The Good House

By: Tananarive Due

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Tananarive Due, author of The Living Blood won the American Book Award and is praised as Stephen King's equal by Publishers Weekly. In The Good House, Due sets a story of ancient powers and modern retribution in a small Pacific Northwest town. When a young woman returns to her grandmother's empty mansion, she is pitted against demonic forces that have poisoned her family for generations.

©2003 Tananarive Due (P)2004 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Due handles the potentially unwieldy elements of her novel with confidence, cross-cutting smoothly from past to present, introducing revelatory facts that alter the interpretation of earlier scenes and interjecting powerfully orchestrated moments of supernatural horror that sustain the tale's momentum....[Due is] a writer who grows better with each book." (Publishers Weekly)

Not scary, but absorbing. Narration not the best.

I didn't find this book scary per se, but still quite enjoyable and absorbing. The plot was definitely original and was what kept me interested in the story. The author seemed to make a great effort to make her protagonists seem like real, flawed individuals. The end effect, however, was that I simply didn't get to where I cared very much about them.

The narrator did a beautiful job with the creole/haitian accent (altho a bit hard to understand), and a good job as the main character. However I found her characterizations of the townspeople to be grating and distracting.

The Good House is a Good Story

I purchased this book awhile ago solely based on the author who I love and the price. It was on sale for $9.00. But it sat on my bookshelf a long while. Maybe a year? Well that is not the important part of this review. I started reading this mega paperback book (496 pages) and I could not move very fast. *whisper* It was my fear of big books. (Something about them seem so daunting and I just stop.) So this time I purchased the audiobook from Audible.com to help me out.
Now on to the review....
I had no idea what to except from this story. I didn't know how scary Tananarive Due was as a scary book writer (a la Stephen King) or if she was scary at all. But I have to say... she got me a few times. I mean, like, turn the audiobook off and turn on some happy music.
Angela is a mover and shaker as the managing rep for a big name actress. She is a jet setting African American mom who's teenage son Corey lives with his father in Oakland. Every year she stops and meets with her son at her grandmothers old house for some quality time. "The Good House" and it's former owner (Grandma Marie) were know by everyone in the community as healers and helpers.
Tananarive Due really excels when she is setting up the story with the history of the characters. I seem to come across writers that bore you to death with too much back story that you completely forget what the story is about. In "The Good House" the author intermingles the past with the present in a nice steady stream.
I am not going to tell you much about the story because it would be filled with spoilers but just know there are a few twist and turns that you won't see coming. AT ALL! As I was reading I thought I knew what was going to happen, but then I was shocked to find out they did happen but not the way I thought they would.
Toward the end of the audiobook, I could not stop listening because I was so hooked and invested in the characters and their next moves. It took me no time to complete this 21 hour audiobook.
So I bet you are wondering why I gave it 4 out 5 stars. Well, I felt toward the end the author just stopped producing fresh ideas and just stopped. It was just finished. Done! Without giving anything away I just was not happy with the last chapter. It was like the "Who shot JR?" moment and I felt let down that something more creative wasn't the conclusion of this epic novel. I mean after ALL of that action and emotions. *sigh*
As for the narrator Robin Miles, she is great. She has the perfect non-reader but actor voice that I love. She read all the parts and made me completely forget there was only one person reading as I got deeper into the book. I don't think anyone else could have pulled off that creole voice and a teenage boy voice in the same book like she did. Excellent job!

Reviews read before the book

Prior to purchasing this book, I read many reviews ... the primary responses that I found were either praise or folks talking about "too much detail", "having to skip forward to get past the point". I am very dyslexic, have little comprehension of the "Written" word and managed to make it through the 8th year of school (almost 60 years ago) before being told that I was uneducable, should quit school and become a street cleaner or go to work in the mines with no hope of a higher asperation of life. I only took the first piece of advice and quit school. When "Audible" books first came available on phonograph records, then tapes, cassettes, and finally through Bluetooth applications, I opened the doors to the library with great exhilaration. I tell you this because of the great diversity of the reviews that I read. If I go back 15, 20 or even 30 years ago and I reread a majority of the books that I enjoyed at that point in my life, I find it very hard to understand what kept me motivated or how I stayed tuned to the simple lyrics, dialog, wording, phrases and mostly the lack of supporting detail by writers that were supposed to be very good. So for anyone considering this book, I would recommend that you take a serious look at your level of understanding of story telling prior to making comment. If you are eager for quick endings, fast solutions (believable or not), I would suggest you go back to look for a simpler format until your reading capacity grows to where you can enjoy a well told story, detailed scenery, a good overall plot with a predictably, unpredictable ending. This book is an excellent example of a well paced, descriptive, modern horror story … it is for a maturing reader looking for a good step forward toward the best and should not have a single word fast forwarded past. A well spent credit / coin for a good story. The reading is above reproach and exhibits amazing talent in taking the book all the way to the winner's circle. I still cannot read script, still have the comprehension of a American 5th grader (if I read), but I so love a good story told by a professional story teller ... part of my Irish heritage I recon.

Due Does it again!

I have been a fan of Due since her first book, and this one does not disappoint. I continue to be impressed with her character development and storytelling. It was an awesome listen, and the narrator was wonderful. This is by far the best audiobook I've ever downloaded thus far. Kudos Tananarive!

Engrossing story with very little scare

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would only recommend this book to a friend if they were looking for a mystery/romance, not a horror book. Any moments that even started to get freightening immediately backed off and left the reader feeling dissatisfied. I kept hoping it would build to something more terrifying and then it would just quit.

Surprise for me!

Surprised me and pleased me! Great read! Takes you through the story from the past to the present with great skill and planing, but not so much as to slow down the action. This writer has it together! Keeps you guessing!

A lot of rambling

This book had a very engaging story, and I was fully invested in hearing how it ended. However, there were a lot of turns, twists, and extra dialogue that caused the story to drag at times. I listened to the end, and I’m still unsure what actually happened in the final battle.

Turned into a romance novel.

I loved the narrator. The story had possibilities but it morphed into a predictable romance story. Which is great If that’s what you like, I was hoping for something less common .

So good! Gripping, intriguing, suspenseful.

This author works magic with her writing. I was invested in the characters within the first few minutes. The tale of suspense, family history, spirituality, racism, love-all come alive while listening. I highly recommend it.

Such a good story

I will definitely listen to Robin read Tananarive Drive's book a few more times. Each time I listen to this adventurous story I catch something I missed. Feels like I see the characters come to life.