Having seen "I Am Legend" in the theater I wanted to explore another of Matheson's works before I made a decision on whether he was someone I enjoyed or not. I picked this one up based on some reviews and was relatively happy with my choice. Hell House tells the story of a haunted house that destroys it's victims through murder, suicide, or insanity. Our story begins with another group of four trying to solve the mystery of Hell House.This novel reads more as a mystery with some minor horror elements. Nothing in here made me keep the light on at night, but it did add a bit of the fantastic to they mystery. As a mystery, which I typically do not enjoy, it wasn't too bad. It had enough clues, enough twists and enough kept hidden from the reader to keep me moving forward. The mystery wraps up cleanly in the end without much left unresolved.
Hell House is a very quick read that will appeal to the mystery fan as well as the horror fan (just don't expect too much horror). 6/10
2 comments:
Did you read "I Am Legend" or just see the movie? The movie actually changed the book pretty significantly, and although the movie was okay, the book was actually much darker and had a different ending.
I only saw the movie, but had heard that it took quite some liberties with the story from the book. Despite those changes, I have a hard time reading a book after seeing a movie based on it (no matter how loosely). Too many books, too little time. :)
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