You can't go wrong in the horror genre by picking up a Tim Waggoner novel. Everything I've read by him is quite unique, and I'd recommend his work to any fans of the genre. This book won't let you down.

4 Stars!

Tim Waggoner writes some strange books. Strange and yet entertaining, enthralling even. I have been a fan of Waggoner’s novels for a long time and he always crafts a terrifying and fun story. The Forever House promised the same chills and thrills as his previous novels and I was eager to dive in for another adventure in his unforgettable style.



The Eldred are of an ancient race that feeds upon the negative emotions of humans. When they moved into The Blood House, it seemed as if they found the perfect residence. It was the site of brutal murders when a mother had murdered her children and husband before killing herself. No human wanted to live in that house but the Eldred saw it as a great opportunity to harvest a bumper crop of human suffering. The residents of the court had come to grips living beside the site of such great horror. Little did they know that the horror had just begun.



The residents of this court in suburban Ohio were flawed as is everyone in the world. The Eldred were here to feed, though, and to do so must expose those flaws for all to see. The Blood House is the perfect conduit for them to unleash their horror on the world and draw out the negative energy of the human soul. The Blood House is open for business once more and this time no one will get out alive. With their basest traits exposed, the neighbors must come together against the otherworldly power of the Eldred in order to survive their trial of terror. No one may get out of The Blood House alive again unless they can band together and even find allies in the most unlikely places.



The Forever House is one of the stranger books that I have read in a while and I do not mean that in a bad way. This book often kept me on my toes as I tried to figure out what was going to come next and that is something I cannot say about a lot of books. Waggoner has a very unique voice and his twisted vision of the darkness that lies around the bends and corners of the world always makes for interesting stories but The Forever House really stands out for me. Waggoner takes time to set up the characters and the story so that I felt there was going to be more to this story than just a bizarre horror tale. There is so much more here, too, so the anticipation turned to reality. This is a very strange story, even bizarre, but there is also a heart at its center.



If you have never read anything from Waggoner before, The Forever House is a good place to start. The elements that make his novels work are all present here and this makes for very entertaining read. I thought the story bogged down just a touch at times, which is really the only reason I am not giving it a five-star rating, but I enjoyed the mixture of the bizarre and sometimes borderline extreme horror with the strong characterization of the story that creates that unique Waggoner-esque tale. This novel is highly recommended for all horror fans.



I would like to thank Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for this review copy. The Forever House is available now.

4.5/5

If you’re looking for a perfect read that blends horror, fantasy, science-fiction, paranormality, and sheer psychological terror into one novel, then you should check this out

The Raines house (“House of Blood”) has sat vacant for a period of time on Brookside court, and residents of Rockbridge, Ohio remain adamant about its future occupancy. After all, that’s where Claire Raines slaughtered her family a few years back. A wearied real estate agent eventually closes on the property, and the Eldred family moves in for reasons I cannot divulge in.

I should mention that all of the neighbors of Brookside court have excess baggage of their own-addictions and deviating sexual behaviors to name a few-and although these various vantage points obstruct the progression of the beginning, it pays off in the end.

Loved this book. Plenty of devious surprises and crackling suspense, along with interesting characters. Just the sort of book to cause a lack of sleep, but I won't complain! Highly recommended.

*This book was provided to me as an ARC at no charge in exchange for my honest review. My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to participate in this program.*

The Forever House
Author: Tim Waggoner
Publisher: Flame Tree Press
Page count: 304pp
Release date: 26th March 2020

TW: Historical child abuse, Self Harm

Published by Flame Tree Press, ‘The Forever House’ is a contemporary horror novel from Bram Stoker award-winning author Tim Waggoner.
Waggoner is a writer willing to risk new techniques and writing styles, to utilise existing horror themes and experiment with these in order to rise above an oversaturated market.
This novel – which is a modern ‘haunted house’ story, is rife with atmosphere and a brimming sense of discomfort, pushing against the boundaries of mainstream genre fiction.
‘The Forever House’ of the title is an unoccupied home on a pleasant ‘suburbville’ location, Brookside Court, following a brutal murder there in the past.
The home remains empty until the arrival of new family, ‘The Eldreds’.
Together, ‘Father Hunger’, ‘Mother/Werewife’, the ‘Low Prince’, ‘Nonsister’ and Grandother (who rides in the trunk) form the supernatural and dysfunctional family who are looking for a place to call ‘home’, and to hunt.
Their feeding ground is now Brookside Court; it’s prey, the hapless residents.


