My only real experience with Jack Kilborn (the pen name author J.A. Konrath uses when he's writing horror) was his work on the gleefully violent and twisted Draculas; having read one of his solo efforts now, it's not hard to see Kilborn's twisted imagination on display in that book's splattery nightmares. Haunted House boasts a variation on a classic haunted house premise: a set of research subjects, all of whom have survived unspeakable horrors, are brought to one of the most infamous haunted houses in America as part of a study on fear. (Apparently almost every character is a survivor of a previous Kilborn book; that's not a big issue, though, as the book's easy to follow not knowing anything about Kilborn's other books, but I'm sure long-time fans will enjoy the nods. New readers like me may occasionally wish for a bit more detail, but it's never a major issue.) What follows from there is pretty over-the-top stuff, with a lot of violence, a lot of gore, some seriously disturbing moments, and just generally a willingness to take everything to extremes. And as horror, it works like gangbusters, unfolding with a relentless pace and doling out horrors left and right. And just when you're starting to get your bearings, Kilborn tosses in a few great reveals that turn the story on its head, leaving you re-assessing a lot of what you've seen and evaluating it all in a new light. For all of that, Haunted House has some big weaknesses, including a somewhat repetitive finale that undoes a lot of the book's tension and some weirdly childish comedy involving a monkey that just left me groaning every time it showed up again. Those issues aside, though, I really enjoyed Haunted House for what it is: splattery, no-holds-barred horror that embraces its pulp sensibility and runs with it, delivering a great horror tale that's more than satisfying for genre fans. Is it rich or thematically complex or anchored with great writing? Not really...but it's a lot of fun, and it's pretty dang unsettling, and I'll take that anytime.
- Josh Mauthe
- Josh Mauthe
