Haunted House
Written by J.A. Konrath
Narrated by Rob Shapiro
4/5
()
About this audiobook
But there is something evil in this house. Something very evil . . . and very real. And when the dying starts, it comes with horrifying violence and brutal finality. There are much scarier things than ghosts. Things that will kill you slowly and delight in your screams. Things that won't let you get out alive.
J.A. Konrath
Joe Konrath has sold more than two million books in twenty countries. He’s written over thirty novels and over a hundred short stories in the mystery, thriller, horror, and sci-fi genres. He’s twice won the Love is Murder Award for best thriller, and has also won the Derringer Award, and the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award, and has been nominated for many others including the Anthony, Macavity, and Gumshoe. Konrath edited the collection These Guns for Hire, and his fiction has appeared in dozens of magazines and anthologies including Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, Cemetery Dance, The Strand, Thriller edited by James Patterson, and Wolfsbane & Mistletoe edited by Charlaine Harris (True Blood). He’s considered a pioneer in self-publishing. His blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, gets several million hits per year, and Konrath has been featured in Forbes, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, Playboy, USA Today, Time, Woman's World, the LA Times, and the New York Times among many other periodicals. He also blogs for the Huffington Post. Find out more at www.jakonrath.com.
More audiobooks from J.A. Konrath
Trapped Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wild Night is Calling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Origin: A Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Draculas: A Novel of Terror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crime Stories: Twenty Thriller Tales Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Killers Uncut Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The List Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Horror Stories: Twenty-Six Scary Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Endurance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disturb Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Serial Uncut Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Timecaster Supersymmetry Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Suckers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Timecaster Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Exposed: A Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Floaters: Three Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Planter's Punch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babe on Board: A Harry McGlade/Jack Daniels Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jack Daniels Stories: Fifteen Mystery Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Haunted House
Related audiobooks
Ghost Mine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Afraid Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nightmare Room Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Ride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Haunted Forest Tour Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hungry Ones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House by the Cemetery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Splendor of Fear Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Endurance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bookshop from Hell Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disturb Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Revelation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghostland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Will Haunt You Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Messy Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Resort Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Horror Stories: Twenty-Six Scary Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Haunting of Cabin Green: A Modern Gothic Horror Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Sorrows: Fiction Without Frontiers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nightingale House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Town Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vanishing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lineage: A Supernatural Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twelve Nights at Rotter House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghost Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Savage Species Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The List Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Parts: A Supernatural Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon House: The Haunting of Demler Mansion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
General Fiction For You
A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Court of Thorns and Roses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Court of Frost and Starlight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Court of Mist and Fury Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Omens: A Full Cast Production Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Court of Wings and Ruin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5And Then There Were None Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5American Gods [TV Tie-In]: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Three-Body Problem Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Return of the King Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Neverwhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wishful Drinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Haunted House
227 ratings30 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I thought it would be hokey when I saw the title. The characters were so good; it was worth the read. Wanted more than the ending provided.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow he does it again. Loved it! Keep it up!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loved every inch of this book and the narrator brought it home. It had it all and I can't wait to read more of the authors work. It was not my first book by him and wont be my last. Wish all books can give u the same intense feelings and excitement that a good author/narrator combination brings. Brutal and gorey not for weak stomached readers but great for the real horror fan.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kept me going till the end. Fun narration. Worth the listen.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It was a pretty solid book. Definitely kept me wondering.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5HOLY WOW. The authors I have found on this ap... man this book was amazingly great! I loved the story, the writing style and everything!!!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Is it high art? No. But that's not the intention so I'm giving 5 stars despite a few flaws. Haunted House is a 90's horror movie in book form. But with much, much more gore.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I have no idea why I thought I WOULDN'T love it! Once again; Konrath takes the typical horror/suspense trope and makes it something so original and unique you don't forget it! Warning: This book has some very gruesome scenes of violence in it. I LOVED it! Can't wait to start the next one.
5 ????? - Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I couldn’t get past the lunatic masturbating with his own blood while mutilating himself. I was looking for something a little more about haunted houses and a little less masturbation however, if that’s what you are into then this is the book for you! That was just the first few weeks paragraphs just FYI.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Can you stand the most terrifying night you can imagine?
Great premise! Unoriginal execution.
I got to Chapter 20. And then skipped to the end.
Spoilers***
Ghosts of cruel slaveowners and ghosts of enslaved people who suffered under cruel experiments terrorized the 8 people chosen.
