The Amityville Horror

I've seen most of the movies based on this book but I had never read the book. I decided to listen to it on audible and see how much different it was from the movies. I've never thought of this as a true story and still don't but as a fiction book it is fairly decent. A few differences from the movies but overall very familiar. A decent read.

If you look at this as the work of fiction it so clearly is, it's not bad. It's actually pretty gripping in places, even if it starts to feel a little repetitive and padded out as the days of the Lutz family's stay at Amityville pile on. Overall, I'm torn - it was a solid read and I don't regret it, but I also feel like it's a cash grab that shouldn't exist in the first place. I'll go 3/5 because, as a story, the good mostly outweighs the bad. It's decent schlock.

The horror classic that I'd never gotten round to reading. I suspect it would have made more of an impact on me if I'd read it in my teens because reading it at forty-one, it all seems faintly ridiculous. I laughed out loud at several points and was left feeling more bemused than terrified. Still, the writing was good and the intertwining narratives well crafted. Definitely one of those rare cases of the movie being better than the book.

It was okay. I listened to the audio version of the book. The narrator was fine but the book itself just didn't scare me or creep me out. I figured the audiobook would give me the spooky ambience I wanted but it played out more like a documentary. Overall I'll keep it at a 3. This is one of those rare instances where I enjoyed the movie over the book.

Most often tagged as “a true story”, this is more likely ‘inspired by' as the countless lawsuits have tried to prove. Anyway, this was included with audible, so I gave it a go as I haven't read it or seen any of the movies about it. 
This is the story of the haunting that took place during the 28 days the Lutz family stayed in the house they purchased at 112 Ocean Avenue. The previous owner had been sent to jail for killing his entire family within the house, but the Lutz family did not mind at the time. 
Part of this really comes down to whether or not you believe in paranormal activity and ghosts. That seems to be the biggest deciding factor between the reviews I've seen. If you're a nonbeliever and you take the ‘true story' to heart, then yes, this sounds insane. If you're a believer, this is probably a horrifying example of possession, obsession, demonic presence, and haunting. 
For me, this was just super cool to see how influenced horror is by it. Not only general things, but actual huge plot points as well as how they actually happened. I am not a believer, but I enjoyed this a lot. Not scary, because it's written kind of documentary style, with fact after fact (scene after scene) happening without much separating them. It makes it quick and snappy, but you lose what the people were feeling and thinking, for me that's normally where the creepiness comes from...
Personally 4/5* I wouldn't want to stay there regardless.