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Damaged Houses
A master craftsman, Don Lark could fix everything except what mattered, his own soul. After tragedy claimed the one thing he loved, he began looking for dilapidated houses to buy, renovate, and resell at a profit, giving these empty shells the second chance at life he denied himself.
Damaged Souls
Then in a quiet Southern town, Lark finds his biggest challenge: a squalid yet sturdy mansion that has suffered decades of abuse at the hands of greedy landlords and transient tenants. While two charming old neighbor ladies ply him with delicious cooking, they offer dire warnings about the house's evil past. But there is something about this building that pushes Lark on, even as its enchantments grow increasingly ominous. Will show more finishing the house offer Lark redemption, or unleash the darkest forces of damnation upon him? show less

Normally a reader of adventurous SciFi I was quite pleased at the smoothness of Card as he drew me into a story that never really got "exciting" until almost 2 thirds through the book: when you're expecting excitement it would be easy to kiss off the story of a guy who just lost his family and is buying a house to fix up and sell and starts to get romantically involved with his realtor and discovers that she has family issues, etc. The plot is well laid out and progresses smoothly "almost" into fantasy...until it jumps feet first into the fantastical. The only weakness I found involved my inability to emotionally accept the love interest at the end...but that may just be me. I recommend this book for the non-scifi readers for not being show more heavily "strange". show less

This science-fiction book turned out to be a love story--and that didn't detract from it at all. It is set in Greensboro, NC (!) which was amusingly familiar and filled with construction detail that only a builder/craftsman can know (Card did that kind of work for a time, the librarian at NE told me). It was a joy and a pleasure to read. I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys a good, not too terribly heavy read.

I really enjoyed this book. I'm not usually into horror or thrillers or whatever you want to call it, but I really liked this one. Its not creepy and scary to no purpose, and its just scary enough to keep you riveted, as well as the interest in exactly what is going to happen to the real and not so real characters. If you like 'hard' horror novels, you won't care for this, but if you like contemporary fiction that's a bit of a ghost story, this is excellent.

Man who lost everything and is haunted by his past purchases house that has a squatter refusing to leave. The book has few characters and they're pretty well developed. What I thought would be a boring tale about a carpenter ends up as a ghost story...surprise, surprise!

This is certainly not OSC's best work, but it is a quick read, and doesn't suck you into a long and involved epic. The characters don't seem as fully fledged, or if there is a hint of a full character, it gets lost in the shuffle of a story that isn't fully explained. It almost feels like it was intended to be a series, but his editor didn't believe there was enough draw to extend it beyond one book.

All in all, I am generally in love with his work, and that won't change. This one, though, well, it will not keep a place in my heart for long. (It will keep a place on my shelf, though. It wasn't *that* bad.)

3.5 stars

When Don buys a run-down, falling apart home to restore it, he is surprised to find a squatter living there. He learns more about the house from the squatter and the neighbours and things don't quite go as planned.

I enjoyed it, mostly, but I was hoping for creepy and I really didn't find it creepy. I can't say I liked the end, either. Hmmm, my comments don't make it sound like I enjoyed it, but really I mostly did!