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thriftedghost's review against another edition
2.0
while i love mixed media/epistolary novels, that was really all this book had going for it. the way the author handled a real mental illness and mixed it in with the supernatural kind of gave me the ick
kofolapumpkin's review against another edition
5.0
Reading this book was an incredible experience! I've never read anything like it before. When I bought The Dead House online, I didn't even know about the unusual style it was written in. I watched benoftomes talk about it on youtube and thought it would be perfect for October/Halloween!
And it was. I couldn't put it down. It was absorbing. The use of newspaper articles, diary entries, video/audio tapes etc. was extremely interesting and different!
Also it was the perfect "level of spooky". :D At times I was pretty freaked out and scared but it was tolerable (tolerable in the sense that it was not like I wasn't able to sleep after reading this or anything like that!).
I don't even know what else to say.. I recommend reading this book to everybody! (Well, maybe everybody who is 16 and older? I don't know, is this age-restricted?)
5 stars!!
And it was. I couldn't put it down. It was absorbing. The use of newspaper articles, diary entries, video/audio tapes etc. was extremely interesting and different!
Also it was the perfect "level of spooky". :D At times I was pretty freaked out and scared but it was tolerable (tolerable in the sense that it was not like I wasn't able to sleep after reading this or anything like that!).
I don't even know what else to say.. I recommend reading this book to everybody! (Well, maybe everybody who is 16 and older? I don't know, is this age-restricted?)
5 stars!!
sirensaria's review against another edition
3.0
I have really mixed feelings about this book. It was great, and it was awful all at once. The first half of the book was awesome. The second half, especially the ending, really left something to be desired. The writing was very good, amazing, actually. It was very lyrical and flowed nicely.
So the beginning of the book you really get a look at the main character, Kaitlin. She's the unreliable narrator that the reader has to constantly question. You see Kaitlin develop and change through the first half of the book.
One of the things that kind of bothered me was the whole Carly/Kaitlin thing. Like Carly had the day, and Kaitlin had the night. So when, exactly, did they actually sleep? Because last time I checked, the body cannot survive without sleep. Maybe they slept and the author just didn't include it, but it really irked me that there was literally nothing about sleeping until a little before the half way point.
I have to say that the author did portray the psychiatrist (I'm assuming Dr Lansing is a psychiatrist as she prescribed meds) rather stereotypical. Some of the things Dr Lansing did and how she handled some of the situations really made me wonder if she was actually helping, or was she making things worse. Lansing seemed to be all about the medication, which can help, but there is a point where the police bring up that she could have possibly over-medicated Carly/Kaitlin, which could have led to what all happened. That is actually a real issue in the mental health industry, when to medicate and when really talk it out more with counselors. Later in the book, you find that Lansing was wrong about some things, and, to me at least, handled that wrong as well.
The second half of the book went pair shaped, bat shit crazy, bonker nuts insane. There's the huge plot twist, which I will not give away, that really sends things down into a spiral. The second half of the book becomes really chaotic, and at times it's hard to even follow the plot. Sometimes it's even hard to tell if there IS actually a plot. I ended up skimming through a good portion of the second half just because nothing was really happening, and a lot of it didn't make much sense.
The end? Ugh... I seriously hated the ending. It really didn't make any sense considering how the first half of the book went. It came out of left field, and not in a good way. I remember now why I gave the book two stars the first read through, and it was pretty much because of the ending. The author did a really good job balancing the "is it in Kaitlin's head or not in her head" through the first half of the book. Until about maybe after three-quarters of book, the author kept that balance amazingly. The last quarter of the book just threw that out, which really rubbed me the wrong way, because then at the very very end, it tried to go back to that balancing act.
I really enjoyed how the book was put together, as the diary of Kaitlin, notes from Kaitlin to Carly and Carly to Kaitlin, scripts of videos, and scripts of interviews. It really made the book unique and enjoyable. It really made you question what actually happened, especially because Kaitlin wasn't the most reliable of narrators. Unfortunately, the ending just ruined it for me.
So the beginning of the book you really get a look at the main character, Kaitlin. She's the unreliable narrator that the reader has to constantly question. You see Kaitlin develop and change through the first half of the book.
