Jen Dodd is annoyed when her husband, Josh, drags her from Wichita, Kansas, to Amityville, New York, to tour two supposedly-haunted houses. But she’s far more annoyed when he purchases one of the houses, forcing her to move across the country.
The Dodd family’s new home, dubbed by locals as “The Murder House,” is located across town from the Amityville Horror house that became famous in the 1970s. Despite having never heard of “The Murder House” before starting this journey, Jen will soon learn that it’s far more dangerous than its famed counterpart. The death toll of Jen’s new house is startlingly high. Now, she will have to fight to avoid becoming another victim.
Dark bleatings, my spooky tribe! Today I’m taking a look at The Amityville Muder House, a novel that draws from the real Amityville situation, the media and fiction inspired by it, and mixes those things with its own story.
Jen is married to Josh (second husband), and he is an absolute dick. He has an intense interest in true “supernatural” crime, with Amityville being at the top of his list. It’s a bucket list dream of his to see the real house, and he drags Jen on a cross-country trip to do so. It’s not really her thing, but she goes along with it for his sake. I think what the author did well was create an absolutely insufferable man in this Josh character. He’s almost too much of a twat to be believable, but unfortunately I can think of two guys off the top of my head right now that aren’t far off him, so I bought into their relationship and his character.
Not only does he continuously try to force his interests on his long-suffering wife, but he regards an inheritance he received as only his money, and is pretty spiteful to her at the mere suggestion that he should factor her in to any financial decisions. And not only the financial decisions, but enormous, life-changing things like, oh…. say…. buying up the murder house without even consulting her, and expecting her to just drop her life and move across the country and into a house where grisly murders took place. And she does! I could buy into him being this much of a twat but the reason Jen would actually put up with him felt a bit thin on the ground to me, until we get to the end of the book.
I’m really sorry to say that although I did like the initial premise, and was happily sitting there hoping to see horrible things happen to Josh, this book didn’t work for me as a whole. The further in I got, the more I could not fathom Jen’s decisions. The character work felt a bit too shallow for me to stay invested in any of them. And then, alas, there was the ending, which I won’t spoil, but….. I have a few pet peeves in storytelling, a few devices that I really can’t stand, and unfortunately for me, this book used my Number 1 Absolute Most Hated Trope Of All Time.
I’m sure that people who actually have an interest in Amityville (I don’t), and who aren’t blinded by a hatred of specific tropes, would have a much better time with this novel than I did, so I’d maybe recommend it to Amityville fans. If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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