House

The collaboration of Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker was something hailed by thriller fans as a fantasy combo. You can really feel both authors in this read. Dekker with his complex characters and Peretti with his deep descriptions of things supernatural. House is about a couple that gets stranded out in the middle of the Alabama woods (plenty of redneck/hick jokes available here) where they have to stay in a small house hotel. The couple meet up with another couple and soon find out that they were lured there to fulfill a sadistic killer's special game. They find themselves amassed in a game that involves the houses current residents as well as the house itself. The couple are confronted with their past mistakes as those mistakes can keep them from getting out alive.

House starts off strong. It doesn't take long to enter the action, and it comes hard and heavy. The characters are developed as the story goes along so you do become attached to them without it dragging the story. You'll get toward the end of the book and you'll feel like the story has so much more to it...then that's when it hits. House really feels like it needed to wrapped up before the book got too long so Dekker and Peretti whipped together a quick ending and called it good. My guess is that both authors had an entire book in them and when the editor found this out they were told to just wrap it up. The ending seems rushed and doesn't do the rest of the book justice, but that's the taste you are left with.

If you are a Ted Dekker or Frank Peretti fan, go ahead and pick this book up because you will enjoy how the book develops and they way these storytelling masters weave the writing. Just be prepared for a condensed ending. I give this one a 3 out of 5, because outside of the ending the book is great. House has also been made into a major motion picture.