Amity

Amity

by Micol Ostow 

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Expected Publication: August 26th 2014

Received From: Egmont USA via Net Galley (in exchange for an honest review)

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Connor's family moves to Amity to escape shady business deals. Ten years later, Gwen's family moves to Amity for a fresh start after she's recovered from a psychotic break.

But something is not right about this secluded house. Connor's nights are plagued with gore-filled dreams of demons and destruction. Dreams he kind of likes. Gwen has lurid visions of corpses that aren't there and bleeding blisters that disappear in the blink of an eye. She knows Amity is evil and she must get her family out, but who would ever believe her?

Amity isn't just a house. She is a living force, bent on manipulating her inhabitants to her twisted will. She will use Connor and Gwen to bring about a bloody end as she's done before. As she'll do again.

Alternating between parallel narratives, Amity is a tense and terrifying tale suggested by true-crime events that will satisfy even the most demanding horror fan

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This was the first book that I got from Net Galley and I'm really excited! Thanks so much Egmont USA and Net Galley! 

Everyone loves a good horror story, from childhood ghost stories to the gruesome real life horrors that are portrayed in media targeting an older audience. Humans are fascinated with gore, and horror, and savor the fear that tales inspire. We hold a morbid fascination with all things horror, with death, with gore, and with the indescribable. Amity gives readers all of this and more. 

Micol Ostow's writing was amazing. She really brought the tale to life. Her word choice was pure perfection and she used this as well as simile and metaphor to bring her story to life. The writing choices she made and her voice was stunning and will chill readers to the bone. Micol Ostow is a horror master and because of her writing, her book Amity is sure to keep readers up late into the night. 

The characters were deliciously deranged, even before Amity, and that made the story so much better. Gwen and Connor connect with the readers despite not being completely normal. The similarities they had made the story even creepier. The characters didn't really bring the story to life, the writing did that, but they got you invested in the story, and somehow Ostow wrote them in a way that felt like they were pawns. The way they were written makes readers feel like maybe they are just a pawn too and that…that is an eerie feeling. 

While this is a severely gruesome, horrifying, and utterly frightening tale, it also has important themes. Gwen gives us some great themes as she grows to find her strength. She is a model for girls in a way that fits in to a basic, horror free life. Gwen is what every YA female character should look like. 

The plot sends us both speeding and crawling at the same time in the direction of what is sure to be a grisly and terrible end. It's pacing was perfect and really added to the story. It was smooth and flowed well, building up the terror as it went along, crescendoing to a stunning, charged, and unexpected ending. 

Overall thoughts:  (Keep in mind it is only inspired by the Amityville horror. It is not a re-telling or exact replica.) Amity is the best horror story I've read! Ostow did an amazing job of writing it! It's not scary, but it's definitely morbid and horrifying, as well as more than a little bit creepy.  I can not recommenced this book enough to all of the horror lovers and everyone fascinated by morbid and gruesome things. Amity is spine-tingling-ly good and is what ever horror enthusiast dreams of. Five out of five stars.

Be ready to leave the lights on. Be ready to be horrified. Be ready for Amity.

Add it on Goodreads and buy it through Liberty Bay Books. 

Gif. Consensus: