1.67k reviews for:

The Amityville Horror

Jay Anson

3.35 AVERAGE

slow-paced

This narrator suckkkkkksssssss. This author sucksssssss. This is just a really, really bad book. 

How many times do you have to say 112 Ocean Avenue? I think we got it after the first… idk… 20 times you mentioned where they lived. 

We get it. They felt it was super cold in the house and kept stoking the fire.

If you hadn’t included all the boring dialogue that was not needed, this book could have been 2 hours long instead of almost 7. 

Not only was it extremely terribly written, it included animal abuse and child abuse!!!! I’m pretty sure the husband just generally hated his wife, too. So there’s that. 

Honestly I finished this purely out of spite just to give it a one star review. 
dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Most exciting book ive ever read. Even more than road of bones. I had to get under a blanket from the chills it gave me.

It claims to be truth, but do a little research and it appears that it is much more likely a complete fabrication. However, despite it being fake, it is still a fun creepy book to read late at night.

Bajo la advertencia de que nos presenta una historia real, el autor nos va narrando la historia tal y como se la explicaron los propios protagonistas (corroborada por algunos testigos supuestamente imparciales). Redactada más como si se tratase de un informe que de una novela; sin florituras, ni metáforas, ni más adjetivos y descripciones que los imprescindibles, logra crear una tensión que va aumentando a medida que avanza la historia, erizándote el vello en más de una ocasión y provocando que mires por encima de tu hombro para comprobar que aquella sombra que has visto por el rabillo del ojo no es más que una jugarreta de tu mente.

La novela presenta un ritmo pausado al principio, que va escalando de forma proporcional al aumento de sucesos extraños en la vivienda hasta un trepidante final que, quizá, peca un poco de exceso de cliché. Debería comprobar, de todos modos, si se convirtió en cliché a posteriori o ya lo era cuando se publicó esta historia por primera vez.

No voy a entrar en el debate sobre la veracidad o no de los hechos que se relatan en el libro, pero es innegable que la nota inicial advirtiendo que está «basado en hechos reales», junto con el tono casi periodístico, ayudan a aumentar el morbo y la fascinación que produce el libro. Sobra un poco más la «Conclusión» final a modo de epílogo, pues aporta poco a la historia y solo intenta reafirmar su veracidad (sin demasiado éxito, pues, si no te has creído la historia al terminar de leerla, la conclusión no te hará cambiar de opinión).

katiescho741's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 48%

This is just one of those books you have to actually believe in order for it to be good. 
I don’t believe in ghosts at all, but I have this a go as a curiosity and because I’d heard it was a creepy tale regardless. It’s not. Even as hauntings framed as non-fiction it was just dumb - the crucifix fell upside down! There were cloven hoof prints in the snow! The toilet bowls went black! A creepy face appeared in the fire! yea right. 
I gave it a good go but it just doesn’t work unless you really believe that what the family said actually happened. 
dark mysterious fast-paced

just fine

God damn. Terrifying. I didn't even care if this stuff was real or not, I kept looking behind me because this book arose the feeling of being watched. Listened to this in one sitting.
slow-paced
mysterious tense medium-paced