Overwhelmingly meh. 95% not scary.

Another great and suspenseful paranormal story! Having listened to several stories from this author I have to applaud his ability to let you in the plot straight away and care for the main characters, so much so that you really want them to succeed and follow their lives with eagerness. The only thing is that the reader knows that something bad will happen and yes it does!

The narration by Joe Hempel was yet again perfect, and because of that, I was captivated by the story straight away and I found it an original take on the haunted house trope. The story never went the way I thought it would (which is a positive). Towards the end I started thinking it would go nowhere and then, BAM, I got hit really hard with that ending!

I needn’t have to say that I won’t be doing house renovations any time soon! And if you want to know why, I suggest you pick up this book! Looking forward to book 2 in the series.

Thanks to the author for the audiobook code and this is my honest opinion.

V creepy, evoked a lot of dread. Took me a few days to force myself to read the end!

Always fun a great haunted house book.

Review originally published at: http://www.lomeraniel.com/audiobookreviews/book-review-the-house-of-the-long-shadows-by-ambrose-ibsen/

Kevin Taylor’s main goal is landing a job at a TV station, and for that he decided to take the challenge of renovating an old house in only thirty days for his internet video channel. The fact that the old house is in a terrible state does not deter Kevin from pursuing his goals, but maybe the strange presence there will.

Ibsen is presenting another house with an evil presence. The premises were interesting and the main character relatable. It was easy to connect to him and understand his motivations. The mention of social media, followers, and comments made the book fresh and current, and this will appeal to any young (and not so young) reader.

The book was well written, as all Ibsen’s books, but I found it a bit slow and repetitive for the first two thirds. I think this impression was also due to the fact that we are dealing with only one character, and we are missing some characters dynamics. Towards the end it seems the book starts to pick up some rhythm, and it coincides with more characters interacting with Kevin. The ending was predictable but terrifying nonetheless.

Joe Hempel delivered a masterful narration, trapping me in the story. There were not a lot of different characters in this audiobook, but the few present were very well interpreted. Hempel did a really good job transmitting Kevin’s emotions in a palpable way. The audio production was perfect.

I received a copy of this book in audio format from the narrator in exchange for an honest review.

It's been SO long since I read a straight up haunted house book. No secret plot twist, no "humans are the real evil", no psychological ailment making the protagonist see things in a different way. Just spooky shenanigans.
It felt good to return to the basics.

The beginning starts kinda slow and cheesy, but from the middle onwards this picks UP. I'm glad I stuck around until the end, it's worth the patience.

The image of your own shadow stretching out to dreadful lengths is such an off-putting vision, I would have u-turned and left right away lmao.

Great book. Spoopy for the sake of being spoopy. Will definitely look forward to reading the second book.