Working to rebuild her law practice after her son commits suicide, Angela Toussaint journeys to the family home where the suicide took place, hoping for answers, and discovers an invisible, evil force that is driving locals to acts of violence.
The Good House by Tananarive Due. Narrated by Robin Miles. Published by Recorded Books, July 2004. Run time of 21 hours and 54 minutes.
*Trigger Warning: underage sex with adults, plus other possible odd / awkward sex scenes, suicide, child death, animal cruelty.
The Good House has been on my To Be Read pile for a few years now! It sounded SO good and I have heard so many good things about the author. The run time of 21+ hours (or 500+ pages) just felt very daunting, so I kept putting the book back on the TBR pile. When the Horror Aficionados GoodReads group voted for it as one of our monthly books to read, I figured I’d dust it off and FINALLY get it read! 😮
This….. is INDEED a very long book. You feel every hour of it. It is a very, VERY slow burn book. It isn’t bad BAD, the story is very entertaining…. but it is not a swift read. It takes it’s time. I enjoyed the over all plot, but…. yeah. VERY slow. Too slow? Too long? Yes. Yes it is….
Another kinda bad thing about The Good House is there are more than a few…. awkward…. sex details that…. well, honestly? I just didn’t need to know it. 😐 At all. I know sex is a big part of life, blah blah blah. Yes. I get it…. but I didn’t really need to hear so much about a 15 year old’s boner, or listen to an adult talk about how a group of men could stretch out a 13 year old so they could all fit in her, while said 13 year old is giving the guy a blow job with his hand holding her head down, OR this oddly added detail about how a different guy likes to be called “uncle” by his wife during sex, OORRRRR this one “romantic” sex scene where the women falls asleep during the sex but the guy just… keeps having sex with her anyways. 
WHA-?? TMI! Just so randomly inserted or acknowledged.
All all this bad juju is going on but the main character just goes on and ON about how great her first time having sex was with her high school sweetheart? Um, ok…. Girl, you got other shit to worry about right now!! I just kept yelling at her- and everyone else- to “Keep your damn pants on!!!!”
Sex happens, yes. But all of the above just felt so out of place! I personally did not need so much of it, but that’s just me. It felt like it just left a bad taste in my mouth and left me feeling super uninterested in finishing the book. 😦
As if all of the above wasn’t frustrating enough. I kind of had a problem with the main character, Angela. Boy, she is just… not very likeable!! She’s kind of a big bitch. She’s cold and controlling. Ridged. And OMFG it takes her waaaaaayyyyyy too long to figure out something is even wrong! >.< A lot of reviews talk about how much they LOVED her because she was such a strong woman. Yeah, well, you can be a strong woman without being a micromanaging bitch.
I really liked the over all plot of the evil on the land. There is a great mystery there that had me very curious to figure out what was going on. However, every time things started to get creepy, the drawn out family drama llama comes around to totally ruin the creepy vibe.
The supernatural elements never got their chance to really shine, instead opting for family “real life” horror. If that’s what you like, enjoy… but that’s just not really my jam. 😦 Too much drama left me feeling blase and BORED the longer the story dragged on.
Eventually, with around 2 hours or so left, I just found myself not caring about anything anymore. Not the plot, not the characters, not even the supernatural spooky stuff could save The Good House for me. I didn’t even care how it ended! I just wanted it to be OVER already!! D:
I really, really wanted to like this book and the author. I don’t thing this novel is a bad book, I also don’t think the author is bad. I just think The Good House and Due are just not for me.
Creature From The Book Lagoon 