Well, The Good House means I've encountered another new author whom I will be looking to read again sometime in the future. This is apparently her fourth book and is something of a ghost story but has strong voodoo elements. In The Good House we are greeted with a Prologue which sets up the premise of the "haunting" and where we meet the main characters Grandmother and initiator of a curse which take three generations to play out. Due weaves together family drama, voodoo, haunted/spooky events, and the strong bonds of friendship, creating a compelling, if somewhat long winded tale that keeps you turning pages well into the night.

When we finally meet Angela Toussaint, we are presented a strong, likeable character; Angela is very much a family oriented person, taking time away from her law firm in Los Angeles to spend the summer with her teenage son in her Grandmothers house in Sacajawea, Washington...a house which she herself visited every summer as a child. Things are not smoother between mother and son and tensions are taut when her ex-husband Tariq shows up with the notion of putting their family back together. All of this comes crashing down on the 4th of July, tearing the family apart for good and starting in motion a chain of events that will terrorize Angela and those closest to her...starting with her son's suicide in the basement and ultimately sending Angela on a search for answers and a way to stop the terrifying entity that is bound and determined to see her destroyed.

This story isn't just about Angela...bits of it are told from Corey's (her son), Tariq's, and the Grandmother's perspectives. Additionally, we weave back and fourth from the early 20th century to the present day learning the story of the Toussaint family (origins in Lousiana, naturally) and how their curse came to be. I enjoyed the multi-perspective...it was nice to see things in a different light and to be given small pieces to the larger puzzle as each has their turn with telling their side of the events. This gives us a much greater change at really knowing each character Due creates, so the "cast" of The Good House is well rounded and each feels real and richly developed, but this method isn't without problems though, as we replay the same events several times while getting the full picture...and it makes for a LOT of filler that maybe could have been condensed.

Overall, I enjoyed this book but felt that it dragged on and on when it could have been tied up much sooner has the author not added hundreds of pages of exposition...I love the history that goes along with the story, but in places, it was just too much. Due is fantastic at creating human drama that feels real and important...that is a great deal of this books appeal, you FEEL involved in the events and want to know what happens next! That said, The Good House shouldn't have gone page 300-350 pages, so it was about 100 pages too long and I really, really, really could have done without the Hollywood ending...Angela earned the original ending, what came after it felt tacked on and totally fake...I wish the author hadn't tried to give us a happily ever after, the best ghost stories don't have them. I give it a solid B; it was a good solid book with a great premise that was just a tiny bit too long. I'll be looking at more of this authors work in the future! ( )

An active read as well as a good story.

The only down side is a publisher's problem. My paperback was nearly 600 pages long in about 7 point font. The first 200 or so pages nearly blinded me. I would usually read a book like that in a few days, this one took me a week - rest my eyes then go back.

That's the key though, I kept going back. It was worth the eye pain - let's just hope I can still read after this! My eyes are still blurry! ( )