In the early '60s, in a seemingly more "innocent" time, a group of teenagers was lured into a supposedly haunted house. The place on Sycamore Lane has a morbid history, but that's just hearsay and rumor, isn't it? His name was Robbie Miller, and he was a killer. Driven mad by the THING that lived in The Home, he now exists to serve. He'll do whatever the creature that calls itself Mr. Friendlyman asks. He'll even become a ghost.
Now, decades later and much older, they are returning to The Home. A retired fantasy writer, a doting grandfather, and a mysterious old woman who seems to know things she should not. A dark storm is brewing over this wicked house. A storm that will break down the very fabric of reality. A storm that demands blood and sacrifice, and feeds on the ghosts of anyone who dies within its premises.
Generally, this was an overall impressive outing. The wholly disjointed story, told in various stages about the multiple survivors of a strange house’s hold over the residents of their town, who are forced back together to deal with the spirit that haunts the building, leaves an immensely chilling sense of dread over everything. With the frequent flashbacks here to each of the individuals who are shown to come into contact with it including the writer who was bullied by a group of thugs or the retired mechanic who encountered the house on a date with a girl he liked and her younger siblings, the background information brought about with their involvement with the house creates some intriguing elements. Since they happened at different periods in history, there’s a fun ability to weave their appearances at the house together giving a distinct meaning to tie into the house’s legacy, as well as sympathy due to the depth provided for each of them, by including this, and how their families are shown to ground them well.
More than anything else, though, is the extreme splatter interwoven into the story. The carnage featured here, whether it’s the sheer dismemberment inflicted on the random victims the serial killer happens upon or the bloodshed doled out to those who stumble upon the house, disbelieving its legend, offers some outright graphic moments. The style here, with the matter-of-fact nature, depicts so many extreme moments with the killer taking out the numerous innocent victims or targeted individuals who are dismembered, disemboweled, being sliced open with garden tools, or other forms of torture that provide a strong graphic undercurrent that mirrors the build-up of the killer. His presence, his tone, and the manner of his psychological unraveling of the targets with his impending arrival signaling their demise through rhyming taunts or manipulation of the elements in a familiar way, creates a wholly oppressive environment for what’s happening to them.
The second half of this one, though, offers a rather enjoyable twist in the narrative, but it might not be accepted by all readers. With the introduction of a special purpose behind the spate of killings in the house over the years, and what everything had been building toward with the spirit taking out the intended targets to open up a dimensional portal for their followers, this is a grandiose attempt at incorporating a more cosmic horror mystery into something that had been operating fine as a brutal, multi-layered supernatural/slasher horror story. This keeps up the intensity and incredibly graphic content with the rest of the book, especially with the series of encounters that take place between the main characters and the cult of followers that are bringing this up. However, it also feels like there’s a bizarre change of direction with how this aspect of the story gets brought up and featured throughout here. With the problem being more of a weird manner in which it’s not always highlighted well as we’re shifted back and forth in time with different characters and different intentions, that doesn’t always highlight this too much, but since there’s still a lot to like here, it might not be a factor.
4/5
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