The Chanting

by Beverly T. Haaf

The house next door...
It looks so old... It seems so peaceful...
Is it a haven...? Or a hell...?

First come the dreams...dreams of a nursery in flames, the imploring cries of helpless children...

Then comes the chanting...the chanting of a multitude of small, soft voices...voices of a phantom choir...a choir of ghost children...children torn, twisted, grotesque...returning to seek a wholeness they couldn't find...in life...or death...

From the house next door, the terrifying dreams are born. Inside the house, the phantom can be heard.... And only one woman, a woman who herself has endured a mother's greatest loss, can discover if the house brings healing...or havoc.

Genres: Horror

263 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Beverly Terhune Haaf

Reviews

[#ReadAllTheBooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd had somewhat optimistic hopes for this book as far as cheesy horror goes. The premise and the cover promised me a relatively lurid good time, so I figured why not? Let's give it a go. Unfortunately even the weaker promises for this book didn't live up to expectations. I think part of it is because this was the author's first (and I think last) foray into horror. She seems to have mostly written romance novels, which doesn't surprise me: this book focused more on Janet's romantic and personal life than the actual horror content. It's there, but it's not given center stage as much as it should have been.

As far as characters go, nobody was particularly awful in any aspect. I think that's part of what made this somewhat of a chore to read after the initial part of the book. Janet was fine, but overly bland and I couldn't really see where the instant connection between her and Ben was really all that strong. For that matter even the villain (of a sort) never really seemed to be that sinister or creepy. He was just there. Scares are trotted out, but lack any real bite behind them.

Part of the faults for this book could be because it never quite decided whether it wanted to be a horror novel or a romantic supernatural suspense type of read. Somewhere towards the end it just felt like Haaf had a bit of trouble trying to make everything come together, so things felt like they were forced into place rather than falling there naturally. Janet and Ben go from being a couple that's awkward and just starting out to talking about marriage and babies within the span of 30-40 pages. The next door neighbor (Dr. Renner I think) ends up being an evil doctor that tortured and killed babies and children as part of an experiment, which is why there are so many ghost children around. They're the ghosts of his victims and the house healed them.

There was just so much going on here that wasn't really as well developed as I'd have liked it to be. I think I would've liked this more as a teenager or a kid, but now? Now I just have to say that this is something I'd probably pass on tracking down unless you're a fan of the author. It's OK enough but is still a 1 star read for me.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, yet sadly its formulaic Lifetime movie plot leaves the words flat.