Review: THE HOUSE by Christina Lauren

4/5 rating

If you would have told me that a book about a murderous house that is alive (literally, everything in side of it moves and watches and responds and is alive) and terrorizes the love shared between two teenagers would terrify me, I would have laughed. But Christina Lauren does such a good job bringing this to life in a sense that I had to turn on my television to disney channel while nearing the end of this book because it was just too much to read being the only one awake at 1 AM. It makes you question every piece of furniture in your house and makes you avoid your bathroom for the first hour after closing the book (you'll get why i'm saying this once you read it). Delilah is a 17 year old girl who has just returned to her childhood neighborhood after 6 years of being sent away to a private catholic school, only to return to her "ever-so-caring" parents. Oh her parents, who will genuinely piss you off with their zombie-like, uncaring ways; which, personally, did a really good job at making me appreciate my parents sometimes overly-caring ways. Dhaval, her bestfriend welcomes her with open arms and gives her the inside scoop on what she's missed the passed 6 years; That is, until she stops listening after laying eyes on her childhood crush, Gavin.  It doesn't take long for their paths to cross, which then opens the path to self destruction...maybe.

I'll admit that in the beginning when they introduced Delilahs little horror fetish I immediately thought this story would be cliche and juvinile, and at times it could be, but I promise nothing prepared me for the events that took place. The only person shes thought to have ever known this was dhaval, her best friend. But Gavins paid enough attention to Delilah to figure this out on his own (which makes me swoon); not to worry, he has a secret of his own, too, and that's House. The only thing Delilah has ever heard was that nobody goes to Gavin's house, as in, he has never had friends over in his 18 years of life. That the house is "haunted" - so innocent -. And that his family is just weird...Instead, Gavin tells her the truth; and nothing could have prepared delilah (or us, the readers) for this type of horror. Gavin is, to the physical eye, the bad boy. The dark hair and dark features in his eyes and (pretty sure I'm falling for him myself) nobody bothers to go near him. But his delicate way of treating delilah and the realization that hits him about the only family he's ever known (you'll understand) makes you want to jump into the book and just take him away from all of the stress. 

That being said, if there were three pictures that could sum up my emotions during and after reading this, it would be these three;

This is an exact picture of me, last night, except instead of hair it was my blanket; The minute "House" reacted the way it did to Delilah talking about where they would live together after high school, implying he wouldn't live in "House" forever, I knew that there was so much more to it than having freshly made chocolate chip cookies prepared for Gavin everyday after school, and so did Delilah. Sparking her mission to get rid of it befor it got rid of her. 

"The thing is, i'm yours. I don't belong to anyone, but you. I'm scared that youll never be mine the same way" "Lilah, I am yours already, completely." enough said, you can kill me now.

And then the moment Delilah pretty much almost got murdered by "House" in the only place Gavin thought was not alive in the house, the shower curtain wrapping around her wrists and the thousands of spiders crawling towards her, I had to hold my breath while reading...but the minute Gavin opened the door all it looked like was as if Delilah was trying to hurt herself, because everything had disappeared. I think I had to put my book down for a good  five minutes to process the fact that yes, this house is most definitely the house from hell. And I didn't look at my shower curtain for the rest of the night in the same way.

Once they turn the schools abandoned music room into their safe haven, that was it for me, my heart could not take the passion these two have for eachother; the both innocent yet exciting passion. And with every shaking fear thrown in their path, that passion grows and so does the anger that stirrs inside of House, which I promise will frighten you a little bit. It's the end that makes you want to jump into the book, slip on your black heeled boots with delilah, some black paint under your eyes, and take the damned demon down. I won't tell you what happens between House and Gavin -or- Gavin and Delilah, it's up for you to stick around to see who -or what- he chooses, but i'll tell you one thing, the ending will most definitely leave you in both a state of "what the hell" and "let me catch up with my emotions". The only reason I'm not giving it 5/5 aside from 4/5 is because it was in my opinion too rushed at some points, I needed more of their love and more of the action of House, but still, perfect enough. Definitely recommend reading if you're into romance/mystery/suspense/a little bit of horror.