In 1910, a young man called Eddie, who's mute, is taken from his family by his Aunt Theodora who is some very distant part of the family.

She takes him to live with her and promises to send him to some special school, instead she has him do chores around the place almost for an entire day.

Yet she asks him to never leave his room at night for some reason and Eddie soon finds out that the Aunt isn't as nice as she makes herself out to be when he is accused of murdering a little girl who he had made friends with.

Only he didn't kill the little girl and Eddie and a young woman who he falls in love with come to an unpleasant end.

Jump forward to the modern day and a woman called Katie Rodgers buys the house after her husband dies. Only thing is that as soon as she buys the house, she starts to have these odd visions where first she is watching a child running around the house, terrified, then she becomes the child.

It's then that she encounters a ghost, Aunt Theodora, who seems to recognise her. After that happens, Katie begins to question her own sanity and the house unlocks all it's secrets.

I loved the first half of the book, the characters are excellent, Eddie himself was great, the setting and descriptions for it all were just amazingly well written. I really got to like Eddie after a while, he was just a great character with a wonderful amount of character.

The second half of the book was a little disappointing. It was good enough in parts, but it seemed a little weak compared to the first half. Katie wasn't all that interesting an character and the newer characters seemed tacked on, at least there were good scenes when the past merged with the future.

Sleep, somewhat shattered lately.

Little bored after the second half, wanted to read something else.

This is the first of hers I've read, while she makes the start of the story a gripping read, it starts to slip near the end. I'll try her other books and see if they're any good.

The first half is gripping, very gripping and has you wanting to find out more about the Aunt and her warnings. When Katrina, the child who is murdered, finds out the truth, then it becomes very easy to figure out, yet still gripping enough to keep you reading.

The second half might have you yawning after a while, it's like every other horror then and drags on too long with unimportant scenes.

I wasn't sure about this book at first, I loved the 1963 film version of The Haunting and was hoping this would be as good, but it wasn't the same one.

While the first half of the story is gripping and well written, the second half is just a little predictable and dull. Maybe if the second half had been set only a couple of decades after 1910, it would have been better. Oh well, it's still a good read, just make sure you're more awake for the second half, enjoy the first half.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of The Haunting   from Amazon.Com!

Created Apr 04, 2003 at 8:12pm • Submit your own review...