This book has been in my wish list for a while now so I was quite pleased when I found it for only $2.49 today! :D 

 

"Conjure House is a cosmic horror full of Cthulhu creepiness and meaty themes" —The Horrifically Horrifying Horror Blog

The village of Deepvale has a sinister past. Built in the 1400s, it has been home to a number of sordid characters, including Peter Suman, known locally as 'The Conjurer' due to the diabolical experiments he was rumored to have conducted during the 19th Century, in a dark old house beside a lake.

In the 1990s, after a bet with his elder brother and three friends, seven-year-old Simon Mallinson goes missing inside the now derelict Conjurer's House.

Fifteen years later, his brother Anthony is back in Deepvale, following the brutal deaths of his parents. And strange events have begun to occur in the village again, including the apparent return of young Simon and his creepy new friends. Worse still, Peter Suman appears to be back, too, bent on achieving what he failed to do over a hundred years earlier…

15 years ago, Anthony's younger brother enters an abandoned house where The Conjurer lived in the 1800s and performed evil experiments. After a bright flash of light, Ant's brother has disappeared. 15 years after his brother's disappearance, Ant's parents are murdered and he brings his wife and son back for the funeral. While there, they keep catching glimpses of small figures but blow it off as movements of the trees. Little did they know that one of those figures was getting close to his son to finish a ritual started long ago...

This was a very good read. The characters were well developed and I liked them. The creepy factor built up well from the figures to the Conjurer's house in the end and the attention to the small details was excellent! If you haven't read a Gary Fry book, pick it up and dive in!

2 1/2 Stars

15 years ago Anthony and his friends watched his younger brother go into an abandoned home called "Conjure House." A place with a haunted past that was owned by a man named Peter Suman who was said to run experiments in the house. Anthony's brother, Simon, never came back out.
15 years later and Anthony's parents are killed and it pulls Ant back to the home and memories he's left behind. Memories of the day his brother disappeared. Memories that won't stay in the past.

This sound good, right. I thought so, too. However, it was either the pacing or the dull characters (where was the hair-pulling, foot-stomping, eye-blazing, reactions to make the reader feel, become a part of the story?) that made this read slow-going and at times boring. The idea is great, it just doesn't grab you. There was too much supposition and self analyzing of the characters and what was going on to stay in the moment.

It was a decent read.

Read my full review: http://bit.ly/1btkqcm My opinion: I must admit that I found this novella to be slow moving and not very scary...even the parts that were supposed to be. As a result, it was difficult in keeping my attention. I expected more from this book (I was thinking the movie Poltergeist) than what was delivered.

This one started off a little slow for me and was a bit repetitive at times. The base story with the childhood friends coming home for a reunion has been done and the characters seemed a bit tired. The three friends that came back for the reunion didn’t really have any “skin in the game” and I was wondering why they were there and why they would even come back.

I did find the underlying premise very creative with “art” being a gateway to summoning dark entities and melding time - God’s-eye view as it is referred to within the story.

It sounds like I didn’t like this story, but I did. I found some parts very intriguing and well thought out, but there were some parts that seemed to be hammering elementary concepts over and over. I couldn’t get over the fact that the main characters wanted to move into the house after brutal murder of Anthony’s parents and the menacing undertone of the “Conjure House”. I also had a very hard time identifying with the young son Carl as his thoughts and language did not jibe with the age set.

With all that said, I still rather enjoyed the read, wish it was trimmed down a bit and I am eagerly awaiting Gary’s new one – Lurker.