Author's website: http://www.robertliparulo.com/
Genres: Christian, Fiction, Horror, Suspense
Rating: 4 stars
Mature Content: 2 (Some fighting scenes, some horror)
Age Range: 14+
Interest level: About 14-16
Background Knowledge: The King family moves to a new village, and get a mysterious house, deep in the woods. The King boys, Xander and David, sense there is something strange about the house, and that it hides mysteries. But this is only the beginning of a spooky adventure.
Review: This one actually caught me be surprise. I originally bought it because it had a nice cover and sounded interesting. I didn't have very high expectations for this book, to be honest, and I even planned not to like it. But then, once I got into it, it reeled me in with the suspense! Although it was a little too much on the horror side for me, I couldn't put it down, I need to find out what was going to happen! Not to mention, it had interdenominational portals (sci-fi!) so of course I couldn't pass that up! Overall, I'd say this was actually a pretty good read, and I'll most likely continue on with the series.
Things I Loved:
-The suspense was very well done, and honestly, pretty much the only thing that kept me going through with this book.
-It was kind of sci-fi, because of inter-dimensional portals, and others (that would be spoilers if mentioned).
Things I Didn't Love:
-Like mentioned above, it was a little too much on the horror side for me. Although it wasn't too bad, I don't think I'll read books quite like this in the horror aspect.
-The gore. Although it was only towards the end, it was still a bit intense, and I found myself skipping those places in the book. Although I don't remember everything, a few things there, were mentions of: dead bodies, lots of blood, injuries (such as gashes on the head and hair being ripped out of the skull), and others.
In Conclusion: Honestly, I'm not sure I was necessarily the target audience for this book, but it turned out fairly well. My rating would have been higher if there wouldn't have been so much violence, and, of course, horror, but that's what this book is, so I can't complain. But overall, I would say it wasn't bad.
Recommended?: Depends. If you can not stand any scariness, then no. If you do, then I would definitely recommend this one.