Scary stuff | Hell House | Richard Matheson

Definitive Haunted House Novel | Hell House | Richard Matheson

books:


	• Hell House Richard Matheson Tor Books, 1999 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 145 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Awesome haunted house story

I first was introduced to Matheson's work by the novella "I Am Legend", which I loved. I got this book from the local library and it kept me up for two nights. Matheson's a skilled storyteller and he never lets up on the action, even during smaller passages that he uses for character development. I can see why Stephen King calls him a great influence. I'd place Matheson on equal footing with HP Lovecraft any day.

Scary stuff

Richard Matheson, well his name alone is a trademark. To be totally honest I picked up Hell House just because of the reviews and the authors name. I just wanted something to read and pass the time. I never imagined that a book could be scary at all, and let me tell you.

Once you start reading and get familiar with the characters you will difinetly, at least at one point, get a bit scared. It's the basic formula of the horror genre. A haunted house, a terrible past, a place where all the excess and degradation of society took place. So horrible that the first team that tried to "clean" the house from it's spirits went crazy (homicide, suicide and then some).

Now a new team is assembled to make the house normal again. Hell House is a great ride and if you prepare the mood (read at night, in a quiet place with a good tea or perhaps a good scotch) you might get scared. This is a no brainer, pick it up, read, get scared and enjoy!!!!!

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Definitive Haunted House Novel

After reading Hell House, I immediately ordered all three volumes of Richard Matheson's Collected works. It is hands-down the best haunting novel I've read, and possibly the best horror novel. Steven King often refers to Matheson as his main influence - and it is abundantly clear why when you read this book. I think I can safely say that The Shining, Pet Semetary, 1408, Rose Red and others would not exist without this book having lead the way (and I think it is better than each of those, including Kubrick's Shining). Coldheart Canyon is an excellent horror novel by Clive Barker - and I feel it was also very heavily influenced by Hell House.

Almost each scene begins with the characters sliding their legs out of beds in a house regarded as `the Mount Everest of Haunted Houses'. You come to feel that sensation of sheets on your legs - and it's a real gateway into sharing the rest of their experiences, both physically and psychologically. I don't want to ruin any surprises for anyone - but this book is the real deal. The images linger with you when/if you go to bed at night. It triggered a couple very late reading sessions - I couldn't put it down (cliché but true).

It has been a while since I have not wanted a book to end - since I mourned the final pages and losing touch with well realized characters in a story that never grew (at least a little) stale. I got that feeling in this case, and I'm sure it's a book I'll reread. Spread the word: Matheson is genius. He is going onto my short list of favorites somewhere beside Ray Bradbury and above Steven King.

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A good read!

A good read kept me on the edge. Great plot well written. Worth the price of admission.

Joe

Rolf Rudolph Deutsch is going die. But when Deutsch, a wealthy magazine and newpaper publisher, starts thinking seriously about his impending death, he offers to pay a physicist and two mediums, one physical and one mental, $100,000 each to establish the facts of life after death.

Dr. Lionel Barrett, the physicist, accompanied by the mediums, travel to the Belasco House in Maine, which has been abandoned and sealed since 1949 after a decade of drug addiction, alcoholism, and debauchery. For one night, Barrett and his colleagues investigate the Belasco House and learn exactly why the townfolks refer to it as the Hell House.

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