The Amityville Curse: Fact & Fiction

by Hans Holzer

The Amityville Fact & Fiction (Murder In Amityville / The Amityville Curse / The Secret of Amityville) Hans Holzer (Author) # 435 pages # Barnes & Noble; 1ST edition (2007) # English # 076078535X

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Paranormal, True Crime, Ghosts, Literature

435 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Hans Holzer, whose investigations into the paranormal took him to haunted houses and other sites all over the world, wrote more than 140 books on ghosts, the afterlife, witchcraft, extraterrestrial beings, and other phenomena associated with the realm he called “the other side.” Among his famous subjects was the Long Island house that inspired The Amityville Horror book and film adaptations. Holzer studied at the University of Vienna, Austria, and at Columbia University, New York, earning a master’s degree in comparative religion. He taught parapsychology at the New York Institute of Technology. Holzer died in 2009.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Growing up in the 70's, I was SO into the whole "Amityville Horror" saga. I read a lot of the books...I missed this one some how.
This one was in the 'Fiction' part of the book store...even though they say it's 'true'...
3 couples move in the house, some time after the Lutz family moved out. Soon, things start to happen. A good read, but not great. I read it in a few days...If you are a fan, you should enjoy it.

[Jamie Eberle]

The Amityville Curse by Hans Holzer

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

the nonfiction examination was good. the second and third novels ( novellas) were horrendous. 3 stars

[Emilie Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loooooove old paperbacks. They always give me R.L. Stine vibes. This was a neat little book about the Amityville house . And it had a great surprise ending!

[Mark Woods · Rating 1 out of 5]

A group of six friends and their father move into the infamous Lutz house and over a period of several months, start to experience an escalating series of events that lead them to believe the house is the subject of a curse.

Even accepting that all this is fiction, and that none of this ever happened, this book is a hard act to swallow. It takes a long time for anything really scary to happen, and feels heavily influenced by Graham Masterton’s The Manitou.
Started off okay, but got really boring very quickly and the ending?

Was it all just a dream (cop-out) or a vision of what might have happened if the friends actually ended up moving in?

I had another of these on my tbr pile but after this awful, awful novel, decided not to bother.
After all, it’s all just bullshit anyway.

Avoid like the plague unless you have trouble sleeping.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Amityville Horror (books and movies) and was full of expectation when I picked up this book. But it didn't fully convince me. There are three new couples exploring the house. The curse of the Indian Chief is mentioned and a reverend tries to get the house rid of its evil. Will he succeed? Somehow the spark of the story didn't turn into a full grown horror flame. The story was creeping by, okay of course there were some eerie elements but overall it didn't get me off the rocker. Sorry to say this, but there is better Amityville stuff outside. Only for die hard fans!

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was amused because of The Holtzer Files. On the whole, they move into the house and horrible things happen.

[Shea Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, just fine. I was surprised that the storyline had several contradictions that only happened within a page or two!

[Marc L. Rissmann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh my.....

[Traci · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where to even start? First, I find the title to be a bit misleading. Not wrong, exactly, but misleading. My version was three books in one. Fact & Fiction makes it sound as though they're going to go through each legend/story about the house and land and tell us what's accurate, what's embellished, and what's entirely made up. Not so. It's called Fact & Fiction simply because one of the books is nonfiction, Hozler's investigation into the DeFeo murders themselves, and the other two books are fiction. The books are entertaining, though I personally found the first one about the DeFeo murders to be the most interesting and fun to read, but there are still some pretty glaring problems.

I find it hard to believe that this book had an editor other than the author himself, simply because there are so many grammatical errors involved. Just a few would be one thing, but I found so many that it became a bit distracting.

In the fictional books, Holzer seems to forget some of his timeline and events because there are quite a few contradictions even just a page or two after they happen. Also in the fictional books, the I found to the characters to be highly stupid and lacking in even the slightest common sense even if in mundane matters. Who in the world would see a person pointing a gun at them in their home and think, "oh well, I must be hallucinating?" Sure, your first thought might not be "omg a ghost!" but it sure as heck would probably be something like, "omg an intruder!" instead. Their reaction to it isn't my problem, so much as their thought process and logic.

Also, any answers we get to tie up events tend to be vague and make no sense if you think about them for two seconds. Not even skeptically speaking, but just they make no sense for the characters /themselves/.

