Cover Image: The House that Fell from the Sky

The House that Fell from the Sky

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Member Reviews

I did not enjoy this book. I think that is mostly because I just didn't click with the authors writers style. I'm sure some people would love this book, it just wasn't for me.

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I just finished this book and I have no idea what to think. It started out good and interesting and I had the feeling the book and I would get along well.
Then came the second chapter and I felt like I was reading about a bunch of teenagers instead of people close to 30 and I became annoyed with the book and almost didn't finish it. I say "almost" because after the second chapter, my interest into this book was sparked again, so I kept reading.
Then, something I've ever experienced with a book before happened.
I read and I read, because it started to get really interested when they went to check out the house and then I glanced at the little number down on the page that tells me how far I've read in percentage. I was shocked and stunned to see that I had almost finished the book without realising it.
The issue is that I can barely remember anything that happened in the middle. It feels like reading the first few chapters and then, all of a sudden, I had already reached the end. Even if I am not fond of a book and don't want to remember the middle, I usually remember having read the middle...
However, the end made this book really worth the while. It starts with the car accident and from that, it picks up pace incredibly fast and I was completely smitten by the book once again. The ending almost broke my heart, which was not exactly what I expected. I felt for Scarlett when she lost her best friend and brother and I am uncertain whether I think there should/could be a second book or not. The ending was incredibly well done; I love a ending that sums up the book well while staying open, so there's room for a potential sequel.
I have no idea how to rate that book. The ending is 5-stars worth, in my opinion, but I am irritated about that missing middle.
Three stars seems a bit low, because that book wasn't medicore, except for the second chapter (I really did not like that second chapter...).
I think I am going to settle on four stars because I was positively surprised by the ending.

I received a free copy by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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🧡 Review 🧡
This book took me all last month to read. I'm not really sure why. It was a slow build I'm guessing is why. About halfway through it picked up and I finished in a couple days. The story isn't bad, it's actually effectively creepy and it's a great plot. The bond is what the story is really about. It's a good read for spooky time of year. Thank you to @netgalley and @patrickrdelaney along with the publisher Oblivion publishing for allowing me to read the book.
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Four Friends find themselves in front of a house that essentially falls from the sky. Out of nowhere this house appears in the middle of the city, and about a year after it appears they have a trial about who owns the house. The new owner of the house host a lottery for anyone who can survive the night in the house wins $1 million. Hannah, Tommy, Jackie, and Scarlet are all best friends who are into the house. There is one other man named Vincent who enters with them. The story is essentially about the bonding of friends and what we do for each other as friends with a super creepy factor mixed in.

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Based on the premise and the cover, I really wanted this to be a five star book. For me though, it wasn't. The book felt a little bit like adults put into the plot of a children's book, and the mix never really worked for me. I found myself having to frequently look back to see if I missed something as the scenes bounced around, and the dialogue was hard, sometimes, to tell exactly who was saying it. I'd definitely consider another book by Patrick Delaney, as there were points I liked, but the whole package was missing for me on this one.

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“The mind hangs by a thin thread, these unknown things, forever lost, upside down.”

This is a spooky story about, what else, a house that falls from the sky. A lottery is held to grant a group of people entry into the mysterious house that appeared out of nowhere one evening. Whoever is picked has the chance to win a million dollars each by entering the house. When a group of childhood friends end up winning entry to the mansion through said lottery, things quickly go topsy turvy and they must then fight to maintain their sanity and fight to escape.

This book definitely had potential, I’ll give it that much. The synopsis really pulled me in and I was intrigued to find out more about the house at the centre of the plot. I also thought the characters felt real in their struggles and relationships (apart from maybe Hannah). The last 10% of this book was enjoyable enough as well as the handling of monsters, but unfortunately the rest of the book really fell flat for me.

First of all, this book really suffered from pacing issues. The book is over 500 pages and it takes half of that for the story to actually get rolling. I can appreciate a character driven horror story, but this was just too drawn out. The house shows up at the beginning of the book but then A YEAR goes by before the main plot starts to unfold. I almost DNF’d this multiple times as there was just nothing substantial happening. When things did start to happen, suddenly there were multiple flashbacks that took me out of the story. I was also left with a ton of questions when I was done reading this. Where the heck did the house come from???? On top of all this, this book felt like a mashup of a bunch of popular horror books/media. Which would be fine normally, if said media weren’t directly mentioned in dialog with the characters. It just took away from the originality of the plot and made me roll my eyes a bit at the amount of pop culture mentioned.

