–review by Kara, teen reviewer

Welcome to the Dark House by Laurie Faria Stolarz

five-stars

Seven kids are flown out to the middle of nowhere after winning a competition to meet the infamous Justin Blake, a director whose horror films have a cult following. The weekend is designed to be a Justin Blake fans dream, complete with movie props, sets from the film, and even some of the characters from his films. The winners vary from never-heard-of-him-before to diehards who know all about his past and his life ambitions. In order to enter into the contest, contestants had to submit a short essay about their greatest fear, which pretty much sets the scene for this horror story. Let’s just say that you probably shouldn’t tell strangers what your greatest fear is because that’s just asking for someone to use it against you. Needless to say that that’s what happens.

Although I am typically not that into horror, I’d say this was a pretty good scary book. It was written in a way that I couldn’t put it down until I figured out what was going to happen. It was different than most horror stories that I know of because people were scared in different ways. Instead of all of the horror coming from one ax-murderer, there was a range of different types of scares, understanding that not everyone will find ghosts scary.

The characters were believable. I didn’t have trouble accepting that they would do or say that or that they fear so and so. I liked how each fear had a backstory, they weren’t just some fear that had mysterious origins.   Even though it was all around a pretty good book, I wouldn’t say it’s not quite a 5 because, well, I didn’t really get that scared.   It’s not because I’m not afraid of bears like one of the characters, but it’s because the author didn’t really utilize some of the point of views. The novel is told from each contestant’s perspective and for a lot of the time, the author didn’t really go into the person’s fear, making it hard to empathize with them when they got scared.

Overall I’d say it’s a pretty good novel and I’ll definitely be reading the sequel (if there is one). I would suggest it for anyone who’s looking for a page-turner that has a creepy factor but not for people that are looking for a book that’ll keep them up at night hoping that they locked the door. 5 stars. –Kara, teen reviewer

 


An advanced copy of this title was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Hardcover, 368 pages
Expected publication: July 22nd 2014 by Disney-Hyperion
Find this book in our library: Welcome to the Dark House