Stay out of Naomi's room, better yet stay out of the whole house. Pretty good ghost-haunted house creeper that will keep you entertained to the very end. You're not going to find Casper here because those beyond the pall have their own fun and games for us that are left behind. As in all good ghost stories the revenants are bad news. This is no rattle the silverware and move the furniture around type of haunting, these are ghosties that can reach out and grab you and cut your arm off.

Our poor narrator doesn't have a chance and the whimperings about exorcisms go by the wayside as the body count gets out of hand and everyone forgets about that particular palliative. It wouldn't have worked anyway because things on the other side are not as easily dealt with as you may think. Leave it to say that the existence of an afterlife here is not a comforting thought. Better off dead. ( )

Charles, el narrador, es un profesor de Cambridge que vive retirado en la misma casa donde tiempo atrás fue salvajemente descuartizada su pequeña hija Naomí, crimen al que siguió una serie de muertes brutales. Nadie parece capacitado para encontrar una explicación a los asesinatos. Sin embargo, en la antigua habitación de Naomí comienzan a producirse hechos inquietantes, al tiempo que los moradores de la casa tienen sueños extraños, perciben presencias hostiles y respiran una atmósfera cada vez más enrarecida. En algún lugar de la casa anidan los secretos de quienes la han habitado durante décadas, pero sus actuales ocupantes no lo saben... La habitación de Naomí: un alucinante recorrido por las fronteras entre la normalidad y la locura, la vida y la muerte.

Some passages in this book feel more tell than show, no doubt because it’s written in first person, making the recollections of the protagonist’s investigation into the background of the hauntings occasionally a little tedious, but the spooky happenings were more immediate, speeding by, and kept me riveted so that I finished this book in a single day. The supernatural occurrences are unsettling as they should be, though not frightening. Still, the picture of child murder and the lonely cry of the restless dead is well portrayed, making Naomi a painfully real character. Surely a must-read for those with a liking for ghost stories, though some elements spoilt the story for me. Alas, I’m unable to say more without spoilers, and when reading a horror novel (which this is undoubtedly is), it’s hard to be selective regarding scenes of torment. What disturbs one reader another person will shrug off. What seems ‘acceptable’ is a matter of semantics. I thought this would be an excellent film. ( )

DNF at about 75%
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The story is told by an aging professor ruminating over his past. I think 20 years after a horrific incident. Unfortunately there is lots of this...
-- "... I hesitated, but agreed in the end. Had I not done so, would things have been any different?"
-- "Beyond it lay darkness. Implacable darkness. But I did not then understand how dark or how implacable."
-- "He meant his daughter, of course, though I did not know at the time"
-- "Would things have been different had I said no? Would I have done what I did if I had not known?"

I don't like that. He knows something that he is not letting on. In real life, if someone said that stuff to me I'd say "why?" and I'd get an answer that helps me understand. Here I just have to move on and trust the author will circle back. He better!!! [I quit before the end so idk if he ever answers these "questions"]
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I didn't care for the story. Not only for the above reasons. Two timelines, the "aging professor" and what is happening in his life/home now and the telling of the past where the horrific event happened. The author may have had a story in there but the delivery sucked. Boring. I gave it a solid chance. ( )

This book is hard for me to rate and review. Also the cover is really stupid and a bad misrepresentation of what this book is about. Naomi is a sweet little girl who disappears and is found murdered. Why is there a scantily-clad woman on the cover?

On the one hand, it was really well written and hard to put down. I could've easily read it in one sitting but didn't have time so forced myself to stop at the end of a chapter before time-specific deadlines. (i.e. finish current chapter by 9:30am because I need to make breakfast for the 94-yo)

If you like books of this genre and are easily sucked into the story and like to be scared and on the edge of your seat, this book is a must-read.

However, I'm a skeptic about all things supernatural. The Exorcist (which was poorly written in my opinion) didn't scare me or even unsettle me, and neither did this one. I'm pretty mad at it because I want to be hiding under my protective duvet after reading such a book.

But yah, if you're a huge fan of this genre, make sure this book is top of your stack!!!!! ( )