be called on for the big finale. A fifteen-year-old daughter—who apparently is incredibly opposed to moving, but is spoiled enough to be bought off with a Walkman and the promise of a new car for her birthday—is introduced and then you know what the big finale will consist of. An unborn baby is introduced and...well, take a guess. Yeah, you got it in one. The only surprises here—the return of certain characters—were not great ones.

And finally, the last thing was the stylistic choices. There's an awful lot of tell in this book...pages of it, in fact, that could have been shown instead to add to characterization, or raise the bar on those dramatically low stakes. Things happen either off-stage, or from another person's point of view that utterly robs them of impact whatsoever. In fact, in one case, an entire sequence is clumsily remembered right at the end—probably for dramatic effect—and it felt tacked on.

I know there's a number of glowing reviews out there for this book and, hey, good on ya if you dug this book. Seriously.

But for me, the Hill House/Exorcist/Omen tropes that made up the recipe for this book? It felt like the chef took the basic ingredients, boiled them within an inch of their lives, left out all the spice, and served up a watery, banal dish of overcooked slop.

This one did literally nothing for me.

And now I feel like I've got indigestion. ( )

I really loved this book so much! Demonic haunting and possession is one of my favorite horror subgenres and this book did not disappoint. It was scary and overall a great read. ( )