Yikes. Smith is typically a 4 or 5-star writer for me. I find his writing to be tight, concise, and brutally unrelenting. Gutter-noir in the spirit of a latter-day Jim Thompson.

But this, his debut novel, is a whole different ballgame. Tiresome, incongruous, bloated, and throwing out similes like George Brett hitting home runs. Seriously...there is one in almost every paragraph.

Unlikable characters doing inscrutable things for obscure reasons. So many different, contrasting horror tropes that you think you might choke on them. I LOVE Bryan Smith's writing, but if this festering dungheap of a novel landed on my desk from a budding young author, I'd probably burn the MS. Truly unreadable garbage. And this from a diehard fan of the author and the genre.

Stay clear if you have any respect at all for Smith's (otherwise remarkable) body of work. ( )

House of Blood is the debut novel of Brian Smith, but from the rich writing and the intriguing plot, you can't tell it's a first. The beginning got me hooked, the middle kept me there, and the ending was strong.

Pros:

Smith uses a simple, straightforward manner to inject his poison in the reader’s bloodstream. His prose is pronounced, clear, and focused.

The pace starts off swift and strong, stays in the air the whole way through, keeps lifting higher and higher, never putting its feet down on the ground.

Some of the events are almost offensive they're so disturbing, and while on the surface this plot looks generic, it's certainly not.

Cons:

Smith misses the mark with his characters. Dreamweaver comes off weak and whiny, Master is a good character but a bit confusing, Mrs. Wickman is too stereotypical to be believed, and all the really good characters were killed off too soon or not explored enough.

The dialogue worked sometimes, but other times it just...well, gee, golly, gosh, fizzled out.

Overall though, this gets a high marking. I recommend it to all horror fans - read this one when you get the chance, it's not for the birds. ( )

This was the second book by Bryan Smith I've read and this one wasn't bad. An ancient being entraps humans in his home for torture and murder, seemingly because it is just his nature. Thousands and thousands are enslaved in a whole world below the house. A car-load of young people arrives at the house and unknowingly are the key to a revolution to overthrow the "master". Not a bad story, but the characters were just not explored deeply enough. I think this could have been written as a trilogy (could have been in the fantasy genre as well) and it would have been much more enjoyable. I wanted to know more about this underworld. I wanted to know more about this master and why he is the way he is and why he is the last of his race. There were other characters that were introduced, set up to be a key figure, and then just killed off on a whim. Perhaps it was done to show the utter chaos of this underworld, but some of these just seemed forced as if the author said to himself, "Gee, there hasn't been enough blood or violence in this chapter...here let me kill this person off. There that's better." I know this is billed as a horror novel and perhaps I shouldn't expect great exploration of characters, but boy does this book have potential if it could have been expanded. But despite the flaws, it was an enjoyable read and I would recommend. Just expect to have many questions unanswered at the end and to step away from this just bit unfulfilled. ( )

Typical of many books in this genre, as House of Blood opens, we find 5 twenty something’s crammed into a Honda Accord (and if that isn’t hellish enough all on its own…well, I don’t know what is - lol). They are arguing and the driver, one Dream Weaver (yea, you’re allowed to moan) quickly pulls off the interstate onto an off ramp that will be the last one most of them ever take. House of Blood is really 4 stories that weave together to tell a larger tale and which the author tried to deftly create seemingly independent threads that would ultimately lead to a horrifying whole cloth…unfortunately, Smith doesn’t quite pull it off. The story lines include the group in the car who (except for one unfortunate individual) make their way to an isolated house…a house where Eddie is desperately trying to escape…a house where Giselle seeks revenge on her master…and most of all a house that hides an entire underworld of desperation and hellish torture that the Master rules over with an iron fist (or does he?).

House of Blood had great bones and what appear at first to be compelling threads to a deeply twisted horror story...unfortunately what could be a great story turns out to be mediocre at best. Much of the action was predictable and kind of lurched along and the characters are lackluster and somewhat stereotypical (whiny nerd, gorgeous kind hearted blond, sluttish Asian girl, and the black best friend who says all the things no one ever says). I had a hard time really feeling much of anything for the characters, neither wanting to root for them or hope one of them really got what they deserved in the end. Additionally, the ending was kind of smooshed together where the author had all the threads come together. Unfortunately there really wasn’t any artistry to it…it was action that wasn’t very compelling or descriptive and which was extremely short and then bam, it was all over.

Overall…House of Blood was the mass market paperback equivalent of a “B” movie and I mean that in the nicest way possible. It had bad “acting” (characters), cheesy plot (that could have been stellar) and an ending that didn’t quite satisfy, but still it provided plenty of gore, outrage, depravity…and I don’t regret spending a few hours curled up with House of Blood. I give it three stars; it was entertaining, if a bit typical of the genre. ( )

Pretty good... kept me interested. ( )