Customer Reviews

No Doors, No Windows: A Novel

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"No Doors, No Windows" is intense, chilling, and at times hallucinogenic; a story of madness carried down through the generations. In many ways, it tells the classic Gothic tale of a house stained by a decades old evil, warped by the lingering spirits of the dead. Debuting alongside Schreiber's "Star Wars: Death Troopers", "No Doors" adds to an impressive resume, making him a name to watch in horror.

After his father's funeral, Scott Mast can't run away fast enough. Being back in New Hampshire brings up painful memories, and it's hard being around his failed brother Owen and his only son Henry. What Scott wants most is a return to his ordered life writing Hallmark greeting cards in Seattle; to leave the wreckage of his family behind.

When he discovers his father's partially finished manuscript, however, Scott refuses to leave without digging for answers to questions he hadn't even known existed. His father, the stoic Frank Mast - a writer? Not only that, the story appears to be horror, about an old house back in the woods, a place called Round House because of its strangely shaped interior.

When Scott learns the house actually exists, he becomes obsessed with uncovering his father's secrets. In his search, Scott discovers dark things hidden in his family line. An obsession with creation is a Mast curse, as they are doomed to re-tell a recurring dark tale that has no end...and no mercy. In a moment of foolhardy inspiration, Scott resolves to finish his father's story, but as he moves into Round House, so do the ghosts haunting his family.

In many ways, "No Doors" is the archetypal haunted house story: a place tainted by evil and family secrets, dangerous snows that lay siege to those haunted, and a failed writer who not only becomes obsessed with finishing a dangerous story, but also goes off his medication to do so. However, Schreiber tells the story well, and he layers his twists and reveals his secrets with the controlled pacing of a seasoned writer, making this an excellent take on a traditional tale.

Deep in the lonely, cold woods of Milburn, New Hampshire there is a strange mansion called Round House. It has many rooms and many secrets. A young author, Scott Mast, has been drawn there to complete a horror novel that his dead father began writing years ago. Scott discovers a curse that burned the town's theatre, killing many, and has tormented his family for generations. A curse that involves the ghost of twelve-year-old Rosemary Carver and her monstrously evil father.

Joe Schreiber's "No Doors, No Windows" is a genuinely creepy ghost story. There are scenes that actually made me shiver. Of all the haunted house novels that I have read in the past ten years, this is one of the best. An atmospheric gothic soap opera, this novel has a tremendous amount of drama, tension and suspense that is fueled by supernatural phenomena. Each chapter ends with a cliffhanger that made it nearly impossible for me to lay the novel down until I had discovered the curse of Round House. The same curse that had trapped the novel's characters had also trapped me.

A novel within a novel. A house within a house. Ghosts that transcend time and space to haunt generations of a family. Secret rooms. Buried corpses. Disappearing bodies. Mysterious music coming from behind the walls. Disembodied voices pleading for help. Children in danger. Insane relatives. Schreiber is clever at writing nightmares. He knows what scares us.

Most of the characters in "No Doors, No Windows" are untrustworthy, shifty and as cold and unpredictable as the blizzard that ravishes Milburn during the novel's climax. Amidst the populace of substance abusing ex-football players, ex-beauty queens and other washed out has-beens, there is the main character, Scott Mast, who is sympathetic and admirable as the hero. He is protective of his younger, alcoholic brother Owen and his adorable, five-year-old nephew Henry. However, even his behavior is sometimes irrational. Ever since his mom's death at the Bijou Theatre, he's been taking antidepressant drugs. He ceases to take them upon his arrival in Milburn. He attributes Rosemary's ghost to withdrawal symptoms. In any case, Scott maintains a semblance of moral fortitude which most of the other characters do not.

"No Doors, No Windows" is highly recommended reading for fans of haunted house novels. It is perfect for Halloween. The enormous Round House, with its maze of corridors and rooms, gave me fond memories of Collinwood on the gothic soap opera "Dark Shadows." It also reminded me of the haunted Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's classic "The Shining" where there is a nightmare in every room. Scenes of Rosemary Carver's ghost terrorizing Scott Mast reminded me of the films "The Grudge" and "The Ring."

Other highly suspenseful, supernatural horror novels that Joe Schreiber has written are: "Chasing the Dead" and "Eat the Dark." He has recently written the science fiction horror novel "Star Wars: Death Troopers." If you enjoy reading "No Doors, No Windows," you may also want to read the following novels in the haunted house genre: John Saul's "House of Reckoning," Christopher Ransom's "The Birthing House" and Pierre Magnan's "The Murdered House." Recently published novels in the haunted house genre include John Saul's "House of Reckoning," Christopher Ransom's "The Birthing House" and Pierre Magnan's "The Murdered House."


