HAUNTED HOUSE is a sequel to the novels AFRAID, TRAPPED, and ENDURANCE. The survivors from those thrillers are all together, and put through a new kind of hell. Also included is Dr. Frank Belgium, from ORIGIN.
All characters have back stories. In the case of HAUNTED HOUSE, these back stories exist in other books.
While HAUNTED HOUSE can be read as a stand alone, and may be the first Kilborn book read by a lot of people, if a reader enjoys it, he/she can read more about these characters in different novels. And fans of these other novels will enjoy seeing familiar characters show up again in a new novel.
Haunted House by Jack Kilborn. Book # 4 in the Afraid series. Narrated by Rob Shapiro. Published by Tantor Media, 2015. Run time is 8 hours 8 mins.
First I want to say, this is a book FOUR in a series. I had not read the other books in the series. You do not need to read the other books in order to read this one. It could easily be picked up as a standalone. The characters in this book have been the survivors in the other books. That is the main connection. There are several characters and it was a little hard to keep everyone straight at first. There is a LOT of set up for everyone. You get enough info to get the gist of what happened in the other books to give you the idea that everyone when through some very bad stuff, but you are never given any spoilers to the other books. So if you read this one out of order, the rest of the series is never ruined for you.
Now, that being said, it does feel like the set up runs a little bit too long. It just keeps going and going. It wouldn’t have hurt to cut back on some of that and get moving a little bit faster to when everyone gets to the house. This is where the real entertaining action begins. The plot of a fear study at a spooky old house is very fun. You just know there is a catch, and there is a fair amount of excitement building up as you wait to see what happens. The action is very quick and the pacing hardly slows down once it begins.
HOWEVER… ugh, the main big twist felt like a total bait and switch! I can’t really explain that statement without spoiler alerts. I just felt a little let down by the big reveal of the ghosts. That, plus the lengthy set up, I don’t know, It just left me feeling a little underwhelmed towards Haunted House.
Creature From The Book Lagoon 