http://megwood.com/books <img src="http://megwood.com/books/bkpics/house.jpg"><br> I should really start jotting down where I hear about books, because it happens so often that I’ll get to the end of one and wonder who in the HELL recommended it to me. This book is one such book. And the foolish thing was that I KNEW Frank Peretti was a Christian horror novel writer, and I was fooled into thinking maybe this one wouldn’t totally make me insane with the Godliness. I saw a movie based on one of his novels a couple of years ago, "Hangman’s Curse," and despite some gentle Christian overtones (the family prays a couple of times — this I can handle), I really enjoyed it. It starred ex-Boyfriend David Keith as the father in a family of four, all of them undercover government agents who would infiltrate schools to solve crimes (kind of like 21 Jump Street, except with a whole family at the helm). It had pretty decent dialogue and a fairly decent storyline. So, I was fooled. Fooled, I tell you! Into thinking this novel might actually be good! <p>Because, as you may have deduced by now, it royally stunk. It actually started out really bad in a thoroughly good kind of way. I was immediately sucked into the story, despite the fact it was completely ridiculous, and it was a real page turner until I got to the end — the end where suddenly I realized the direction the story was going in, and that there was about to be some serious, serious Jesus-speak. <p>The story opens, as most horror stories do, with a young couple driving along a back road in the woods at night. Suddenly, they hit a bump and all four of their tires go flat. They get out to see why, and find that someone had put a string of nails across the road. They set off on foot to try to find a phone, and stumble across a big house that appears to be a bed and breakfast. They go inside, but the owners are nowhere to be found (and neither is a phone). Just as they are wondering what to do next, another couple comes into the room and, eerily, has roughly the same story to tell — their car was disabled, they came across this house, they can’t find the owners, etc.. <p>The four start poking around, and eventually do find the B&B’s proprietors — a crazy woman, a crazy man, and their even crazier son. Soon, the two couples are in mortal danger, trapped in a big maze in the basement full of hallways and rooms that seem to change position at will. There’s also a little girl down there with them — and a psychopathic ghost they soon realize wants them dead. <p>So far so good, until it turns out the killer is Satan and the little girl is. . . well, I suppose I shouldn’t say any more. I’m not a Christian, but I’m extremely tolerant of religious stuff, as long as it doesn’t get in my way. But this novel was good old fashioned horror fun until the God stuff took over at the end, and even though I can hardly argue that the ending “made no sense” because of that (like the rest of the book made any sense?), it just didn’t fit AT ALL. We were suddenly supposed to think the four victims were major sinners who had a lot of confessing to do and would fry unless they accepted Jesus as their personal savior — and, frankly, I’m just too tolerant of flaws to think people deserve to burn forever because they’ve made some mistakes. But let’s not get into a debate about religion here — I really am “to each his/her own” about the whole shebang. <p>My point is that this is a ridiculous, but also very entertaining, novel until the last 30 pages or so. And then it takes a big nosedive into the Land of Ugh. If you’re a Christian, maybe you’ll like the ending — I can’t really tell. But if you’re not and you don’t like to have Christian beliefs whapped over your head like a billy club, this probably isn’t the novel for you. You can go ahead and safely rent "Hangman’s Curse," though. It’s not brilliant, but I have a weakness for David Keith that made its flaws pretty forgivable overall. The end! <br>[HORROR] <p> <a href="http://megwood.com/books">Read more book reviews</a>