Combining almost ‘Lynchian’ visuals with traditional horror tropes, Waggoner invents a number of surreal creatures to inhabit the world.
Firstly, we have ‘Machine Head’, butler to the Eldreds, who uses decaying bodies to attach himself to – yes, he is literally a sentient head - so that he may assist the family with their mission to terrorise the new neighbours. The vehicle the Eldreds use is the similarly absurd, ‘Car’; a personified, hellish automobile; a nightmare of Geiger-esque proportions.
When first spotted by local Neal, it appears as “the blackest black he’d ever seen ... as if someone had taken a giant sheet of black construction paper and cut out the outline of a truck.”
There is the crux of the novel ‘The Forever House’.
Put simply; appearances can be deceiving.
Beneath the semblance of suburbia, and home, lies a buried darkness, easily teased out to reveal its truth.
It is the ‘rotten orange’ to borrow a turn of phrase from Shakespeare.
Walls and floors move, people can be tortured with a flick of the wrist.
Very much like the 80s movie The ‘Burbs, or perhaps the Twilight Zone Movie, there’s delightful irony in this book as neighbours critique each other based upon assumptions and appearances, yet no one is without fault or sins.
Waggoner has often dealt with themes of ‘other’ in his works.
Who is really the monster? Are actions more important than words?
Are any of us, truly, without sin?
After all, ‘Machine Head’, a disembodied mechanical being owned by the Eldreds is the one who shows heroism towards young Vivienne, the only child resident of Brookside Court.
Taking a risqué approach, Waggoner also shows a different side to Spencer; an abuse sufferer who has paedophilic tendencies he has never acted upon – through his transformation, from deviant to hero, showing a potential for character growth.
‘The Forever House’ is particularly relevant right now, as Waggoner explores how humans can band together, become better people, and thrive in the face of adversity, just we find ourselves doing amidst the current coronavirus crisis.
As such, it is a painful read, but most definitely essential for horror aficionados.

Unfortunately, I could not finish this book. If I keep putting a book aside and would rather re-read an oldie but goodie, that tells me that this is not the book for me.

We've all had bad neighbors. I imagine every adult has a few neighborhood horror stories....from people who don't close their blinds and display things nobody wants to see...to the usual fare...nosy busybodies, thieves and judgmental pricks. We've all had less than wonderful people residing near us at one time or another.....

But the people in Rockridge, Ohio have it much worse than any loud, pesky annoying people we have ever come across. The Eldreds move into a house infamous for being a site of murders and a suicide. The Forever House is just what they are looking for. Prime real estate. The Eldreds feed off dark, negative emotions. And they are hunting for prey.

The feel of this book reminded me a bit of Needful Things by Stephen King. A sinister presence feeding off the bad things inside a town's residents....destroying them and consuming them because of the secrets, desires and wickedness they are all hiding. What secrets are hidden in ANY neighborhood?? Would the Eldreds enjoy living on your block??

Very creepy story! This is the second book by Tim Waggoner that I've read, and I want to read many more of his books! He never fails to completely freak me out!

Very creepy story with some outstandingly uncomfortable moments! Loved it!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Flame Tree Press. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

Really Creepy Story!

The Eldreds have move into a house in a nice neighbor that has been vacant for quite awhile due to a mass murder taking place and the structure is known as "The House Of Blood". The neighbors are very curious about this new family so when they are all invited to an afternoon barbecue they will all attend even though uncomfortable feelings and thoughts about the new family are starting to bother them. The afternoon will bring about some strange occurrences but nothing compared to when the Eldreds decide to call them back over later that night and they will all wish they had never encountered their new neighbors. The wonderful television star Mr. Rodgers would have changed his song if he had only known about the Eldred family. Beware of your new neighbors!

