REVIEW: The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

Genre: Horror, ParanormalRead: 16th September 2014
Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon Australia

★★ 2 stars

** I gave this book two stars. Actually, two stars is pretty generous, but I give it that on account of the smarts of Harry the dog, who had the right idea about sleeping through the entire thing, for the most part.

I can't believe this was classified horror. I'm not a horror fan and was apprehensive myself about reading it but I soon realised I'd needn't have worried. It is soooo badly written I just hope Jay Anson received enough royalties to go back to college and relearn HOW to write properly! The constant change from the Lutzes to Father Mancuso and back again within a few paragraphs were both annoying and frustrating. Not to mention sometimes confusing. I mean, there was no proper break between the changes in scenes that it felt like one minute George and Kathy are having breakfast to suddenly Father Mancuso waking with a fever and blisters on his hands. I mean, really. It was written as if the priest had been asleep in their kitchen, the changes were so sudden. And the copy I read, the editing was atrocious. He was Be or Lie; head was bead. It was awful. And horror? I don't think so. I found it all rather predictable, and that is saying something coming from someone who doesn't read horror. The whole book just had a "slapped together" feel about it. It is merely fiction masquerading as fact. I don't dispute the existence of a darker world and that unexplained hauntingly do occur, but the frequency with which these events took place was just ludicrous. How anyone can believe this to be true after reading this book is beyond me.

If you want to read a good ghost haunting, try "The Secret of Crickley Hall" by James Herbert. A fantastic read that far outweighs this poor excuse for both literature and non-fiction, in the poor attempt at true story.