My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Gothic, Mystery, Suspense
Content: Clean
For fifty years fear of the vanishing red house
in the Jersey Pine Barrens had warped the lives of Ellen and Pete Yocum. Old
Pete swore that the house moved from place to place and that screams
heard within it put a hex on anyone who ventured near.
Meg
Yarrow, raised by the Yocums since childhood, experienced the same
terror until Nathan, the new farmhand, arrived. One day they started on a
search for the red house in the Oxhead woods, only to encounter violent
danger—whether due to natural or supernatural causes, they could not
tell.
How they found the house and unraveled its eerie secret forms the powerful climax of this outstanding mystery novel.
Years ago I saw a old classic movie called The Red House on TV and I really liked it. The movie featured Edward G. Robinson and Judith Anderson—famous for her portrayal of Mrs. Daners in the 1940 film version of Rebecca. I liked it so much I bought a copy of it. So when I found out it was based on a book, I decided to read it. I added it to my to-read list a few years ago and forgot about it for a while. When I was looking for short books and novellas to read for the February reading challenge I came across it on my list again and decided to finally read it.
Based on reviews I had read, I knew that there were some differences in the book and the movie, but it's been so long that I can't remember some things about the movie. The differences I did notice, I didn't mind. This is a gothic type read and I expected this to have a creepier feel to it than it had. Instead of being creepy, it has some very tense situations that kept me on the edge of my seat. I liked the characters Meg and Nath and the way their relationship developed over time. There were also some unsavory characters in the book that ramped up the suspense off and on. I really enjoyed the old style of story telling of this book, and the somewhat isolated, backwoods feel to it.
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