Review - House at the End of the Street by Lily Blake

Seeking a fresh start, newly divorced Sarah and her daughter Elissa find the house of their dreams in a small, upscale, rural town. But when startling and unexplainable events begin to happen, Sarah and Elissa learn the town is in the shadows of a chilling secret. Years earlier, in the house next door, a daughter killed her parents in their beds, and disappeared - leaving only a brother, Ryan, as the sole survivor. Against Sarah's wishes, Elissa begins a relationship with the reclusive Ryan - and the closer they get, the deeper they're all pulled into a mystery more dangerous than they ever imagined.

So House at the End of the Street by Lily Blake is a book based on a screenplay based on a story according to the inside cover. I wanted to see the movie but I didn't want to see it without reading the book first.

Turns out, I probably should have just gotten the movie.

Elissa was a great character. I liked her from the beginning and felt sad for her. But she was the only character I got to know past a short description. There wasn't a lot of development of the other players in this story. It was like they were all thrown at you one right after the other. Which was sad because there were potentially some great stories behind those characters that we never got to see. Like Jillian. And Sarah we don't learn anything about until almost the very end of the book.

The build up in the first half of the story was good. I was getting excited for the stuff to hit the fan finally you know? But when the point finally came where that was supposed to happen it kind of fell flat. The first twist in the story was interesting, but somewhat predictable. I didn't see the curveball coming at the end though. Which kind of saved the book a little. It's too bad that that curveball didn't come until the epilogue.

To me, the end of the book just felt like it would if someone was trying to explain it to me like they'd seen it in a movie or something, but just couldn't remember all the details so it ended up being a "I guess you had to be there" kind of deal. It wasn't really horror to me. Not in the way I remember horror stories. And I used to LOVE them. They were the only kind of book that I'd read for a while. This wasn't thrilling and exciting like it was supposed to be.

I'm not sure I'd recommend the book to anybody. It would probably be better to just go see the movie.