And to wrap it all up, there's a ritual scene near the very end of the book where sex takes place, but I find it really hard to consider the sex to be consensual. It felt more like the woman was tricked into it and decided to go along with it at the last minute because she'd already promised and the man who'd tricked her into it was hot. He didn't tell her until the last possible second that the ritual involved sex, but he had no problem making her promise to go through with "the willing and symbolic sacrifice" right from the start. Coercion is not consent.

In addition to ALL of that, I think it seems at best to be culturally insensitive to Native Americans.

That said, despite all of that, it can be an entertaining read so long as you don't expect too much out of it once you realize what it is but I probably wouldn't recommend it.

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so looking forward to this book because I love stories about hauntings and possessions, and really, I'm intrigued by the Amityville house. This could have been such a good book, and instead it was so bad it was difficult to even get through. If it hadn't been for the short page count, I probably wouldn't have finished it. The dialogue is silly and robotic—I don't believe anyone talks like that—the author spelled out every scene for me and then had the characters talk about it in almost the same exact words, so everything was repeated, and there was no tension at all. Things happen, the characters talk about them as if they're watching a movie and they aren't really happening, and every character asked at least five times "Well, what can we do about it?" and left it at that. And when a major character died, one of the other people living in the house says, "Well, being sad won't bring him back, so I wouldn't get so upset" or something. There was no development in any of the characters and everything about this story was wooden. Then it turns out it never even happened or some such nonsense and we have some sort of dream sequence that means it either never happened, or one of the characters solved the mystery so everything went back to the beginning. It was all just disappointing.

[Erica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best of books I've read. But I can't forget the initial reason I read two of the three parts to this book because I love the story. I follow the amityville horror stories, the documentaries, research columns and so forth about what happened on this little patch of land in Amityville. I think Hanz Holzer has had great insight to this story and what incidences have come to prove and what people have come to believe. The way he tells it makes me so curious and inspired to meet him, if that were possible.

I did not read the full third story included in this book specifically because it was losing my interest and it was fiction anyway. I personally think he should stick to non fiction. but overall, was a pretty good experience reading the things he put together about amityville all into one book.

[Ashley Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was about 14 years old and was wandering the city on my lunchbreak from work experience at Starbucks, I came across this forgotten little paperback on a market stall and snapped it up.

I must like it because I've read it a couple of times now, I'm pretty sure this account is merely fictional although who knows what actually happened in the original tale.

This book deals with a few different individuals who move into the much coveted 'house of horrors'. Naturally enough things don't go to plan for them. What stuck with me from this is the ending however, I'm going to go so far as to say that you won't expect this ending from such a faraway, forgotten about little book. Worth a read if you ever see it around though by all means!

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a more detailed discussion of this book and the bizarre cult that has sprung up around this alleged haunting, please see my review of the original novel. May I merely repeat here that despite claims of raided Indian burial grounds, ancient Native curses, and everything else "uncovered" in this novel, NO TRIBE has ever claimed to have their dead anywhere near the house. I work with Native repatriation efforts, there is NO effort or mention of anything in the area. IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. This book is the purest fiction. It's not a bad book, for pure fiction, but if you're just going to make stories up, make up a town and a house, too. Look at Stephen King's Castle Rock.

[Sharon Roy · Rating 2 out of 5]

i think people have made alot of money from this story, even the Lutz's. The current owners changed the number of the property because looky loos were taking bits of brick from it! They have had no bumps in the night and lets face it Ronald Defeo wanted money and was into drugs, i dont think a demon made him kill his family and the poor children his sister mum and dad are still dead and the only good book i read about this house was the one that concentrated on the murders rather than the "presence" within the house.

[Azra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh good god. I don't even care anymore whether these books are based on true events or not. This book hit a pet peeve of mine on the ending and spoiled the whole damn story.

I believe it was books like this one that inspired Dorothy Parker to comment, "This is not a book to be put aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

[☆Angel☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Amityville Curse started out kind of slow. It was a lot more psychology than story, but about halfway through it got better. I thought that maybe Hanz Holzer had forgotten that he was writing a fictional story, but he pulled it off in the end. And I liked it.

[Steve Asher · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, I take this as a work of fiction. It is a dark bit of fiction and the Native American burial ground is as far as I know not proven. Still, I grew up reading Hans Holzer's books and loved them. I suggest reading this with an open mind and just enjoy the ride.