Loved it. More than I should have, probably. A brilliant way to write a novel (yes, let's just admit this is a novel). The matter-of-fact, journalistic tone used to describe horrific events expertly aided the 'realism' façade, and it made for great storytelling. Toward the end the pacing went off and turned into kitchen sink horror (just throw everything out there!) but it still worked. The ending 'Afterward' was genius and is likely why this classic endures and continues to inspire a whole subg...

I confess, I am SO glad to be done with this book. I had to take it in just a couple chapters at a time, it just felt so overwhelmingly dark. The fact that the demons (whatever they were) didn't just throw things around the house to creep the family out, they actually affected the family members' individual personalities and seemed to truly bring out the worst in their humanity. This aspect, to me, was the most disturbing. Though I never plan to read this book again and will promptly be donating...

I will start this review at the end . . . or, what I did after the end.I knew some about The Amityville Horror from pop culture. I don’t think I have ever seen the movie all the way through, but I have seen parts of it. I am familiar with the house with windows like Jack O’ Lantern eyes. I knew it was a tale of possession and haunting. A story of terrors beyond imagination – terrors that only usually exist in the imagination of horror writers and filmmakers. But this really happened!Or . . . did...

I mean it just wasn’t that good or it was my mood! I enjoyed the movie as a kid. I don’t know! Sigh…Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

This was a re-read for me. I read it back in the late 70's when it first came out, and even then I didn't think it was that great. Now, I was compelled to finish, but if it weren't for Ray Porter's narration I might not have.This isn't great writing, but the story is interesting as hell. All these years later I'm still wondering how much of this actually happened.

Scared the pants off me — but hey, I was 14 or 15 so it didn’t take much to scare me.I remember not being able to watch the movie so I thought I was so smart borrowing the book from a friend whose Mom was less rigid about her reading choices (pretty sure I borrowed Alive! from her too—lol) than mine was. However, my Mom would have had the last laugh (had she known I was reading forbidden literary contraband). I’m pretty sure I skimmed to the end so I could return the creepy book to its owner bef...

The Amityville Horror is a book whose reviews are all over the place. On my friends list I have ratings from 1 to 5 stars all across the board. I wasn't sure where I would fall in relation to my GR buddies. I listened to this one on audio as it was one of the 3 books that appealed to me and was available through OverDrive. It was a quick listen and I really enjoyed the narration. I watched the movie in my teens and there have been so many of them made I really don’t know which one I watched or h...

Even if the events of this book are disputed, it is still a scary and interesting ghost story.

A combination of me knowing the case so well that this bored me a little… and the fact that it’s poorly written. Meh. I’m disappointed! (Bonus exclamation marks since Anson loved them so much!!!! Gah!!!!)

Ignore the overshadowing debate about whether or not it actually happened, and you're left with one of the most finely crafted haunted house stories ever written. The narrative is so solid, so matter-of-fact, that one cannot argue with it. This is how it happened, the book says, and what happened was horrifying. The feel is perfect, the book carries an ominous feeling from the first to the last page, much like the house on Ocean Avenue itself. Forget any of the cash-in novels or films, this is a...

This is bad in so many ways. First, it is fiction masquerading as fact. The story of this hoax is out there enough so I don't have to repeat it but the evidence should convince all but the most ardent true believer that this "true story", with the exception of the original DeFeo murder, was totally fabricated. Second, it is really terrible fiction. I am convinced that Mr. Anson had some kind of encyclopedia on hauntings and as he flipped through it he said, "Swarm of flies? I'll put that on page...

About 15 years ago I picked up a copy of this book and had to put it down indefinitely. It was slowly creeping me out, and when I got to the part where George Lutz sees a creepy pig behind his daughter in her bedroom window in the middle of the night I said "nope". However, I kept the book, because I knew one day I would finish it. Yesterday was that day, and I really wish I hadn't bothered.I was in my twenties the first time I tried to read this, and although I was reading a lot of horror, for

Let's pause for a minute and laugh out loud at the fact that this stupid book was in the nonfiction section of my library. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA HAHAHA HA. HA. HAAAAAAOK, I think that's good. Wait....HAHAHAHAHAAAAAA OH MAN! HAHA'OK...That's not why it gets one lousy star anyway. It gets one star because I think it was written by a twelve year old. The writing was so bad that it distracted me from the absolutely ridiculous story. There was just no life in the story at all. I mean, the gho...

This "true" story is about as scary as a Ke$ha/Charlie Sheen lovechild. It's terrifying... but it's not the baby's fault. It was created out of a union of glitter-vomit and Tiger Blood. Mama SLutz is an attention whore just in it for the money and notoriety, and Daddy is a talentless hack who just spouts random words emphatically and claims they make sense. It's like it was written by a 12 year old with ADD and then edited by someone who speaks English as a 2nd language... and started taking the...

"Do you think it's haunted?""No way, I don't believe in ghosts.”It seems the reading world is clearly divided about this book. The common question obviously being: is this actually true? I would like to add another question to the equation: does it actually matter?To some extent, it does. The extent to which this novel will scare you correlates directly to (a)whether you believe the events depicted here are true and (b) your religious orientation. Personally, I’m still reserving judgement on jus...

I am not a huge fan of horror, but this book comes to mind as one of the most terrifying (at least for me). I distinctly remember reading this as a teen and not being able to put it down until I had finished it at 3:00 in the morning. Part of this was being unable to sleep if it was still on my mind.

5 stars.I don’t even know where to begin. I fear this may be a long, chaotic mess of thoughts, so please bear with me, or skim, or totally ignore. I’ve always been fascinated with the occult. The Exorcist (both the book and the movie, RIP Mr. Blatty) scared the hell out of me, pardon the pun. It still does. Every. Single. Time. And I love being scared. I love horror movies, haunted houses, Ouija boards (even though my husband forbids them), and Halloween. I love Halloween so much it’s my wedding...

Now that I have seen The Amityville Horror film (1979), watched numerous documentaries on the house, and read the book, I can safely say that the best "adaptation" of the Amityville story will always be My Amityville Horror (2013). This is a documentary following one of the Lutz children - now an adult - and shows what the he remembers from his time at 112 Ocean Ave in Amityville, NY. What we get is not exactly what one would expect from a documentary about the Amityville house. Instead, it is a...

if you're going to bother with this story, do yourself a favor and save some time by just watching the movie

OK, folks, for the last time, here's the real story. 1. On 13 November 1974, a murder occurred in the home known as "High Hopes," located at what was then 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, New York. The victims of the crime were the DeFeo family: Ronald Sr., Louise, and four of their five children; Dawn, Allison, Mark and John. 2. Ronald "Butch" DeFeo, Jr., eldest son of the DeFeo family, burst into a local bar in town that night around 6:30PM, asking for help. 3. Butch DeFeo was later tried for and...