The House of A Hundred Whispers

I am not a big fan of the gothic horror genre and this certainly was the modern day version of it. The story was gripping and well written but I couldn't get into it after the first halve. It became too unbelievable for me to accept. It was almost cartoonish. That said I knew going into it that it was going to be that type book from the cover blurbs.
The author is a good writer and his telling of the tale is well done. If you are a fan of ghosts stories you will enjoy this read.

I have to admit that this is the first Graham Masterton book that I have read. I found the first half of it brilliant and I couldn’t wait to pick it up, it actually gave me a few nightmares I found it that scary! But sadly it started to go downhill and in my opinion became increasingly unbelievable. The book was very well written and I don’t think it would but me off trying one of the authors other books. This one was just not for me.

I loved this book. Horror in not a preferred genre for me but I was gripped form start to finish. I loved the religious references, the sense of place and history and the edge of your seat feeling created in the build up to the final scenes. The reference to Macbeth and the witches was intriguing! A great page turner.

Not my favourite read of late. A long read with a predictable ending. Too much violence, but I suppose you should expect this within the genre. Not to be read at night by the timid or those subject to nightmares.

I didn't know what to expect from this book, as I haven't read a book of this genre for a very long time. I enjoyed the author's style of writing, but I struggled with the fantastical story, and it took me ages to finish the book. Saying that, I was engaged enough to want to know how it all ended. This book will surely appeal to fans of the author's previous works.

After the death of their father in mysterious circumstances, Rob, Martin and Grace along with their partners and families convene at their childhood home for the reading of the will. Allhallows Hall is a rambling Tudor mansion set on the edge of Dartmoor and their father was a difficult man, estranged from his children many years ago. It is therefore with some reluctance that they revisit this atmospheric house, but their stay is destined to be longer than they anticipated. Just as they are about to leave, 5-year old Timmy disappears without trace and it soon becomes apparent that the house has its own agenda.

From my 2* rating it must be obvious that I did not enjoy this book. However, it was not all bad. The characterisation was good, with each of the main characters having well-developed and believable personalities. In places the book was also quite gripping, especially at the start when we were potentially still in the land of common sense and reason.

The main problem I had with this book was the supernatural element. This is a personal pet hate of mine and, given that this is the case, it almost seems unfair to leave a bad review as I am clearly not the target audience. In my defence, there are plenty of horror stories in which the source of the terror could plausibly occur in real life and I misguidedly thought that this book might be one of them. I was wrong and I wish I hadn’t persevered. Another problem was that there were quite a lot of grammatical errors which obviously hadn’t been picked up before it went to press. I find this particularly irritating as it really shouldn’t happen. I can forgive quite a lot in a book that is well-written as the actual reading of it is a pleasure in itself – this book didn’t even offer me that experience. Finally, I found the content to be very repetitive, so much so that it became boring on occasion.

Clearly I was not the target audience for this book but if you enjoy books about the paranormal then this is undoubtedly going to be more your cup of tea than it was mine.