Joseph B. Hoyos

Greetings card writer Scottie Mast leaves his Seattle home to attend the funeral of his father in their hometown Milburn, New Hampshire. Already entrenched inside their parents' home are his brother Owen and his five year old nephew Henry. A wannabe novelist, Scottie finds a partially completed manuscript The Black Wing written by his late dad buried in a shed. His high school sweetheart, Sonia Graham persuades him to stay in town to finish the horror thriller.

Scottie soon finds the location Round House that his father set the story line in. He is unsure why he rents the abode that doesn't inspire him to finish writing the tale. At the same time he worries about Henry under the neglectful care of his drunken father. Scot begins to find information that frightens him of evil doings in the late nineteenth century and recently. When the theater where his mother and uncle died in a fire fifteen years ago is being torn down Scottie finds his muse to complete his dad's horror thriller, but nothing seems quite what it appears.

Exciting and filled with a foreboding atmosphere of doom, NO DOORS, NO WINDOWS is an entertaining ghostly amateur sleuth. Scottie is an intriguing loser until he finds his muse only his inspiration is not quite what he anticipated. Although the atmosphere overwhelms the plot at times, fans will enjoy Joe Schreiber's horror thriller as Scottie seems to CHASING THE DEAD.

Harriet Klausner

It's been recommended that writers should stick to writing what they know when it comes to writing, and what better character can a writer write about than him- or herself . . . a writer. But the writer in Joe Schreiber's new novel, No Doors, No Windows, is one with a dark, disturbing past that even he doesn't fully understand until the last few pages of the book, and has worked hard to forget and stay away from. One hopes that Joe Schreiber isn't anything like his character, Scott Mast.

Scott Mast wanted to make it big as a writer, but it never happened. So now he spends his days living relatively well, writing copy for greeting cards. He currently lives in Seattle and is happily far away from his family and old life where he grew up. That is until his father dies and he must return home to New Hampshire, finding an alcoholic loser of a brother with a son who he neglects and fails at being a decent father to. As Mast contemplates what he can do to help - there's the touchy history of their mother having died fifteen years ago in a horrific fire - he discovers a unfinished manuscript his father was apparently working on. It's about a very special house where there are no corners or edges; everything is curved and rounded. In this house there is a door that leads to "the black wing," where there are no doors, and no windows; where terrible things happen. But the story is unfinished and Mast decides that he must finish the book himself. After meeting up with an old girlfriend (their failed relationship is its own doomed story), he stumbles upon a remote house that turns out to be exactly like the one in his father's manuscript.

And so Mast rents the house and begins writing the story, feeling a strange presence overtake him when he is adding to the manuscript. He knows it has something to do with the house, but he doesn't know what. Meanwhile his brother falls deeper into his booze-filled spiral, leaving young Henry alone and abandoned. The clues gently fall in to place with each chapter, as Schreiber leaves the read wanting more, forcing the turning of the page, and the need to know what is the story behind Scott Mast and his strange mental state; what's the story behind the house; what's the deal with Mast's brother; and most importantly: what's the story behind the Mast family that deals with the dark history of the town. Horror readers will enjoy No Doors, No Windows for its psychological thrill ride that doesn't get revealed and resolved until the very last pages of the book.

[...]

the problem with this book is that its entirely foreplay. The climax is a major major letdown. This book reads well in that it kept me turning pages and the characters are almost fleshed out. There was some very poorly executed miscues and red herrings that never really take the reader where you think thy may go...as for the ending, i was left speechless..its as if the writer himself suffered from writers block and just gave up...the ending actually didnt make any sense. Plus somehow he managed to promote his star wars book in here shamelessly where it really didnt fit.

All in all, if you want a decent ghost story book about a crazy house with strange architecture...delve into House of Leaves.

An intriguing, deep character driven novel that will sweep you off your feet and into the imagination of Joe Schreiber. No Doors, No Windows reads smoother and more fluently than all of Schreiber's previous works, not because they're inferior, but because his craft has improved to such a degree that this one feels like a masterpiece. However, the strong drive of the book does teeter a little at the end as all the mysteries are revealed and the plot wraps up. Overall it most closely resembles Stephen King's Duma Key in that both have such strong, character driven stories that are so well written, yet both finish up with endings that are a little weaker. Then again, perhaps it's just that the reader is so sad to see it come to an end. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys horror novels.

Schreiber is a gifted writer and has done a lot of interesting things as of late. One of those things happens to be the work he has done with the Star Wars universe, remiinding me that he has deep horror roots. When I was looking back into the things that made the man tick, I recalled a couple of books I had read a while back. Intrigued by the fact that I had something seemingly new, I jumped back into No Doors, No Windows and took off.
It was a nice thing.