One of the things that kind of bothered me was the whole Carly/Kaitlin thing. Like Carly had the day, and Kaitlin had the night. So when, exactly, did they actually sleep? Because last time I checked, the body cannot survive without sleep. Maybe they slept and the author just didn't include it, but it really irked me that there was literally nothing about sleeping until a little before the half way point.
I have to say that the author did portray the psychiatrist (I'm assuming Dr Lansing is a psychiatrist as she prescribed meds) rather stereotypical. Some of the things Dr Lansing did and how she handled some of the situations really made me wonder if she was actually helping, or was she making things worse. Lansing seemed to be all about the medication, which can help, but there is a point where the police bring up that she could have possibly over-medicated Carly/Kaitlin, which could have led to what all happened. That is actually a real issue in the mental health industry, when to medicate and when really talk it out more with counselors. Later in the book, you find that Lansing was wrong about some things, and, to me at least, handled that wrong as well.
The second half of the book went pair shaped, bat shit crazy, bonker nuts insane. There's the huge plot twist, which I will not give away, that really sends things down into a spiral. The second half of the book becomes really chaotic, and at times it's hard to even follow the plot. Sometimes it's even hard to tell if there IS actually a plot. I ended up skimming through a good portion of the second half just because nothing was really happening, and a lot of it didn't make much sense.
The end? Ugh... I seriously hated the ending. It really didn't make any sense considering how the first half of the book went. It came out of left field, and not in a good way. I remember now why I gave the book two stars the first read through, and it was pretty much because of the ending. The author did a really good job balancing the "is it in Kaitlin's head or not in her head" through the first half of the book. Until about maybe after three-quarters of book, the author kept that balance amazingly. The last quarter of the book just threw that out, which really rubbed me the wrong way, because then at the very very end, it tried to go back to that balancing act.
I really enjoyed how the book was put together, as the diary of Kaitlin, notes from Kaitlin to Carly and Carly to Kaitlin, scripts of videos, and scripts of interviews. It really made the book unique and enjoyable. It really made you question what actually happened, especially because Kaitlin wasn't the most reliable of narrators. Unfortunately, the ending just ruined it for me.
angelicprose's review against another edition
2.0
this is so cool and so good i just can’t get myself to finish it or really *love* it and that hurts :(
rachwritr2's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
charspages's review against another edition
2.0
I am NOT a fan of horror books.
I don't like scary movies, I despise true crime, I stay far away from American Horror Story, and I haven't even seen the newest IT even though I'd totally follow Bill Skarsgard into any dumpster.
And yet, a couple days after Halloween this year, I saw the absolutely sinister, super gorgeous cover for this book in Mira's book shelf and found myself unable to resist. Perhaps, I thought, a spooky read is just what I need.
I was half right. The first 100 pages were so scary, so weird, and so utterly mesmerizing that I tore through them in one sitting. (At a friend's birthday party, no less.) I was hooked. I wanted, no, needed to know what was happening.
And then - I'm not sure what changed - about one-third into the novel, the story loses its fire. The rest of this book was terrifying only in the sense how much it bored me.
No one is more saddened by this than me. I think that this book had so much potential. I loved the concept and the set-up, which felt like a gentle way to introduce a complete horror-newbie to the genre. Not overly confusing, but not at all straightforward, either. Ultimately, though, this fell terribly short of my expectations.
PLOT: 1 / 5
Man, I did like the premise of this. (Except for the medically inaccurate portrayal of DID, which was just a little warped to make it more cool or spooky or whatever.) [b:The Dead House|22396591|The Dead House (The Dead House #1)|Dawn Kurtagich|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421353573l/22396591._SY75_.jpg|41818801] is told in reports, police interviews, diary entries, and camera transcripts and tells the story of the Johnson Incident.
Or so it makes you believe.
In reality, all this book tells you is I don't know what happened either! You decide for yourself what the true story is here! and let me say that I fucking hated that. I felt so cheated - what did I just read 400 pages of Kaitlyn's insufferable edgy diary for if it doesn't even tell me what the fuck happened?