Overly reliant on dominatrix's jokes to move weak writing.
Glad I skipped to the end. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing book! Second half was so very good! Kept me hooked the whole way.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wonderful! Scary. Id listen on my way to and from work and found myself not dreading the commute while listening to this!
Characters were believable and you could empathize with them. Found myself rooting them on so much..hoping for the best. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very entertaining and action-packed! I am excited to see more from this author.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Loved the twist and turns . Definitely recommend , it's a good thriller.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Incredibly immersive experience. The book is fantastic, albeit stressful, gory and horrifying in places. Well worth the read/listen!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fun book, really great narrator!
Nice, scary, sometimes gross haunted house story uniting some survivors of previous Konrath novels fighting against a “fear experiment”
Narrator (Rob Shapiro?) was fantastic. I’d listen to anything he read - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5JA Konrath is my absolute favorite horror/thriller author. I can’t put his booked down!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If you give it a real try, this turns into a good book. It was a little slow until about halfway through, but I quite enjoyed the story.
Don’t let the narrator’s semi-monotone voice put you to sleep. I’ve listened to plenty more audiobooks with better, more animated narrators, but he gets the job done. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Needs to be a movie.... kinda obscure but the best of both worlds action and horror
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What made this book so great? The humour. The story is genuinely terrifying--much scarier than I expected--and it's also touching, suspenseful, and in places, sweetly funny. I read horror novels and thrillers to relax, but here I am, leaving a review at 4:30 a.m. because I couldn't put this down. The plot and characters were engaging all the way through, but it was the writing that really had me smiling, even during the grim bits.
There was one moment in the book that struck me as utterly absurd, which (though amusing) nearly ruined the story for me--but it was the laugh at the end of the action, the gag that lets you know the worst is behind you, so I let it slide. Besides, I don't recall the last time I truly couldn't put a book down; this deserves 5 stars, despite a couple of moments that nearly broke my immersion completely--they were possibly put in on purpose, to do just that.
One more warning: I regularly listen to gruesome serial killer novels to drift off to sleep, and this kept me up. Well worth a listen if you're not too easily frightened (or you're like me, and you're willing to sleep with the light on). Great book!
Oh, and top-notch narration, too. Absolutely chilling when required, and warm and lively when the dialogue called for it. Just great all round. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It’s not a badly written story. It’s really not. But the story itself is what it is, a lot of cheap thrills with no real plot.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not bad but a little fast moving. Some characters need not building up. A little confusing at times on who is who.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a great horror book - finished reading this book in two days - couldn't put it down. A real page turner. This was the first time I've read anything by this author, so I'm looking forward to reading the rest of his books. If you like horror novels, you'll love this book!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You can meet the characters that are offered the million dollars to stay the night in the Butler House (it's a real place),and learn their frightening experiences that qualified them to receive the invitation in the previous 8 books. It was interesting to be brought back around to so many familiar characters, to be able to see them all in one setting. I think the idea of the book is brilliant. They all receive visits from mysterious government agents inviting them to take part in a fear study from which they'll receive a million dollars. This unlikely start is actually the best part of the book, as it builds the tension of what is to come nicely. Unfortunately the pacing is a bit off, it takes half of the book to get to the point of the test and then when it does get started it throws it all at you at once. It switches from the tense build up to shock horror very quickly, the writing is still good, but it all becomes a bit rushed. The reveal is also a bit disappointing, although there is a bit of a fun tease there. So while the book didn't quite attain the early promise it is far, far from a bad book. The writing is great and it is...in spite of the subject matter, a fun read, especially if you enjoy purer visceral horror.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shortly into HAUNTED HOUSE, I thought Konrath had an awesome idea. He took the survivors from his previous horror novels (the Konrath Dark Thriller Collective) and put them all in a new horror novel. It was sort of the ultimate sequel and shared-world novel combined into one. However, it wasn't too much longer afterwards that I started cursing at Konrath in my mind. Most horror novels involve one or more people dying. Here were all these great characters who went through hell and survived; now it is almost certain that some if not most of them are going to die. Not fair!Anyway, the lure to many of them there was a combination of one million dollars and help to test a medicine to defeat fear. All the characters were dealing with the fear from their previous novels in one way or another. I didn't recognize all of them but those I did remember were going through some serious PTSD. Borderline too much in a couple cases. I don't know if this was on purpose or not but his idea of bringing back the survivors was a great way to immediately build some caring and emotions for the characters. Here's a bunch of characters that were stuck in a terrible situation not just once but twice! In my mind, I was making my Who Dies First list and constantly changing it at each scene. I'm not going to ruin any surprises but I will admit that by the end of the book I was back to praising Konrath. Now I need to fill in the gaps of what I missed and see if he uses the idea again.