Urban Gothic

This is not your usual gothic novel although there are similarities such as an old house, people disappearing and strange rumors. The main problem for me is the graphic descriptions of the inhabitance of the house and their sexual depravity which fill about 30% of the book. This may be fine for some but is not my idea of a good mystery/horror book.

If you’re trying to diet and having a hard time of it, reading this book will help – it will kill any desire you have to eat anything, for hours. And personally, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat vegetable soup again!

Other reviewers have said it, but it bears repeating – this book is gross, and should probably come with a warning: not for those with sensitive stomachs or sensibilities.

Keene is an artist with words, and in this book he paints the most vivid, horrible images for your mind to conjure. You can sense the gleeful pleasure he must have had describing the inhabitants of the house and the horrors they inflict on the victims trapped within.

However, too much of the storytelling is sacrificed for the gore, and the six main characters – the young people that get trapped and set the ball rolling – serve in the role that all young people have served in slasher films since the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But I wish there had been more story because I wanted to learn more about the inhabitants; they are far more disturbing and interesting than the average slasher film boogyman.

Still, this story is a study in description. For wannabe writers - like myself - pay attention to not only how Keene describes (word choice), but what he chooses to describe, and think about what it is about his descriptions that makes you grimace and the bile rise in your gut. Besides, focusing on the story academically does make it easier to, um, choke down.

The narrator, Jeff Pringle, didn’t do a bad job, but he was not the best choice for this book. His “tell me a story, grandpa” voice and inflections clashed with the events, characters and language of the story.

This was the worst pairing of a narrator to a tale that I've come across. It literally seemed like a joke, like someone had given Casey Kasem the least appropriate script possible just for shits and giggles. What were they thinking?

Keene crafted some stunning gory and grotesque visuals in this piece, but without a story or characters to back it up they were wasted. I wanted to take the imagery, the element Keene delivers best, and write a better story around it! There was a tremendous amount of potential in this tale but absolutely no follow through. Also there were a handful of poorly edited pieces in the prose. If you just said that the dude's skull exploded like a watermelon, you can't follow it with a description of a mallet head the size of a watermelon. Really Keene? Were you sitting at a picnic when you were writing this?

Slow start, then non-stop, mind numbing bizarre events. If you like B horror films, you'll like this...only the visuals are all in your mind. Very disdurbing.

It was a scary story, just not to my liking.

Great story, if you like gratuitous inbred gore, which I do not.

I have not, but he is a good narrator.

Disgust! Not my type of story, but a good one for someone who enjoys gratuitous gore.

This story is well-told but it is disgusting! If you like gruesome, inbred cannibals...this story is for you!

if you like gross stuff this book is for you...not a very interesting story,even at the start you want the characters to die