There were some interesting leads in the beginning - the death of Kaitlyn's parents, her relationship with her alter Carly, the dabbling in Scottish folk magic - that promised to get exciting. Let me make it short and painless for you: these leads did not live up to their promise at all. Instead, it felt like incident piled upon incident piled upon incident until it was all so terribly confusing that it honestly killed my will to find out what happened.
This book was long-winded and very blasé about not having a satisfying ending to tie together all the nonsense that happened over the course of 400 pages. Reading it felt like dragging yourself through knee-deep mud, only to realize you arrived exactly where you started.
CHARACTERS: 1.5 / 5
The second point where this book failed me spectacularly was its characters. I did not, and I mean this in all earnesty, did not enjoy a single one out of them.
"I curse anyone who reads this book.
If you touch it, hell will be waiting.
Screw you, happy reading."
Man, if anyone knew how to get on my fucking nerves, it was KAITLYN JOHNSON. Could've been a member of the Kardashian clan, judged by how unbearable I found her. She was all edgy! and dark! and rebellious! and I literally didn't care about her.
"You are a ray of sunshine at midnight."
CARLY JOHNSON, on the other hand, was someone I could very much get behind. I would have loved to get to know her more, to hear the story from her point of view. I loved her warmth, her dark secrets, everything. I truly wish she had been the narrator of the story.
NAIDA CHOUNAN-DUPRÉ and her brother HAJI were the two characters who I felt had the most depth and, at the same time, the highest annoyance potential out of the entire cast. They were both annoyingly mysterious and super interesting. I couldn't really make up my mind about them, to be honest.
The rest of the cast left such little impression that I don't even remember their names, except for ARI HAIT who can get fucked with his stupid bowler hat.
Don't get me started on the cringe-worthy battery of e-mails exchanged between Kaitlyn and Ari as their so-called "romance" blossoms - or when they start shagging in a graveyard. It made me cringe so hard I probably popped a vein or something.
WORLD BUILDING: 2 / 5
I guess the world building was okay. I don't know, I don't care enough to remember anything from it.
WRITING STYLE: 4 / 5
If [a:Dawn Kurtagich|8288991|Dawn Kurtagich|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1404838865p2/8288991.jpg] can do one thing, it's write. And she writes well. The whole style of this novel is mesmerizing and poignant. Ms. Kurtagich knows exactly how to play the words to make them sing. Her phrasing is gorgeous and wild and crooked and dark and twisted and it is so many things I could write one whole review on that alone.
DIVERSITY: 2 / 5
I guess the DID representation counts as diversity, right? Also a black boy as a side-character who neither dies nor turns out to be a cliché asshole with one line, that was a fun change. I'm honestly too tired to think about the rest.
OVERALL: 1.5 / 5
As much as I adore Dawn Kurtagich's style, and as much as I believe in her ability to tell great stories, I did not like this book. It dragged, it was confusing, it didn't have a solution for anything, and the characters were cringe-worthy at best. Overall, not a pleasant reading experience after the fire from the first seventy pages crackles out.
I don't like scary movies, I despise true crime, I stay far away from American Horror Story, and I haven't even seen the newest IT even though I'd totally follow Bill Skarsgard into any dumpster.
And yet, a couple days after Halloween this year, I saw the absolutely sinister, super gorgeous cover for this book in Mira's book shelf and found myself unable to resist. Perhaps, I thought, a spooky read is just what I need.
I was half right. The first 100 pages were so scary, so weird, and so utterly mesmerizing that I tore through them in one sitting. (At a friend's birthday party, no less.) I was hooked. I wanted, no, needed to know what was happening.
And then - I'm not sure what changed - about one-third into the novel, the story loses its fire. The rest of this book was terrifying only in the sense how much it bored me.
No one is more saddened by this than me. I think that this book had so much potential. I loved the concept and the set-up, which felt like a gentle way to introduce a complete horror-newbie to the genre. Not overly confusing, but not at all straightforward, either. Ultimately, though, this fell terribly short of my expectations.
PLOT: 1 / 5
Man, I did like the premise of this. (Except for the medically inaccurate portrayal of DID, which was just a little warped to make it more cool or spooky or whatever.) [b:The Dead House|22396591|The Dead House (The Dead House #1)|Dawn Kurtagich|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421353573l/22396591._SY75_.jpg|41818801] is told in reports, police interviews, diary entries, and camera transcripts and tells the story of the Johnson Incident.
