Welcome to our third annual FORTNIGHT OF FRIGHT event!
October 17th – October 31st, 2015
Thanks for checking out the THIRD annual edition of FORTNIGHT OF FRIGHT where Alyssa (Books Take You Places), Amy (Tripping Over Books), and I bring you two full weeks of Halloween-related posts! We’ve invited bloggers, authors, and book lovers alike to share their favorite things about Halloween and we feature a new person and post each day.
Today, Meri Kate from Hydrangeas and Sass is sharing a book review for WELCOME TO THE DARK HOUSE!
Hello! I am here today to tell you about a fun Halloween read, Welcome to the Dark House. I love all things to do with Halloween. I love the costumes, horror movies and books, and the candy. So I am really excited to be here today with a quick little review.
Title: Welcome to the Dark House (Dark House #1)
by Laurie Faria Stolarz
Publishing Info: July 22, 2014 by
Disney Hyperion
Source: Library
Genres: Young Adult, Horror
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: December 14, 2014
What’s your worst nightmare?
For Ivy Jensen, it’s the eyes of a killer that haunt her nights. For Parker Bradley, it’s bloodthirsty sea serpents that slither in his dreams.
And for seven essay contestants, it’s their worst nightmares that win them an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at director Justin Blake’s latest, confidential project. Ivy doesn’t even like scary movies, but she’s ready to face her real-world fears. Parker’s sympathetic words and perfect smile help keep her spirits up. . . at least for now.
Not everyone is so charming, though. Horror-film fanatic Garth Vader wants to stir up trouble. It’s bad enough he has to stay in the middle of nowhere with this group—the girl who locks herself in her room; the know-it-all roommate; “Mister Sensitive”; and the one who’s too cheery for her own good. Someone has to make things interesting.
Except, things are already a little weird. The hostess is a serial-killer look-alike, the dream-stealing Nightmare Elf is lurking about, and the seventh member of the group is missing.
By the time Ivy and Parker realize what’s really at stake, it’s too late to wake up and run.
The book revolves around our heroine Ivy Jensen and six others who enter an essay contest to meet a famous horror director, Justin Blake, and go behind the scenes of his latest project. For the essay, they are asked to write about their worst nightmare. Ivy along with the other six contestants are all whisked away to stay in a spooky-looking house together where they’re promised the behind the scenes look. Their hostess resembles one of the serial killers from Blake’s movies and there is a night elf lurking about. By the time Ivy realizes she needs to really worry, it’s far too late.
This book takes you through different points-of-view as you progress through the story. We experience the house and events unwinding in it through the eyes of six different characters. While sometimes this got a little irritating, usually when they switched to a character I wasn’t all that fond of, it never got in the way of my experiencing the story like some books in this same style can. I did like our heroine. She really grew on me as I read the book. I enjoyed her potential love interest, Parker, as well. This book does read like a lot of horror movies do and we don’t really get to know or care for most of the characters. We get a little bit of back story, basically to explain their nightmares, but we don’t get much. Thanks to this, when some of the characters died/disappeared, I didn’t care too much. The introduction to the characters and the whole Justin Blake premise does take up half the book. The other half though is filled with horror movie-like kills. Overall I found the book to be enjoyable and gave it 3 out of 5 night elves.
