The Evil Within the House

Author: Thomas Michael Thomas

2 out of 5 stars

Jake and his best friend Clarence are 13-years-old and just trying to make it to adulthood. Jake’s father is an abusive alcoholic and his grandmother is dying from cancer. Clarence’s mother is a drug addict. The best part of their lives was when they would visit their friend Terrell’s home, where they were welcomes by his parents. Then Terrell died from anaphylactic shock. Months later, the boys buy a Ouija board to try and contact Terrell’s spirit.

Amanda is a popular older teenager. When she and her little sister run into Jake and Clarence and see they have a Ouija board, she insists on joining them. But the four of them soon find themselves involved in something bigger than they ever could have expected.

This book has a lot of negatives, but one positive is that it has an interesting and unique plot. The characters are also okay. The characterization does lean into stereotypes, but they’re written fine.

The worst thing about this novella was the writing. It was stiff and clunky. And there were a lot of odd word choices, like the author was choosing a more impressive word, but the word chosen just seemed out of place. Sometimes there were also extra unnecessary words. For instance, one sentence said, “stars peeking through the thinnest part of the nimbus clouds”. Why not just say clouds? There were also multiple editing mistakes.

However, there were a couple of instances where the writing was better. The scene in the cemetery was creepy, and could have been chilling if the writing was better.

While the plot was interesting and unique, there were elements that didn’t tie together well. And some plot elements that were dropped at the end. It’s like the author was considering a potential sequel that’s never been written, but that does leave a lot of things left unanswered.

I’m rating this book 2 out of 5 stars. While there is some good stuff here, the writing just really lets it down. I don’t really recommend it, but if you’re looking for a unique plot, then you might enjoy it.

Price through Amazon Kindle: $0.99

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09KD8X9D2

(I do not benefit from the use of this link.)