Back then when grass was green, I was a young boy with the whole world at my fingertips. I loved horror movies, still do in fact, although now, like then, I found them more humorous than scary. Very few things scare the tar feathers out of me and I will often call a scary event a success if it can just make my heart beat a little faster for a few seconds. This applies to rides, movies, real life stuff like accidents and books. Basically, I'm an adrenaline addict and the more exciting a thing (often equating to dangerous), the better.

Somehow or another I managed to get my hands on a copy of The Amityville Horror at the innocent age of 11. I still don't know how I managed to slip that book by my mother. She was convinced that super hero comic books gave me nightmares (most likely because I sneaked a viewing of Alien on HBO the summer before and had nightmares for weeks after). Or perhaps that it was because I read so much that she lost track of what I was bringing home. This was my first real horror novel and it was such a success that I never read another one until I was 25.

I think I became interested in the book because of the "true story" part on the cover. Maybe it was simply because I wasn't allowed to see the film. That was a long time ago. However, the book made a lasting impression on me and I have kept it to this very day and even reread it a few times. The tale is interesting enough. A young family moves into a house that is priced at an incredibly low amount for all that it offers. Three stories, basement, boat house, large land lot, inclosed porch with a deck above, who would pass that up?

Shortly after moving in, strange things started happening. Voices from nowhere, things moving around or missing, flies invading the house in the dead of winter, all kinds of weird stuff. Even a massive outer door to the house was ripped, frame and all, from the building by an unseen force. Personally, I would have been gone long before things got physical. That IS the one thing that I am afraid of, ghosts and other dead things. How do you kill something that is already dead?

Jay Anson wrote a powerful novel here, passing it off as a true series of events. Did it really happen? The family that had lived in the house prior to the story, the DeFeos, who (according to this novel) a year earlier one of the sons, Ronald DeFeo, had murdered his parents, brothers and sisters, says no. One of the sisters who got "murdered" by her brother has spoken to many reporters trying to dispel the legend. Investigators have examined the house and reported that the type of damage reportedly done to the structure by the ghosts never took place. But you know what? I don't really care about that anymore. I do know that this book scared the snot out of me on more than one occasion while reading it.

Anson wrote so captivatingly that you forget that it's just a book and you start becoming immersed in the story. The outside world fades away and all that is left is the image in your mind's eye playing out the details as you watch on. The words no longer mattered as I read faster and became more interested in the drama building that all of reality ceased to reach me. It was during one of those moments that I got the biggest scare of my life. I was laying on the top bunk of my bunk beds when my mother, who had been trying to get my attention for a few minutes, walked up and touched my foot. Even though I was laying on my stomach, I jumped straight up and cleared at least a foot from the bed from that prone position. I'm still not sure who got scared the most, me or mom, but I'll bet it was me. Anyone who can write a book that intense is a winner for me. That particular scare is also why I didn't read another horror story for almost 15 years. This is a great book. You just have to get past all the hype about the "true story" marketing ploy. It matters not a bit if it is fact or fiction cause it will still scare the stuffings out of you.

Recommended: Yes