Or so it makes you believe.
In reality, all this book tells you is I don't know what happened either! You decide for yourself what the true story is here! and let me say that I fucking hated that. I felt so cheated - what did I just read 400 pages of Kaitlyn's insufferable edgy diary for if it doesn't even tell me what the fuck happened?
There were some interesting leads in the beginning - the death of Kaitlyn's parents, her relationship with her alter Carly, the dabbling in Scottish folk magic - that promised to get exciting. Let me make it short and painless for you: these leads did not live up to their promise at all. Instead, it felt like incident piled upon incident piled upon incident until it was all so terribly confusing that it honestly killed my will to find out what happened.
This book was long-winded and very blasé about not having a satisfying ending to tie together all the nonsense that happened over the course of 400 pages. Reading it felt like dragging yourself through knee-deep mud, only to realize you arrived exactly where you started.
CHARACTERS: 1.5 / 5
The second point where this book failed me spectacularly was its characters. I did not, and I mean this in all earnesty, did not enjoy a single one out of them.
"I curse anyone who reads this book.
If you touch it, hell will be waiting.
Screw you, happy reading."
Man, if anyone knew how to get on my fucking nerves, it was KAITLYN JOHNSON. Could've been a member of the Kardashian clan, judged by how unbearable I found her. She was all edgy! and dark! and rebellious! and I literally didn't care about her.
"You are a ray of sunshine at midnight."
CARLY JOHNSON, on the other hand, was someone I could very much get behind. I would have loved to get to know her more, to hear the story from her point of view. I loved her warmth, her dark secrets, everything. I truly wish she had been the narrator of the story.
NAIDA CHOUNAN-DUPRÉ and her brother HAJI were the two characters who I felt had the most depth and, at the same time, the highest annoyance potential out of the entire cast. They were both annoyingly mysterious and super interesting. I couldn't really make up my mind about them, to be honest.
The rest of the cast left such little impression that I don't even remember their names, except for ARI HAIT who can get fucked with his stupid bowler hat.
Don't get me started on the cringe-worthy battery of e-mails exchanged between Kaitlyn and Ari as their so-called "romance" blossoms - or when they start shagging in a graveyard. It made me cringe so hard I probably popped a vein or something.
WORLD BUILDING: 2 / 5
I guess the world building was okay. I don't know, I don't care enough to remember anything from it.
WRITING STYLE: 4 / 5
If [a:Dawn Kurtagich|8288991|Dawn Kurtagich|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1404838865p2/8288991.jpg] can do one thing, it's write. And she writes well. The whole style of this novel is mesmerizing and poignant. Ms. Kurtagich knows exactly how to play the words to make them sing. Her phrasing is gorgeous and wild and crooked and dark and twisted and it is so many things I could write one whole review on that alone.
DIVERSITY: 2 / 5
I guess the DID representation counts as diversity, right? Also a black boy as a side-character who neither dies nor turns out to be a cliché asshole with one line, that was a fun change. I'm honestly too tired to think about the rest.
OVERALL: 1.5 / 5
As much as I adore Dawn Kurtagich's style, and as much as I believe in her ability to tell great stories, I did not like this book. It dragged, it was confusing, it didn't have a solution for anything, and the characters were cringe-worthy at best. Overall, not a pleasant reading experience after the fire from the first seventy pages crackles out.
sumeyrad's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
norahs_books's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The Dead House is a creepy story with an incredible format. The drawings and the very journal-like books is drawing me in and kept me engaged for a while. Dawn did an amazing job at creating this scary vibe and tension through out the book.
Unfortunately for me I lost interest about half way through. I devoured the first 200 pages but for some reason it slowed down for me a lot after that. I really don't know why but it didn't do it for me anymore.
If you'd like to try this book be my guest. I'm sure a lot of people would really enjoy this one.
Unfortunately for me I lost interest about half way through. I devoured the first 200 pages but for some reason it slowed down for me a lot after that. I really don't know why but it didn't do it for me anymore.
If you'd like to try this book be my guest. I'm sure a lot of people would really enjoy this one.
belle_meri's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
the_lawyer_librarian's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0