This was a real down and dirty horror story. The Eldred are scary, creepy, cruel and evil. This book was not easy to read, I almost DNF at 25 percent in but felt I should continue and the story did get better but there were some really uncomfortable parts (pedophilia and incest) that really took away from the fun horror aspect of the book. There were a lot of characters which I enjoyed but unfortunately I couldn't connect with them to really care about what happened to any of them. I'm not sure why there was such a disconnect and the haunted house theme just seemed to go on too long and I just wanted the story to end so I could finally know the outcome of this horrorfest!

I want to thank the publisher "Flame Tree Press" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this copy and any opinions expressed are unbiased and my own!

I want to say that there are many readers who will enjoy this well-written horror book but it may not be for all horror readers and I have given the rating of 3 Horrific 🌟🌟🌟 Stars!!

Waggoner puts the dys into dysfunctional, the dark desires into monsters and defines the reality in this story with society’s acne covered underbelly. I have to say, the idea of monsters feeding on people’s negative emotions? It has been something of a theme/topic in my household for a while. It’s a concept that has arisen due to the events in the world and the way unfortunate events and status quo is delivered by media that simply makes one think of scaremongering to feed the panic, in turn to feed the world’s many monsters.
It took the story a while to get going but it was necessary – to get to know all the people living in the cul de sac that the Eldreds have decided to funk up this time. And it’s important to know the characters well – their views on life, their individual wart covered personalities, But once the story gets going, it gets going. And all in all, it’s just a colorful mix and match of everything that can be wrong and taboo in our society – this is what the Eldreds thrive on!
Who are those Eldreds? Glad you asked! They are these beings who feed on negative emotions. Of course, they also create the situations to help people act and feel decidedly out of sorts to ensure every drop of any kind of negative emotion will surface. They are beings that kind of look like humans but also give off this vibe that they’re not quite? It’s as if your human brain sees what it’s meant to see but your senses give off this immense vibe of ‘wrong’.
The Forever House delivered discomfort, standing hair (not in ovation, rather in disgust), fascination and relief that this is, in parts at least, fiction. Goes without saying, this book is perfect for midnight reading, aye. So, heed my warning- unless you’re a hardcore specimen who can take the dirty, filthy humanity with all of its horrors, then this book is probably not for you. Trigger warnings delivered through graphic content. The Forever House is unlike anything I’ve encountered before – packs a punch, for sure, and makes me want to bleach the world of its impurities!

The forever house by Tim Waggoner.
Rockridge, Ohio, a sinister family moves into a sleepy cul de sac. The Eldreds feed on the negative emotions of humans, creating nightmarish realms within their house to entrap their prey. Neighbors are lured into the Eldreds' home and faced with challenges designed to heighten their darkest emotions so their inhuman captors can feed and feed well. If the humans are to have any hope of survival, they'll have to learn to overcome their prejudices and resentments toward one another and work together. But which will prove more deadly in the end, the Eldred . . . or each other?
A brilliant read. Creepy. This was weird. But I loved the story. 5*.

I've never read anything by this author in the past but will definately read his previous books. Apparently he has written 40 others over 20 years. Will be buying them asap

ANOTHER TWISTED WINNER FROM WAGGONER!

I've been devouring Tim Waggoner's novels since I first received LIKE DEATH back in 2004 as part of the Leisure Horror Book Club and he remains one of the most consistent horror authors of the 21st century. Some people have described his writing as Lovecraftian, but I'm not sure I agree. His ideas definitely tend toward the weird, yet I consider his constantly growing mythology to be completely unique... Waggonerian, if I may coin a term. He is certainly influenced by Lovecraft; however, I would venture that his writing has also been shaped by Clive Barker and Bentley Little as well.

This latest novel may be my favorite of his yet. The villians of The Forever House, the Eldred, are vile creations that rival Barker's Cenobites and Little's ever-present entities who run the world beneath our oblivious nose. I thoroughly recommend this book as one of the best books of 2020 so far. Keep adding to your universe, Tim. I'll be in line to snatch the next chapters up as soon as they are released.

