The Haunted is a solid ghost story. Nothing you haven't read before but not entirely the same as others. He isn't breaking new ground but that's ok. Scary but not gory/graphic. Realistic and relatable family. He creates believable characters that I enjoy. This is my 5th BL book and I'd rank it right about in the middle. Much better than "The House" but can't touch "The Association." ( )

I hate to say it, but this book was a miss for me.

The premise was fascinating, it had all the elements to be an un-put-down-able thriller but it fell flat with the many chapters of explaining aspects of the characters that just didn't matter to the story.

Part One introduces us to the major players, and over all the majority of it can be skimmed through. It's a lot of nothing, filled with more nothing that could have been clipped to skip ahead to the actual story.

If you are following the events from book 1 this installment does give two small teasers about the culprit from book one but you can read the last chapter if that's all you're here for.

The middle gives us a tad bit more action, and build up but again fills every scene with pointless character thoughts and long drawn out walking bits that really just make it hard to slug through.

Once the end comes around, it's worth it, as all the climax is surprising but expected based on the traits we've had beaten over our heads for the last however many chapters.

I love the growth Holly displays in this book, and glad the gang is back together for another case. Stephen King does a marvelous job at showing us we're all connected in weird ways. This is another 'funny how we're all 5 degrees of separation' from each other.

You'll love this story if you love slow burn thrillers, and the characters from the first Bill Hodges book. ( )

This book started out a little slow, then picked up speed to where it became a little spooky. It slowed down a little part way through the book but only because it gave past history about why the house was haunted. The speed picked back up the last part of the book, but things started happening more with the house. One of the characters disappears completely but to me that is not a cliff hanger as with any horror story sometimes it could be that the house "ate" them.

Basically in this story the house manipulates its surroundings which reminded me of the house in the movie "Rose Red" by Stephen King. The house does things to the characters in the book almost driving them to madness. Giving it five stars for taking me on a roller coaster ride of horror. ( )

An alarming haunted house story that actually lands the ending. ( )

I honestly couldn't decide between 3 or 4 stars. This is when half-stars would come in really handy. It was good. I enjoyed the story and it was definitely creepy. There is a lot left open though about what it was and what it wanted and why it was there. Which was something I was really interested in learning.

I didn't like Julian at first. I thought he was a bit selfish and it bothered me that he kept things from his wife and sometimes only because he was too cowardly to deal with her disappointment in him keeping secrets in the first place. However, he did completely redeem himself. I still don't agree with all of his choices, but in the end, his choices were what was best for his family.

Megan and James had a real aggressive relationship at first and as someone who is close to her sister, it was a bit sad. Claire was actually pretty decent. I can't say I found anything particularly amazing about her personality, but she was likable enough.

It was a slow read but only because it was so scary. I could only read it when my husband was home AND when it was daytime. It was too scary to read alone and if I read it too late I had a harder time sleeping than I already do and I had nightmares. I mean it was a good thing as you are looking for a good scare when you read horror, but I like my thrills when I can still feel safe. Contradictory, I know. ( )