Synopsis: The Lutzes moved into their dream home on December 18th, 1975. Four weeks later, they fled in terror. The home was the scene of a mass murder a year before, and the Lutzes claimed paranormal phenomena caused them to fear for their lives and forced them to abandon the home. Touted as a true story.

Review: The Amityville Horror certainly isn’t one of the normal YA books that I like to read, but I went out on a limb with this one after finding the audiotape version for a good price, and honestly I really enjoyed this.

A warning though… don’t listen to this in your room with the lights off at night time! haha There really are some moments in this book where you can feel the hairs on your arms rise up!

The Amityville Horror was originally passed off as being based on a true story. Since the time it was release there has been a lot of speculation and lawsuits surrounding the nature of these claims, and I think it’s fair to treat this book as fiction. I honestly don’t think ANY of it happened, but that being said, it sure did make for one entertaining story!

The story revolves around the Lutz family. They move into a home in Amityville, New York in the mid 70’s. The previous owners (The DeFeo family) were involved in an absolutely horrific crime when son Ronald DeFeo Junior killed his parents, his two brothers and two sisters whilst they were all sleeping in bed one night. This part of the story is indeed real. Probably the only part! lol

The Lutz family claims that after they moved into the former DeFeo residence, strange, evil things started to happen:

• Their daughter Missy constantly started talking to someone they couldn’t see called Jodie who she described as looking like a pig.
• George Lutz could never seem to get warm in the residence saying that he always felt cold down to his bones. He would constantly have a fire going, and even though the thermostat was working, he couldn’t get warm.
• Windows would open and close by themselves.
• George witnessed his wife Kathy levitating a few feet from her bed in her sleep on a number of occasions and when he woke her, it was as though her face had transformed to that of a 90 year old woman with wrinkles and white hair.
• The walls in their home at one point oozed a green jelly like substance.
• George would wake up every single morning at 3:15am, the exact time Ronald DeFeo Junior murdered his whole family. He would also hear what sounded like an entire marching band playing music on the 1st floor on more than one occasion but when he went to investigate it would suddenly stop.

And other strange things happened as well. Their priest Father Mancuso went to their house only once to bless it, but then not long after suddenly was plagued by illness that reoccured. He could never call the Luz residence on the phone without a static filled line, or no answer at all - the Luz’s never heard the phone ringing on their end. And he had these terrible blisters on his hands that plagued him until he stopped thinking about the Lutz family.

After only 28 days of living in that house, the Lutz family flees in sheer terror, refusing to ever go back. Since then, there has been no reported hauntings or incidents, so really, it’s up to you to be the judge!

Overall it was honestly quite a frightening book at times. I am a lover of horror movies and horror themes so I was really in my element, and I enjoyed the book much more than all of the terrible moves they have made about The Amityville Horror. Definitely worth checking out either in book format or audiobook if you’re inpartial to them!

Rating: 4 out of 5