Burnt Offerings

Imagine a guy reads [b:The Haunting of Hill House 89717 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327871336s/89717.jpg 3627] and thinks, “Damn, that was great - I'd love to write my own novel about a creepy house!” Only he's also REALLY sick and tired of his wife spending every weekend antiquing instead of making him a sandwich. And he read some Lovecraft once but he has no idea how to evoke cosmic horror or handle a monster reveal (the key, Rob, is if you have no idea how to finish, at least have a cleansing bolt of lightning and make the last line italic!) Then the novel gets published, Stephen King reads it, and he makes a decent story out of the idea.TL;DR - just go read [b:The Haunting of Hill House 89717 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327871336s/89717.jpg 3627] and [b:The Shining 11588 The Shining (The Shining, #1) Stephen King https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1353277730s/11588.jpg 849585]This gets more than one star due to an effectively creepy door, and a vividly disturbing moment in the pool that very effectively blurs the line between a realistic parenting lapse (dad takes a joke so far it becomes abusive) and the product of Evil Influences.Upshot - 2/5; distinct lack of burning or sympathetic characters, would not slog through again