It's rare that it takes me a full week to read a book as short as The Forever House, which clocks in at only 288 pages, and I wasn't entirely sure I was ever going to finish it. There were a number of times where I wasn't sure I even wanted to finish it, so strong was the urge to DNF this one. For the most part, I typically enjoy Tim Waggoner, but this one was a slog. I also think it might have been a case of 'the wrong book at the wrong time' for me. People being trapped in a house to be murdered by interdimensional oddities while I am also trapped in a house during a period of self-isolation from the coronavirus and trying not to be murdered by a killer virus outside was maybe not the distracting mood read I was looking for.
Waggoner's books typically deal with the fantastical and supremely bizarre, all wrapped up in elements of cosmic horror with plenty of the grotesque. The easiest classification for a broad segment of his work is simply strange. He writes weird horror fiction, typically grounded by the normal day-to-day and a cast of Common Man humans that you either root for or against. His books also call for a supremely large suspension of disbelief, given the amount of dark fantasy elements he tends to incorporate.
The Forever House is one such book. It involves a strange family that makes The Addam's Family crew look positively milquetoast moving into a subdivision. The Eldreds occupy a house that was the site of a notorious murder-suicide some years before, and they've arrived to make this tiny cul-de-sac their new hunting grounds after luring their neighbors over for a visit. There is nothing even remotely familiar about the Eldreds, largely since they're beings from a higher plane of existence that feed on humans and only vaguely appear human when they want to blend in (but if people look at them too long, that person starts to get eye and head aches).
The Forever House is a sort-of haunted house story, with lots of cosmic horror elements, and the usual Waggonerian elements I've come to expect, which largely involves super strange characters with rather goofy names (here we get villains like Father Hunger, Werewife, Grandother, the disembodied robot head named, appropriately and sillily enough, Machine Head, and Nonsister), doing all kinds of nasty things to the humans they encounter. The main problem, though, is that this book is simply a slog to get through. It's overwritten, with a lot of repetition in the details (we're told in two subsequent paragraphs nearly identical information about a domain called the Gastrotorium, and Waggoner has a tendency to repeatedly introduce the Eldreds by both names, reminding us on multiple occasions, for instance, that Vanita is also called the Nonsister), and a number of otherwise pointless bits of information (do we really need a paragraph on where the light switch is in relation to a patio door in the kitchen that overlooks the yard so people can sit at the table and have a nice view, in a house we hardly spend any time in, in a room that only one character visits once?) that seemingly serve only to boost the word count and meet contractual obligations.
It doesn't help any, too, that the large cast of characters are also not very interesting. There's Isaac, the self-proclaimed genius who believes himself superior to all of his neighbors; Martin, the gambling addicted bigot with Make America Great Again bumper stickers; Neal, who doesn't know how to cope with his wife's recent revelation that she's bisexual; Alex, a college kid; and Spencer and Lola, an obese 40-something pedophile obsessed with the preteen girl next door, and his mother, who murdered her husband. For the most part, these aren't very pleasant characters to read about, and there was more focus on incest and pedophilia than I was really comfortable with. On the side of the bad guys, the Eldreds all felt pretty one note. They have a singular goal as a family unit, even if there is a bit of a divide between the younger generation and their elders, and they go about doing things in the strangest way possible, because that's just what Waggoner likes to write about.
It's not all bad, mind you -- the climax is kind of interesting, in fact, even if I don't fully buy into what the book's resolution points toward -- but it's a very dense, slowly paced read. The Forever House spends an awful long time setting things up while also not doing very much for nearly the entire first half of the book aside from presenting strangeness for strangeness's sake. It takes forever to get anywhere, and then it feels like it never's going to end.

You ever have neighbors who you thought were a bid odd, if not downright weird? I have, and I am sure that most of you who might stumble across this review have too. Let me introduce you to the Eldred family, if we can really call them a family at all. We have Father Hunger, the Werewive, the Low Prince, the Nonsister, the Grandother, and last but not least their humble servant Machine Head. They appear to be human but their true forms are the things of nightmares.

The Eldred's are new in the neighborhood. A quietly normal cul de sac in Rockridge, Ohio is about to become their feeding ground. Well, not really quite normal. You see this cul de sac is home to the infamous House of Blood, where an entire family was once murdered. And as you probably could have guessed this is the place that the Eldred's decide to call home.

The first half of this book was slow, but I don't mean that as a negative. It was like the quiet before the storm. Sticking with the storm analogy Waggoner does give us lightning flashes of violence between lulls of calm while we get the opportunity to know and care for the neighbors. Some have insecurities that they are struggling with, while others harbor darker secrets. These are the things that the Eldred will use to lure them unsuspectingly into their domains and conjure up their greatest emotions and fears to feast upon. In a way the Eldred remind me of Stephen King's Pennywise, entities that feed off of the emotions of humans.

