Customer Reviews

Houses without Doors

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This collection of short stories lifts its title from an Emily Dickinson poem ("Doom is the house without a door..."). There is a sense of doom pervading each of the stories, as the major characters are cursed by psychological maladies (psychosis, repression, obsession) or are forced to interact with powers beyond their (and our) comprehension. Some of the stories end with the characters clearly not escaping their doom (most notably in "The Buffalo Hunter"), while others leave it to the reader to guess at the outcome ("Mrs. God," "The Juniper Tree"). All of the stories, including the interludes, work overtime to produce a dark mood and an off-kilter worldview.

"The Buffalo Hunter" and "Mrs. God" were my favorites. The former presents a loner who gets lost in his own imagined relationships and later in the paperback novels he reads. I'm a fan of Raymond Chandler's work, so Straub's pastiche of "The Lady in the Lake" was particularly enjoyable. If I were more familiar with Anna Karenina I might have had a better appreciation for the ending of the short story, but as it was I sensed something bad coming and Straub didn't disappoint. "Mrs. God" felt a lot like Ghost Story to me; particularly nice was the way Henry James and other authors were woven into the piece. I had read "Blue Rose" when Penguin issued it as a stand-alone mini-book in the mid-90's; it's the "oogiest" of all the stories - even the second time through it still creeped me out and made me slightly nauseated.

I enjoyed these stories a great deal. Straub can be crueler and more terrifying than some of his contemporaries, even while his syntax and phraseology are more refined. If you're a fan of Straub's or the psychological/horror genres in general you'll likely enjoy this book. Beyond that, there aren't many to whom I'd recommend this collection of short fiction, unless it would be a student who wants to see how words can be used effectively to create mood and transport readers to worlds they'd not likely find on their own.

What I loved about this collection of stories was that in every one of them it showed the dark side of people who can at least be consisdered kind of normal. Peter Straub holds nothing back when it comes to his characters and it has always been a great rule of fiction to always tell the truth. Straub has told the truth here and may have dove too deep into it for some people's tastes.

I was glad to see that Peter Straub released this short collection of his work. There are some dark & memorable stories here. Blue Rose and The Juniper Tree are the best of the lot. I enjoyed those especially since they tie in heavily to Koko and The Throat. I was sorry to see that The Ghost Village wasn't part of this collection, but, it did appear later in another of Peter's collections called Magic Terror. The last story in the book, Mrs. God is excellent. Since there is a longer, slightly different version of it, in limited release, I would recommend that instead. There are smaller interludes that divide each story and these interludes make up their own short story as well. All in all, anything by Peter Straub is a going to show what a true Master he is at his craft.

Houses Without Doors presents short stories with incredibly creepy moods. Their creepiness comes not from grotesqueness, but rather, from the very normalcy of the settings that horrid things take place in. You aren't transported to some otherwordly place, rather the terror is brought straight into your personal living space.

Each story has it's own focus, much having to do with the type of horror that children find themselves confronting - and even perpetrating. Those who like Stephen King's child-type characters may also enjoy these. The stories are eerie in their familiarity, but work more on a psychlogical/emotional level than they do through plot. Many of the stories are non-linear, a tool that the author uses to great effect. Not only does it add to the moodiness of the story, it also notches up the emotions that the characters seem to feel. Readers who enjoy non-linear story telling will definetely enjoy this book. Those who prefer a plot-heavy and/or super-suspenseful type book may not like it as well.

Overall excellent stories, frightening characters, and perfect horror mood. Definetely a book well worth the money.

This collection focuses on desperate, self-destructive characters masquerading as studious, meek individuals. The textures of these lives, presented in Straubs gentle tones, really demolish all preconceptions about introverts. What's most interesting is how their bravery, their willingness to stare horror in the face, is ultimately what is self-destructive. Strange. "Blue Rose" reads like a primer on the construction of a serial killer's personality. And both "The Buffalo Hunter" and "Mrs. God" have protagonist's more bent on experiencing weirdness than self-preservation. Straub excels at psychological horror.

I like psychological horrer stories. I like being left to figure some things out for myself. I like,sometimes, to be left hanging. This book of short stories and intermittant word pictures does all that and more. I've read Peter Straub's "Ghost Story" and couldn't put it down. This book of stories moves slowly, at first and I COULD put it down-but I always had to pick it up again because of the disturbing moodiness of his writing. Each story stands on its own but the last, for me, was the best. It set an amazing mood(lush, green English countryside), told a great story (ghostly, mysterious past), kept me intrigued to the end (who's alive? who's dead?), and still left me hanging

This was my first foray into Peter Straub. Afterwards I have read If You Could See Me Now and both books are odd and unsettling. Houses Without Doors is an anthology of strange fiction. Some of the pieces are horror while others are just...just...odd. I don't know how to put it any simpler than that. I did enjoy the book and plan to revisit it someday. Two short stories stand out for me as true tales of horror--Blue Rose and Mrs. God. Blue Rose had me in a cold sweat and truly disturbed me while I read it. It was perfect for the first story in the collection. Since I have not read Koko or any of the other Blue Rose novels I am certain a lot was lost on me but this story still had my blood running cold. Mrs. God was a chilling and frightening ghost story or sorts which I truly had difficulty reading while I was alone--scary as crap! Others were good but as I said odd. The Buffalo Hunter was just bizarre until I realized that this person is obviously becoming more and more unhinged. The Juniper Tree was very unsettling but I had read it earlier in Prime Evil so I was ready for the child abuse in it. The other small pieces were just too bizarre for words but the whole collection is worth it for horror aficianados for Blue Rose and Mrs. God alone.

THE JUNIPER TREE is brillant, some of the other stories aren't. All in all, a collection well worth your money. Sorry, this is a short review.

This is a book of similarly themed short stories, half of which are short shorts only a few pages long. The characters are people whose lives are untenable. They come from abusive upbringings and are now feeling trapped in their lives.

Straub is an excellent writer and creates vivid, if odd, characters. However, most of these stories didn't work for me. The short shorts were for the most part vague ramblings, not cohesive stories. Of the longer pieces, Blue Rose was the best. It's about an 11 year old boy who reads an old book on hypnotism and discovers he has a gift for it when he puts his younger brother under and something terrible happens. The story suffers only from a weak, anticlimactic ending. The Juniper Tree is a rote pedophilia tale that also ends poorly. The Buffalo Hunter and Mrs. God were both overwritten, going on far longer than was necessary.

What I like about Peter Straub is that his books make you think. Sometimes you're in the mood for a horror book or thriller that will not only entertain but make you think a bit as well. this book does just that. I purchased the audio version and thus didn't get all the stories that were in the print endition but from what I heard the stories were captivating. "blue Rose" was by far the best; though the ending was a bit of a let down not because of the story itself but because the character didnt' get his due. Another good one was "Bar Talk" which I suspect was a sort of a continuation of "blue Rose." I can't wait to start Koko which also expands the story of "blue Rose." all and all a good entertaining audiobook. The reader did a fine job narrating and I loved his deep smooth voice.