Overall, this has its good moments at the end but I just wanted so much more from this one. I just felt myself wanting to get the book over with, which is not how I want to feel while reading. You might enjoy this book if you don’t mind a slow plot, but this just wasn’t for me.

Out 11/15/2020

*Thank you to Netgalley and Oblivion Publishing for giving me this eARC in exchange for an honest review*

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Hi friends! I received this book from Oblivion Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This book has already been published, so you can read it now if you’re interested! Although I received this book for free, all thoughts and feedback are my own.

Synopsis & Quick Thoughts
The House that Fell from the Sky is a standalone by author Patrick Delaney that isn’t your run-of-the-mill haunted house story. Twenty-nine year old Scarlett Vantassel isn’t happy with how her life has turned out. After dropping out of school and lacking inspiration with her once-successful horror blog, Scarlett returns home to connect with her family, friends, and roots again. However, the town of Winterview is in for a surprise when one October morning, a large Gothic mansion appears downtown, drawing questions and bringing horror to the area. A year later, it is announced that there will be a competition by lottery to spend a night in the home with a prize of a million dollars to those who succeed. When Scarlett and her friends end up as the chosen few, they will have to face horrors they didn’t know existed.

This book was a lot. For a very average-sized novel, I spent more time reading this than I have any book in a number of months. I feel like a common theme among books I’ve been reading recently, especially those of that fall into the horror/thriller genre, is that they’re often full of great ideas and concepts but lacking in execution. Unfortunately, The House that Fell from the Sky falls into this category to a near perfect degree. While the concept is exciting and I love a good haunted house story, the implementation is poor, especially in terms of writing and character development.

Positives
I really don’t enjoy saying that a book doesn’t have a lot of positives. For me, this was the case. However, I do believe that this book could be great for other people with different tastes in the genre. Some of the descriptions given for events and environments within the house were detailed and really creepy. The concepts concerning what went on inside the house (specifically with Scarlett and Vincent) where fun to read even if they were never fully explained at the end.

It’s hard to count an idea as a positive if it was poorly executed, but the concept for this novel was super unique and intriguing to me. I know it’s a cliché but I enjoy the competition/battle royale/survival of the fittest trope and based on the synopsis, this book appeared to fit that niche. I would be ranting and raving over this book if that trope was more fully developed and played out instead of the direction it chose to take, but I do think, all things considered, that this plot is unique and has a lot of interesting concepts.

Negatives
This review has taken me a while to write, and I don’t want to spend a long time nitpicking each negative aspect of this novel, so I’m going to focus on two main issues that hindered my enjoyment of this book the most: writing style and character development.

If I had to guess the target audience of this book based solely off writing style, I would assume that this book is for middlegrade readers who don’t have a lot of experience with horror novels apart from the occasional creepypasta. Taking into account the language and content of this book, I end up confused, as the material itself is suited for more of an adult or YA audience. There’s a lot of telling and little showing, and what few instances of showing there is is followed up by an explanatory clause that made it feel like the author didn’t trust me to follow along with his writing (a huge personal pet peeve of mine). The prose tended to be long and descriptive without saying much, and I feel like a more effective story could have been told in half the length.

I think the character developmental flaws is tied in to the strange writing choices, but is still a separate topic I think is important to discuss. It’s stated numerous times that all four of the main characters in this story are in their late 20s, yet constantly speak and think as if they couldn’t be more than seventeen (and none of this would be an issue if the author changed their ages!). None of the characters were overly likeable, more for a lack of development and ability to sympathize with any of them than any unlikeable personality traits they were given. Character relationships seemed flimsy and undeveloped, so the consequences of the climax of the novel weren’t anything that hit me too hard; even the characters didn’t seem too affected by the outcome of the plot. A shame, since improving the characterization of the protagonists could have saved this whole story.

Rating & Final Thoughts
I really, really wanted to rate The House that Fell from the Sky more than 2 out of 5 stars. I had never heard of this book before I requested it from NetGalley, but the cover and synopsis drew me in. I’m disappointed it didn’t live up to its premise, and the subpar writing style and character development made it somewhat of a slog to get through. I think there’s a real gem of an idea here, and I’d be interested in reading more from the author, but this one fell a little flat for me, although I would recommend it for a younger horror reader or a YA fan who is more of a plot-driven reader.