Around the halfway point the calm dissipates and the full blown rage of the storm is unleashed as the feeding commences. We move from one grand set piece to another as the neighbors fight for their lives against the eldritch horrors within the house. Chock full of action and gore, horrors both real and otherwordly, Waggoner escalates the danger at every turn until the final few pages, piling up a high body count along the way.

I feel like I should mention that there are scenes of pedophilia in the book, one in particular was quite graphic, but they are all backstory regarding one of the characters and none of them felt grotesque just for the sake of doing so.

This was a blast to read, full of action and eldritch horrors with twists along the way that all led up to a satisfying conclusion. I definitely recommend giving The Forever House a read.

This was my first foray into the writings of Tim Waggoner and I thoroughly enjoyed the he took me on. I look forward to reading more from him soon.

I received an digital ARC of this book from the publisher through Netgalley for review consideration.

The Forever House, by Tim Waggoner is a book that I've been anticipating for some time now. You see, I'm guilty of cyber stalking the flametree press website. The minute they put up a new listing for a horror novel, I put a new listing on my TBR. This is my second book by Waggoner and I found myself satisfied with what I read.

This book, simply put, is crazy. That's the easiest way for me to describe it. I thought I was getting a haunted house book, this is so much more. The characters all felt very real, including one character that I found to be completely disgusting, as I imagine most readers will. There are some parts of this book that might cause readers to tap out, all involving this particular character. But, unfortunately, people like this exist in real life, so they will exist in books as well. That being said, the cast of characters here are quite diverse, and for the most part, act as if they were real people and not cannon fodder in a horror story. You find yourself rooting for some, and rooting against others, as it should be.

The writing itself is well done, Waggoner's prose is easy to read and keeps the story flowing naturally. Once things start getting unveiled, the book just keeps getting weirder and weirder, but not in a way that would turn me off. Waggoner excels at telling a creepy story and keeping this train on the tracks, even when he throws everything but the kitchen sink at the reader. From start to finish, I enjoyed The Forever House, right down to a conclusion that I didn't see coming.

As I mentioned previously, this is my 2nd Waggoner, and I'm going to be reading much more by the author sooner rather than later. The Forever House is an especially distinct title that manages to exceed expectations and keep the reader entertained.

Well, I must first thank netgalley and @FlameTreePress for introducing me to Tim Waggoner by inviting me onto this Blog Tour for The Forever House! Wow! A corker of a book! We are introduced to The Eldreds, a family who move into the reknowned House Of Blood, known by this name due to the murders and suicide that played out within the house years before. The house has since been empty due to these events being so well known, so when The Eldreds arrive, the neighbours on the close are naturally inquistive about them! The only problem is The Eldreds are not a family that are your typical next door neighbours! Let's talk about the family, there is Father Hunger, Werewife,Nonsister,Lowprince, car, Grandother and Finally Machine Head, yes, you read correctly, not exactly the Smiths or Jones's.The largest troubling factor is that they travel around searching for Humans to feast on. Finding a house that they make a welcome place for neighbours and then lure them in to feast on their fears and all sorts of negative feelings.
The House of Blood they have chosen is perfect for their needs as we come to find out every neighbour has their own issues, ranging from compulsive gambling to being a child abuser, this may be a trigger to some as it isn't nice reading at times.
If you want a horror story that is gut wrenching and will scare you to read with the lights off...go ahead! It is everything you need it will fill you with replusion and dread but you just need to carry on to the end! The Eldreds are not easily forgotten!

Rating: 6.5/10

I read The Forever House in a few short days, as it is a quick and easy read. When I was finished my first thought was: Wow! What did I just read? I had to sit back and digest this book to gather my feelings about it on many levels.

First of all, it is important for me to mention the trigger warnings. This book is VERY graphic and includes scenes of rape, molestation, and violence and gore. I like graphic books for the most part because I do not want authors to pull up short in their writing. I believe that if an author is not fully realizing their vision the book has the chance to comes across as an incomplete thought.

