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244th out of 245 books
—
109 voters
House of Windows
by
John Langan
From John Langan (Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters) comes House of Windows, a chilling novel in the tradition of Peter Straub, Joe Hill, and Laird Barron.
When a young writer finds himself cornered by a beautiful widow in the waning hours of a late-night cocktail party, he seeks at first to escape, to return to his wife and infant son, but the tale she weaves, of her...more
When a young writer finds himself cornered by a beautiful widow in the waning hours of a late-night cocktail party, he seeks at first to escape, to return to his wife and infant son, but the tale she weaves, of her...more
Hardcover, 256 pages
Published
April 1st 2009
by Night Shade Books
(first published March 1st 2001)
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On StaticMultimedia.com I gave this 2 1/2 stars. Below are some highlights from that review:
A convoluted, psychological ghost story, John Langan’s House of Windows may hold your interest if your taste runs to literary novels (or if you are a staunch fan of the works of Charles Dickens, which eventually become integral to the plot). If you are looking for an edgy, chill-filled horror novel, look elsewhere.
A sick house, a painter whose work can reshape reality, special places that can act as port...more
A convoluted, psychological ghost story, John Langan’s House of Windows may hold your interest if your taste runs to literary novels (or if you are a staunch fan of the works of Charles Dickens, which eventually become integral to the plot). If you are looking for an edgy, chill-filled horror novel, look elsewhere.
A sick house, a painter whose work can reshape reality, special places that can act as port...more
A wonderfully atmospheric mind-fuck, and one of the very best haunted house books I have ever read. One reviewer on this site said in their disappointed review that this should appeal to fans of literary fiction, which I guess means that it should appeal to people who like books. That is indeed true. This is very much a story for people who love reading, peppered as it is with metatextual allusions to Dickens and the Gothics. It is at times discursive, but these long passages that illustrate the...more
I heard that this novel was bone-chilling. Not so. I do like the subtle way Langan weaves supernatural forces within the natural world. I also find the intertextual connections he offers with Dickens and other nineteenth century texts effective. I applaud his efforts to avoid the typical gothic aspects one expects in a supernatural text. I also enjoyed how effectively weaves in contemporary issues associated with living in a post-9/11 world. The plot could definitely be a bit more effectively de...more
English professor and well-known Dickens scholar Roger Croydon has disappeared. The tale his wife Veronica offers to a young horror writer, over late-night glasses of wine at the home of an acquaintance, is intended to describe the circumstances of that disappearance. In fact, no final explanation may be possible. The answers lie in the complex geometric structure of the house occupied by the Croydons, and in the harsh words spoken by Roger to his only son, Ted, just prior to Ted's deployment to...more
The novel centers around Veronica (young, beautiful grad student) and Roger (65 yr old divorcee, well-established and respected Dickens scholar/professor, who’s son Ted had joined the Army and is killed in Afghanistan) and their complex relationship/marriage, the relationships they have/had with their parents, and ultimately the relationships they have with themselves as well. Langan isn’t interested in heroes, and Roger and Veronica are painfully human, and he has the courage in a first novel t...more
I'm a big fan of John Langan's short fiction, so I was really looking forward to his debut novel. And it seems a bit much to say that I was disappointed, but I didn't enjoy House of Windows as much as I'd expected. Maybe it's because Langan's style works better for me in a shorter form, or maybe it's just because this particular story didn't grab me quite as much.
Which isn't to say that there's not a lot to like here. The haunting itself is often marvelously portrayed, and I love the ambivalence...more
Which isn't to say that there's not a lot to like here. The haunting itself is often marvelously portrayed, and I love the ambivalence...more
Langan has a nice prose style (despite his consistently using 'insure' instead of 'ensure' throughout), but there really isn't enough story here to make a novel - a novella might be pushing it. The tale within a tale format fails to add anything to the narrative, and in fact leaves us without a first person account of the finale, wherein characters guess at what may have happened - this is clunky to the point of distraction. I've liked all of Langan's short fiction, but for me he has failed to m...more
First attempt at writing a full-length novel and I felt the author should have started with something less strange and less complex. This is supposed to be a psychological ghost story in the H.P. Lovecraft tradition, but the task was probably a little daunting for an inexperienced author. He gets an A+ for effort, but the novel was just way too slow and boring. The narrative vehicle worked well for 19th century novels like "Wuthering Heights" but probably a little too ambitious as well as outdat...more
I kept waiting for something to happen and by the time I got to the end of this book, the "BIG" secret was disappointing to me. First book I have read by this author and not to likely to read him again. This book was much too slow for my taste.
I really liked this one especially once it got going. My biggest issue was with the lack of chapter breaks. There were breaks (other than the three section breaks), but no clear chapter breaks. That bugged me. Otherwise, really good book.
I really liked the author's collection Mr. Gaunt. As a consequence, I had very high expectations for this novel. I was disappointed. This goes to show that novel-length horror is almost an oxymoron. This bokk did not scare me.
Not as scary as I thought it would be.
Great imagery, some wonderful scares, but it took until the end of Part 1 for the story to get going. Langan's a very good author, but his pacing on this could have been better. On the other hand, I really liked the idea he fleshed out in the epilude, so he finished in fine style.
3.5 stars, overall.
3.5 stars, overall.
Weird yet compelling.
May 07, 2013
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