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A little too graphic for my taste.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Ok, here go's. the short chapters for each off the characters made the book feel kind of like I was channel surfing, it was choppy and by the time I got back to a character I didn't really care what was about to happen to him or her anymore. most of the time I forgot who was doing what and I didn't figure it out until it switched back to a difren't person. over half of the book was getting the characters to the house, then about 30% was cheap jump out and scare you type thrills in which everyone is completely terrified but around 80% in the cop figures everything out because of some obscure thing that a secondary character says. it makes no sense to me at all and the bad guy had to explain everything to us, then all of a sudden for some reason the characters that have been completely terrified the entire book all decide they are no longer scared and start fighting back at the same time with no interaction between each other or reason to quit being scarred. the entire story is full of holes like the fact that the stuff that the bad guy is extracting from their blood had to be removed with a machine that is hooked up to you while you are scared yet no one is hooked up except for the cop after he figures it out, or the couple who figure out the ghosts are fake but then they run into the other family on their way out and apparently forgot that they are not ghosts until they figure it out again later. the entire book is full of typos and wrong words used, it is worse than a lot of the never heard of authors I have downloaded freebies from in the past. some of konrath attempts at humor made me chuckle and other stuff was completely retarded like the monkey riding on a dog with a tiny gun racing to the rescue. even the fact that he tried to add some humor is a huge disappointment because it is suposed to be a kilborn novel and none of those up to this one had any humor, they where dark, violent, and scary with no comic relief. that's what I expected of this one as well. this is the first review that has ever made me wish goodreads did half stars because this one didn't even deserve one star.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This can be read as part of the Afraid series or alone. All of the main characters have back stories which are explained in more depth in previous books and well enough for the purposes of the Haunted House story.The characters are gathered at the Butler House to take part in a fear experiment. Once they arrive, strange events begin to happen. Is it real or imagined and will they survive?A few typos along with page and paragraph spacing issues cause minor distractions especially early on in the book.The writing is vivid and if the reader allows it, creepy. The characters are likeable if not fully developed in this story.Throughout the tale, there is a sense of foreboding. The authors do a great job with their descriptions both of places and of events.Overall, a fast paced thrilling read!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I enjoyed this book; each scene was labelled with a character’s name and location instead of different chapters. My favorite lines: 1) “Fear of the unexpected. Also known as dread.” 2) “I work for a newspaper. We newsies know all the lowlifes.” 3) “Depending on your past, one man’s paranoia was another man’s common sense.” 4) Funny how she routinely contemplated suicide, yet now that her life might actually be threatened she wanted the gun for protection.I loved the flow of the author’s writing style–the pacing of the sentences moved smoothly. I’m a huge fan of the fast paced, action packed, short clipped sentences. I was confused why some character’s dialogue was all italics while some weren’t. But the author did a great job of characterization; it was easy for me to keep track of everyone involved in the story. This was the first novel I’ve read of Jack Kilborn, and I would try another.I was expecting the story to start off at the Butler House, but that didn’t happen until way later in the book. I wasn’t expecting it to take that long to get to the juicy, scary parts but it wasn’t the end of the world that I had to wait. The characters’ interactions with each other (strangers meeting for the first time) was interesting.Once the hauntings started happening, chills ran down my spine. The descriptions of the ghosts and the way they tortured people were very vivid. I could picture it in my head like a movie. However, there’s a twist. Is the place even really haunted? You’ll have to read the book to find out.I RECOMMEND this book to read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Kilborn’s horror novel, eight people, each with a terrifying experience in their past, will enter into an experiment in fear. These survivors don’t frighten easily and they are capable of fighting back when necessary. Each is paid one million dollars to spend a night in the old Butler House—a supposedly haunted house where grisly murders were committed years ago.They are allowed to take whatever they want with them as long as they stay the entire night. But real evil dwells within the walls, and when the dying begins it happens violently. There are things more frightening than ghosts living there and they thrive on the terrified screams of their victims.A well told frightening tale that I couldn’t read in the dark.