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Dnf at 35%.
This book just wasn't for me, the characters felt flat and juvenile, the non linear storytelling style made for disjointed reading and despite the intriguing premise the book failed to hold my interest.

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I loved this very much! The characters, the actions and even the plot itself! Very inspiring for my own book too!

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I found this book difficult to follow. It has massive potential but the pacing of the book was a little bit too jerky. It went from slow to fast to slow, although I have liked books in the past with pace changes this one just never really got the hook in me.

The characters I find have an amazing development, you can literally feel them grow as you read the novel. Scarlett is strong and brave, and throughout the novel you see even the bravest and strongest have their weak moments. She reason I felt for Scarlett's character so strongly is because the settings the author setup were so realistic I felt I was there with him. Honestly, the description of the house, and it's haunting features is what kept my hope alive long enough to finish the book.

Overall, the book was great but I felt that there could of been more work on Vincent Valledux's character.

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I wasn't able to finish this one. The characters fell completely flat and it didnt hold my interest.

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The House That Fell From the Sky sounds intriguing and certainly starts strongly. Scarlett is with her father when strange things start happening; A strange hum, booming noises, flashes of light, a coldness settling over everything. All of this happens within the first pages as does the discovery of the house that appeared from nowhere and could have simply fallen from the sky. Only no one can access the house as it seems to choose when and who can access its interior and those that do come out changed.

Imagine my surprise then when nothing happens with the house for a year. It just sits there. After the exciting first chapter, the first half of the book focuses on Scarlett, her friends, and what journeys they took to get them to this place and time. However, the timeline of the story is not linear which I found distracting. I just wanted them to hurry up and get in the house already! The back and forth time jumps exploring the characters' relationships were intended to serve the purpose of securing an emotional attachment to the characters but left me impatient instead.

Then comes the actual house. Its massive Gothic facade covers several city blocks. With "menacing" verandas and "pallid" eaves, there seems to be an attempt to anthropomorphize the house. I feel like the author really missed his calling as an architect. Onion domes and Cyclopean masonry--the descriptions are lengthy and wordy to the point of tediousness. Every new room explored inside the house involves description upon description. While, yes, we want to be shown what they are seeing, the focus on crown molding was unstimulating.

The House That Fell From the Sky fell flat for me. The idea is fascinating but I didn't find myself caring about the characters or cheering them on to win, except for Vincent the magician. There's potential for real horror here, but it's lost under all the copious amount of filler.

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First, I wanted to love this book so much, and it has a lot of positive things going for it in the first chapters. This was my first title from this author, and I was immediately intrigued by the book’s cover and description.

I like the idea /Premises/theme behind, and this storyline is kind of unique from typical horror stories. Also, the cover is very eye-catching, creative illustration work and the author has great imagination and creativity. An Adventure tour in a gothic mysterious creepy mansion is right up my alley.

That being said, there are few Minuses that make me land on 3 Stars.

For the entire story, I could not connect with the characters and felt the first half of the story is boring without a plot twist. There is too much description rather than actions, at one point I felt too much time spent describing things that aren’t that important. The main characters are almost adults but their dialogs and actions make me feel that I’m with a bunch of teenagers. But I like their friendship and the bond they have with each other.

This is more like a Fantasy Horror story where you feel you are in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory with a spooky vibe rather than going inside Haunted Hill house or Winchester mystery house.

That being said, I may not have been the perfect audience for this book. But I Still looking forward to reading more books from this author and recommend this book to anyone who loves to have an adventure in a spooky mansion.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.
I Highly Appreciate it for giving me a chance to read The House that Fell from the Sky.

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this had what I look for in a mystery horror novel, it had the suspenseful atmosphere and I really enjoyed reading this book.

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The House that Fell from the Sky has a glorious cover. I was so ready for a spooky haunted house story. I couldn't end up finishing this one. I got about 15% and realized it's taking way too long to get to the action. There's not even build up, it's just the characters interacting with one another. I wish that was shaved down a lot as I really wanted to enjoy this. I will come back to it at another time but as of now, I will not be finishing this title. Thanks so much for the copy of this book.

