House of Dark Shadows (Dreamhouse Kings, #1)

by Robert Liparulo

Dream house . . . or bad dream?

When the Kings move from L.A. to a secluded small town, fifteen-year-old Xander is beyond disappointed. He and his friends loved to create amateur films . . . but the tiny town of Pinedale is the last place a movie buff and future filmmaker wants to land.

But he, David, and Toria are captivated by the many rooms in the old Victorian fixer-upper they moved into--as well as the heavy woods surrounding the house.

They soon discover there's something odd about the house. Sounds come from the wrong directions. Prints of giant, bare feet appear in the dust. And when David tries to hide in the linen closet, he winds up in locker 119 at his new school.

Then the really weird stuff kicks in: they find a hidden hallway with portals leading off to far-off places--in long-ago times. Xander is starting to wonder if this kind of travel is a teen's dream come true . . . or his worst nightmare.

• ISBN10: 1595544941
• ISBN13: 9781595544940
• Publish Date: 6 May 2008
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Westbow Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 295
• Language: English

Reviews

[Metaphorosis Reviews]

I thought this was a great young adult horror story. Two brothers and their family move to a weird house in the middle of nowhere, and weird things start to happen. The kids are likeable, and credible in a horror movie sort of way. Frequent horror movie references, on the other hand, are one of the book's weaknesses. I'd have like the story to stand on its own without being propped up by frequent references. A few were fine for flavor, but Liparulo ladled on too many.

On the other hand, the story was engaging and fun. I wanted to see what was happening, and what the source of the mystery was. The ending was both too quick and too sudden. It's one thing to leave readers wanting more. It's another to basically put up a cliffhanger billboard saying "Buy the next book!". (You have to be half over the cliff to see the billboard. By then it may be too late.)

All in all, a fun read, and I may pursue the next in the series, if it's reasonably priced.

[Stephanie]

Definitely a solid set up for the rest of the series. I look forward to it.

[celinenyx]

This book was quite al right, exactly what you would expect from this kind of book, and in that maybe slightly predictable. The characters weren't as worked out as they could be, but it has enough potential for growth in later books, as this is part of a series. The fifteen year old protagonist acts a little bit below his age, I would expect a little bit more responsibility from him, especially concerning his younger brother, that gets into trouble quite a lot. The book mostly consists of a lot of action scenes, and that is the strenght of it. Other than those there wasn't that much of a strong story line going on. This book will probably appeal to younger boys quite a lot, there is enough adventure to keep 'em happy for a few hours. This book isn't suitable for a too young audience though, some scenes are quite gruesome.

[Stephanie]

Xander and his family are moving from LA to a small town for his dads job. They find an old house tucked back in the woods. It's kind of creepy and very old. So old the the Real Estate agent doesn't have it listed anymore. But the family moves in anyways and starts making it home. But Xander, and his brother David, think something is different with this house. Footsteps show up in the dust when no one has walked there, people sound like they're in one part of the house when they're on the complete other side. They even find a trapped door that leads them to the towns public school. But then Xander and David find a hidden door the leads to another part of the house that know one is supposed to know about. There they find many doors that lead to to different adventures of their own.

I have had House of Dark Shadows sitting on my bookshelf for about 2 years before I finally got my self to read it. I bought it because it sounded like a scary story. Then the concept never really appealed to me more than the other books I had. But I'm glad I finally got around to it because it was a nice surprise.

I really didn't know what I was going into when I began reading. I thought it was going to be a scary story, but it turned into more of a magical one.Though there were times when I was glad that I wasn't reading at night. There's also some time travel involved as well. Definitely didn't expect that.

The story line kept me intrigued and the ending was satisfying, though there was a little bit of a cliffhanger, because, another surprise to me, this is the beginning of a series. The prologue really had me wondering what it had to do with the story. I could not figure it out. But it came all together in the end and made complete sense.

Xander and David find themselves in some crazy situations. I mean, finding yourself in the middle of a fight in the Roman Colosseum? That's a little terrifying. I also found it a little funny that David and Xander decided to share a room because they were creeped out by the house, but then their little sister, Toria, slept in her own room by herself.

Overall, this was a fun, solid good read. It has some action in it that will keep you on your toes, and some creepy moments. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to go on a little adventure, and be a little creeped out.

[inlibrisveritas]

As a free download from Amazon for my Kindle I wasn't expecting a masterpiece, and in all truth it really wasn't. But it was fairly interesting and the beginning really had me wanting to read more. It started off as kind of a creepy book so I was tense for a bit but then after chapters of nothing but normal stuff it finally got to a bit of adventure with the house, and then finally creepy again toward the end. Other then young adult and fantasy I'm not sure where this belongs in the genre scale. It was creepy in two main places, it had some mystery in the same two places but the rest was all normal.
I probably won't be looking for the second one unless it too is free, and I don't think this will stand out in my mind for years to come.