Lake House is like some dark amalgamation of the Winchester House and Hill House. The angles are all off, there seems to be more room on the inside than the outside indicates, and Lake House has its own dark history. Unfortunately, most of the family staying over the summer are not aware of it.

I won't delve into the story description too much, since the synopsis already does that. I will say that I thought this was an extremely well written, fast paced story. It doesn't have the literary impact of say, Hill House, but it does indeed have an impact.

I loved the 2-3 story lines going on because they always left the me guessing. The character interactions between the wife and her new husband were kind of cliche, but I didn't mind that so much because the narrative only stayed with them briefly and then quickly moved on to the mysteries within Lake House. There were a few of them, and they were out of this world.

For me, it's rare that the ending of a haunted house story delivers. Usually the endings are sort of hokey and they're mostly the reason I don't read many HH tales these days. This book was a delight, well written and well paced, surprising and just plain fun.

Highly recommended to fans of literary horror fiction and haunted houses!

*I received a free copy of this book from Valancourt Books in exchange for an honest review. This is it.*

( )

Lauren Montgomery, her son Garrett and her "I love myself so much" rock star husband Stephen Ransom have rented a large palatial mansion in the Adirondacks in North Eastern New York. It soon becomes apparent that something terrible is going to happen in "Lake House" which has a reputation for murder and bloodshed. Garrett becomes attuned to the sounds and ghostly apparitions that frequent the house, Lauren becomes more and more concerned about the welfare of herself and her son, and the lovely Stephen with "his mane of dark ringlets" portrays a misogynistic attitude towards women only ever really concerned for his own selfish wellbeing...."we're playing in the big leagues here. You got to do it to them before they do it to you."......

Some beautifully strong characters make Night Things a joy to read and in particular I was drawn to the evil and aptly named Elton Fugate who has some very strange habits as young Garret learns when he observes him from a secret location....."For it was not a space being, or even something living, that Fugate was choking, but some sort of grotesque doll, or manikin of a woman....it was completely rigid and appeared to be constructed out of vinyl and inflated like a beach ball. It was also naked and possessed a frowsy and garishly made-up face and had scruffy patches of lurid yellow hair on both its head and its pubic area."..... Lake House is a place where evil is enticed in and soon it will become the focus of a battle between what is good and what is bad...."There were things that were evil in the universe, unfathomably evil. And there were things that were good".... The final Epilogue is like a story within a story, where Stephen will come to regret giving a lift to a rather petite blond woman called June with...."her sagging, middle-aged body gleaming in the moonlight"...and her friend Arnie.

Many thanks to the good people at Valancourt Books for sending me a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written. The wonderful Valancourt Books are an independent small press who specialize in the rediscovery of rare, neglected and out of print fiction. ( )

This book had quite a different feel than most horror that I've read. The prose was clean and clear, with simultaneous childlike simplicity and literary sophistication - hard to explain.
With only a few restrained sexual references and limited violence contained within its pages, I think this could easily be a book early teens would enjoy.
The author was quite adept at skipping around various characters POVs in third person omniscient. The only confusion I experienced was at the beginning at the third and final section, where I confused a new character with an established one for several pages.
I'll not rehash the plot as it's covered in other reviews. Suffice it to say that I found this a pleasure and a breath of fresh air, even if the resolution (and the somewhat silly epilogue) leave a bit to be desired.
If you're looking for a paranormal book that is more clean and innocent than the average fare, this might fit the bill.
I look forward to reading other works by this author. ( )