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I had high hopes for this book and even thought this would be the perfect Halloween read. Sadly it's not as great as I thought it would be. First of all, I think the author is really creative. For a debut, this is really imaginative. But I found the execution of the plot underwhelming. First, I didn't like the story going from the present to the past and back and forth. I didn't see the need for it. And so I think the book, this very long book could've edited more and shorter.

I also found the characters uninteresting and really can't see them as almost in their thirties. They're more like teenagers in my mind which is weird. I think no one among the main characters stood out. Scarlett is a bit lacking as the main character. Her character could do more polishing. I don't her to be perfect but it turns out that I would've loved Jackson or even Tommy to be the main character. Hannah, I don't like her at all.

Overall, this book is just an OK read. It's imaginative but definitely not creepy at all. It's a bit weird but not as interesting as I wanted it to be.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the review copy!

THIS BOOK WAS GREAT! I am a huge horror fan, rather it is books or movies. This book did not let me down. I loved this story so much. It gave me all feels I was looking for. I could see reading this in October and but I couldn't wait so I had to read when it when I got approved! This plot and story were done great and so easy to follow. I had all the chills I wanted from this. The characters were written very well! I felt like I was in the middle of Hill House! I loved this! I will make sure to check out other works by this author!

I highly recommend this read!

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Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book. I actually DNF this one. Maybe I will go back to it later? Just didn't like the writing style and it was longgggggg.

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I am a fan of horror and paranormal. It calls to me like the moon does the ocean.

Scarlett is a horror review vlogger who has had a change in her life and on the night of her final vlog a giant house- 7 stories of house- falls from the sky inter Winterview. No one knows the how or why of where it came from, but it is front and center and has everyone curious and in need of answers. The four friends find themselves drawn to the house for various reasons and win their way inside to try and find their own answers.

Will they be the same when they come out?

The characters came across as being older teenagers or young college kids, not the late twenty-somethings that they are. I found that sort of maturity lacking and almost a turn off as a reader. I will say that I did fall in love with some of the characters. Out of Scarlett, Tommy, Jackson, and Hannah; I will say that Jackson and Scarlett are definite favorites for me. Jackson was likeable from the get-go and a well created character with loads of personality and a great back story. Scarlett’s relationship to her dad was amazing and well drafted as well- it was a shame however that he just kind of fizzled out of the story. Hannah left quite a bit to be desired and fell flat at times.

I was excited to read The House that Fell from the Sky by Patrick Delaney. With that being said, it wasn’t the fun and easy read that I was expecting. It got off to a super slow start and took quite a bit of time for me to fall into.

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This is a reluctant DNF for me. I love suspenseful, creepy, horror stories. I love haunted house stories. But this a chore to read, and no matter how I try to push through it's not getting any better.

There's something off about the writing style. I keep having to reread paragraphs. Chapter to chapter, I frequently question if I'm missing something or if details have been omitted. I'm so confused about the main character's conflict. I read a review that said she had a major break up. I cannot remember where that was ever discussed, and if the author purposely omits that in the beginning for suspense, it's not suspenseful, just confusing.

The pacing is strange. There's an internal conflict, flashing lights, major disaster, then suddenly we're dress shopping? There's so much dialogue to lay out Scarlett's special, snarky character, and not enough effort to set the story.

I can't spend any more time on this book. It's reading way too slow and way too much work. But thank you NetGalley and Oblivion Publishing for a copy of this in exchange for my honest review.

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There were many things I loved about the story, the characters and the whole atmosphere and cool action packed scenes we got in the second half.

Unfortunately this book felt too long for me and I feel like it would have benefited if it would have been edited down. We spend half of the story just building things up and this might discourage many readers to keep going.

The concept was one of my favorite things from the book. We have a small town that on Halloween night feels what it seems to be an earthquake. However they soon will find out that a strange building has dropped from the skies, a house.

No one can seem to figure out where it came from, how to get it or why this happened.

Our characters are a group of friends that are supposed to be more adult than they read. They definitely felt not mature enough for their age in the book. Scarlett is our main character. A youtuber that talks about horror movies and feels like she might need a break from social media. Together with her brother and friends they will find themselves way closer to the house than they should have.

The second act of the book had a great atmosphere and I loved the changing rooms, the fantasy mixed with horror and how we get to see the character's true colors and discover all their backstories.

This book was in general a good read but there is so much that could have been edited down in order to make it more accessible and entertaining since it dragged a bit in parts.

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