false 6017367 5 It was expecting them. Conrad and Joanna Harrison, a young couple from Los Angeles, attempt to save their marriage by leaving the pressures of the city to start anew in a quiet, rural setting. They buy a Victorian mansion that once served as a haven for unwed mothers, called a birthing house. One day when Joanna is away, the previous owner visits Conrad to bequeath a vital piece of the house’s historic heritage, a photo album that he claims “belongs to the house.” Thumbing through the old, sepia-colored photographs of midwives and fearful, unhappily pregnant girls in their starched, nineteenth-century dresses, Conrad is suddenly chilled to the bone: staring back at him with a countenance of hatred and rage is the image of his own wife…. Thus begins a story of possession, sexual obsession, and, ultimately, murder, as a centuries-old crime is reenacted in the present, turning Conrad and Joanna’s American dream into a relentless nightmare. An extraordinary marriage of supernatural thrills and exquisite psychological suspense, The Birthing House marks the debut of a writer whose first novel is a terrifying tour de force. [close] 6192724 1 1 2009 The Birthing House total:219|5:11|4:25|3:50|2:66|1:67| 219 504 455 95 1 4 false false Fri Mar 06 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 31 05:26:48 -0800 2009 Fri Mar 06 17:27:36 -0800 2009 more...]]> 1 3 false false Sat Jan 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 00:49:43 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 00:50:52 -0800 2009 1 1 false false Mon Feb 23 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 23 04:12:33 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 23 04:16:33 -0800 2009
I didn't find anything scary at all in it, maybe this is becuase I didn't connect with any of the characters so didn't actually care what happened to...more...]]> 1 0 false false Tue Nov 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 10:42:45 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 10:42:45 -0800 2009
About 2/3rds of the way thro...more...]]> 1 1 false true Mon Oct 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 13 15:20:44 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 13 15:44:03 -0700 2009
First, I really don't like the author's style. His sentences do...more...]]> 1 2 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 28 21:06:02 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 09:51:51 -0700 2009 I got halfway through and just gave up.

Forget this book, let it be lost within the rest of the built to fail readings of the horror genre.

I'll never get the stain this novel has left on my love for books o...more...]]> 1 2 false true Thu Jul 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 23 09:31:52 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 23 09:44:56 -0700 2009
This is a book about the power of semen. It also has a retarded ghost (not "retarded" as in "lame"; literally the ghost of a mentally disabled person who is modeled after the character Nell from the movie "...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jul 07 18:37:26 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 07 18:38:06 -0700 2009 Huh? Hmm… Well, um… I’m not sure how to explain this one. Basically Conrad Harrison is on the verge of a breakdown (marriage strained, barely employed, dad just died) and to push him over the edge, he buys a haunted house. Conrad knows it is haunted, and the readers know it is haunt...more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 16:13:57 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 16:22:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jun 26 17:23:09 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 27 09:43:07 -0700 2009
Ransom's protagonist, Conrad, is dealing with marital problems. His father pa...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat May 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat May 09 10:18:18 -0700 2009 Sat May 09 10:18:42 -0700 2009
Set in the quiet and somewhat quaint town of Black Earth (with the geographical liberties stretc...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Oct 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 15 12:06:13 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 07:30:58 -0700 2009
I did not read it thoroughly. I was with the author during the first half of the...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 17:01:46 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 09 19:13:49 -0700 2009
The Harrison’s buy a house in the great Midwest in order to achieve their goal of peace and ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jul 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 13:02:42 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 23 17:54:47 -0700 2009
Conrad buys a home in Wisconsin and moves there with his wife, after catching her home alone with a half-naked friend of th...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Aug 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 06:58:06 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 23 14:20:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 3 false false Wed Mar 11 05:16:07 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 11 06:43:00 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Jul 01 16:46:15 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 11 08:44:39 -0700 2009


Advertised in the paper was an ad for a 140 year old Victorian house,...more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Jun 15 08:03:49 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 15 08:09:40 -0700 2009
I didn't think the sex or swearing was gratuitious (I hardly noticed it) but I think it started out with a creey premise,...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Oct 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 19:54:25 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 06:17:15 -0700 2009
The basic premise is that Conrad Harrison's life is a mess. His marriage is failing, his father has recently passed on and he's unemployed. Whil...more...]]> 1 0 false false Wed Sep 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 23 05:26:04 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 23 05:36:24 -0700 2009 more...]]>