The House at the End of the Street

Last Saturday, I was at Barnes and Noble with Hannah. I made a deal with her that if she actually reads, I will buy her books. She's currently reading The Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot. As we were in the young adult section buying her book, I came across the book I ended up buying for myself. I bought The House at the End of the Street by Lily Blake because I had seen the commercials for the movie, and wanted to see if the movie would be worth it.

Looking back, I wish I had looked at the title page of the book.  Had I done so, I would have seen that the book is based on the screenplay of the movie, which usually indicates the book is not going to be good. I paid $13 to read a book based on a screenplay. I am so ashamed.

This book is about Elissa, who moves with her mother, Sarah, from the Chicago area to the Seattle area (I think). Elissa's parents are divorced, and Elissa never sees her father. A partial reason for the move halfway across the country is because Sarah is worried that Elissa will end up a pregnant teen with no future.  She feels that moving will get Elissa away from bad influences.

The house they move to is large, and the rent is cheap. Why, you ask? Because it is next door to a house where a little girl was injured, became mentally impaired, and killed her parents.  The house is still inhabited by older brother, Ryan, who is a bit of an outcast. Elissa meets Ryan, and they become fast friends.  There are times when you think their relationship will come to more, but something always stops it.

I won't ruin the suspense, but Ryan is hiding things and Elissa gets caught up in it.

Perhaps if this had been a legitimate book that they made a movie out of, I would have enjoyed it more. The book itself was nowhere near as scary as the commercials for the movie make it appear. I am looking forward to the movie though.  I have a feeling that this will be one of the rare occasions where the movie is better than the book.