Book Review: Nazareth Hill

From the first sentence, "Years later Amy would remember the day she saw inside the spider house" forward, Nazareth Hill works insidiously to introduce the reader to one of the creepiest haunted houses I've ever come across in fiction. Focusing on a Widower and his teen-aged daughter, the novel starts slowly as a study in a troubled parent-child relationship and moves slowly from tragedy to thriller to horror.

The protagonist, Amy Priestly (15, going on 16), begins the book with an innate dislike for the new apartment building she and her father share with a number of others residents.

As the story moves along the nature of the house becomes clearer and clearer, and although it begins slowly, the tensions really increases as you move along.

In the end, the story is quite strong, the characters are well done, and it is well worth a look.