As for the graphic scenes in The Forever House, I did enjoy the violence and gore in this book. It fit in with the story well, and set the tone for the plot. This is horror, after all, and I want that type of atmosphere for my horror stories. I am a big fan of movies like Hellraiser, because I want those gorey scenes that are going to stick with me well after I have watched (or read) because they were so shocking. The Forever House gave me those same vibes. It kept me on the edge of my seat, and the plot was really unique.

I think the graphic rape and molestation scenes, however, were a detraction for this book. I know I just said I do not like it when authors pulls punches, but this is an instance where less would have been more. The scenes could have been written less graphically, the memories more blurry. This would have added to the atmosphere of the book, and the reader would not have had to experience some of the scenes so implicitly.

Overall, The Forever House is a good horror book. Think The Addams Family but add more murder. I recommend it for horror fans, with the caveat for those who are sensitive to the triggers mentioned above.

Posting today 3/30 on goodreads, Twitter, amazon, and instagram!

This story is about a family, the Eldreds, that travel together to feed on human fears. They are an odd family that are decades old but don’t look it. They search out a house that has a bad history in a cul-de-sac where families live with their own problems going on. This story contains multiple points of views and gives the backstory on all of them so that we know what the Eldreds are playing on to induce fear and insecurities. Some of this story is hard to read and I literally had put the book down once or twice. This story is not for some people and you have been warned. I thought this book was ok. The only issues I had with it were that the backstories were lengthy and the history of the house that is call “the house of blood” in the cul-de-sac was repetitive. The book really starts to amp up about half way through after reading all the backstories and current problems with the families. Then the Eldreds start to play on their weaknesses and that’s when it gets good. The Eldreds reminded me of some of the Japanese monsters i have read about and Tim Waggoner took bits and pieces of legends making them his own kind of monsters. I think the Japanese monsters are the scariest of them all!

If the Addams Family and the Klopeks (The Burbs) had a love child it would result in the Eldreds'. At least this is my first initial thought of them, this story is my first read from Tim Waggoner and my what a read it was! It was decidedly creepy and right up my street.

The characters are introduced to us in their own chapters, each one unique but not without faults, and this is what the Eldred seem to pray upon and use against them. The Eldred have moved into a house dubbed as the 'house of blood' due to the fact that 4 murders and a suicide took place here, this tragedy seems to be what the Eldred feed on the most and tehy have invited their neighbours in the little cul de sac to come for a cookout and welcome to the neighbourhood kinda party. It all seems relatively normal until we realise the ultimate motive behind the invitations.

This is a messed up creepy book, but I could not stop reading it until the wee small hours (not a good thing as hello it was creepy AF in some parts!) One of the character - Spencer had quite and uncomfortable story line, he was a paedophile steaming from years of abuse at the hands of his father. He lives with his mother and very rarely if ever leaves the house so as not to be be around children, however there is a child living across the road and his inner monologue of thoughts he has about little Vivienne was uncomfortable to say the least, and I guess that is good things as nothing about this book is comfortable! 

There is no happy ending in this book, only death and gore! Several deaths are warranted and even celebrated, but others not so much, my heart and head was all over the place reading this book as the pages turned knowing was coming before the person did.

I absolutely loved this book, and can't believe I have not encountered Tim's work before now!!

5 bloody, deadly stars!

The Eldreds are moving to this cul-de-sac where the Raines family used to live. Mother Raines killed her husband and 3 children in this home and then cut her wrists on the front lawn. It took a long time to get this house sold, but the Eldreds are doing it. They are moving in. The neighbors who live in that cul-de-sac have strange vibes from that new family. And they are right. Things are about to turn awefully gruesome in the neighbourhood!

This book is very well written, characters are presented to us in details, as well as their backgrounds. Each neighbor has a fear. Waggoner realistically spends enough time getting into their fear; what the source is and how this fear is affecting their lives. I was particularly amazed how one character with quite a disgusting trait, or should I say, psychological condition, turned into a person I felt so sorry for (sorry, trying not to spoil it for you). This shows high-level writing skills to achieve this feat!

If you are into supernatural, horror stories, give this one a try. You won’t be disappointed!

A big than you to Net Galley and Flame Tree Press for a this e-ARC in exchange for a honest review.