One of the things that really hurts books of this nature is the way that writer makes things click. When you want horror in a home you have to know the home well, and you also have to have some sort fo idea as to what might happen. In Schreiber's case this does not seem to be problematic because he knows what he is doing - and then some. By taking little pieces and tweeking little cogs of information, he makes a nice set-up and a scarely layout and something you don't always find, Dread. He creates a feel of that looming just out of frame, showing the world a little fear when fear should be the drug of the moment.

I really liked this book and thought it was frightening enough. I thought it was a short read, not really heavy and nothing really deep, but I don't think deep is something one should worry with here. What I do think is that it proves that J.S. is a great pen and that he is easy to read.
In fact, this entry has to be one of the stronger pieces he has made.

Strong 4/5 - nice read.

Thank you for your time

Joe Schreiber wrote one of the best horror novels of 2006 with Chasing the Dead. That was followed up with Eat the Dark, a claustrophobic tale of evil in an abandoned hospital. In his latest horror novel, Schreiber turns to small-town horror and hidden secrets which haunt the tiney New Hampshire town.

Scott Mast, a greeting card writer, has returned home for the funeral of his father. He's at odds with his alcoholic brother Owen, but care's for Owen's son Henry like he was his own child. While rummaging through is father's old belongings, Scott comes across an old, unfinished manuscript...a horror novel bout a strange house that has no angles in it at all. It's a geometry-defying home where every corner is rounded and a forgotten door leads to a hallway that should not exist. Not only does Scott find the novel but he finds that the home actually exists in the small town...overgrown and long forgotten, Scott leases the home and sets about trying to finish his father's novel.

Scott soon begins to uncover dark secrets about not only the town's past, but his own families mysteries which may have been better left alone. The local theater burned down years ago when a film made by his great uncle was being shown. Now that long lost film has been found and Scott is petrified by what he sees on the screen...A terrifying tall man who seems to be looking straight off screen at the viewers and a little girl...Rosemary who disappeared without a trace decades ago. As Scott continues to work on his novel, he is drawn more and more into terrifying delusions as the story, and The Round House begin to gnaw at his sanity and his very soul.

No Doors, No Windows is a little slower to grab readers like his earlier books did but what Schreiber does so well is to build suspense, revealing his mysteries and secrets methodically and having them play out over the cast of characters. Speaking of characters, this story has a much larger cast of supporting characters than in Schreiber's other books which had only a modest number of characters yet they will all play important roles in the story. There's a little bit of Stephen King and a little bit of Lovecraft to be found here in another excellent effort from Schreiber.

There isn't much to say other than I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end.

It was easy to get into and kept me turning pages when I should have been doing laundry. (Always a true test of a book)

The characters, events and storyline were all well written. It was creepy and mysterious and kept me guessing throughout. It could make a great thriller movie.

This was my first book by this author so I can't recommend his other books, but this one was good enough that I'll be trying them.

Scott Mast has returned to his New Hampshire home to bury his father. Scott's family has always been anything but functional, and it's hard for him to be back. Granted, all that is waiting in Seattle is a going nowhere writing career, but nevertheless home is as un-sweet as he remembers.

Before leaving town, Scott happens upon an old manuscript that his father had started. Scott never knew his father wrote anything, much less an odd ghost story that has a familiar feel to it. Soon Scott is led to an old abandoned house outside of town, where he comes face to face with a terrifying past that reveals secrets about his family and his hometown. Unable to will himself to leave, Scott moves into the old house and sets out to finish the manuscript his father began. The story has become his obsession, and his obsession might just kill him.

Joe Schreiber recently made a huge splash in the Star Wars universe with the first SW horror novel, Death Troopers. With No Doors, No Windows he goes back to his roots with a more traditional horror tale that is absolutely impossible to put down.

Schreiber's prose leaps off the page as he paints intoxicating word pictures throughout, dropping us right into the story as if it were happening all around us. Horror, drama, suspense, and mystery are effectively melded together to keep the pages flying and the reader guessing. Each character is fleshed out perfectly as secrets are exposed and fears realized. If you love scary, then there is plenty here to satisfy even the most hardcore horror fan. At the same time, amidst all of the darkness and turmoil there is a sliver of light that comes shining through offering hope when all seems lost.

Fair warning here: this is a dark, disturbing read. The story is laced with strong language and sexual content, but Schreiber somehow manages to keep the mature themes relevant to the plot without going overboard. If you like your stories light and fluffy, by no means is the book for you. But if you are on the prowl for a horror story with depth, then No Doors, No Windows is right up your alley.