Gary Fry’s Conjure House is a dark atmospheric tale, where fleeting horrors dwell along the opaque margins of the story; blinking on and off like phantom will-o'-the-wisps, and leaving this a tale of two realms—the substantial and the insubstantial. The writing is crisp and descriptive—and the storyline imaginative. The story unfolds sparingly in fits and starts before settling into a sustained tale. Fry spends a lot of time detailing the psyche of the main protagonists while managing to leave t...

Review originally published here: http://www.iheartreading.net/reviews/...Conjure House uses a lot of the standard horror elements – supposedly haunted house, obsessed mad man, town legend, childhood friends returning home to deal with a terrible event in the past. He manages to turn them into a convincing story that offers something unique and original, while staying remarkably close to the well-known tropes. The opening chapters started out very strong, drawing the reader into the story by sho...

This one started off a little slow for me and was a bit repetitive at times. The base story with the childhood friends coming home for a reunion has been done and the characters seemed a bit tired. (view spoiler)[ The three friends that came back for the reunion didn’t really have any “skin in the game” and I was wondering why they were there and why they would even come back. (hide spoiler)]I did find the underlying premise very creative with “art” being a gateway to summoning dark entities an...

I’ll be honest up front… I am biased towards psychologists writing horror novels (since I am one and trying to make contributions to the genre). I’m not sure how many there are, but running into one gave me quite a thrill. I wasn’t aware of the background of author Gary Fry when I started reading Conjure House. When I read his bio at the end of the novel, I was pleasantly surprised to read he had his PhD in psychology. I should have known based on some of the passages in the novel. I struggled

Anthony had a bet with brother and three friends that he would not enter the conjure house. As Simon enter the house, there was a big flash of light and Simon was gone. 15 years later, Anthony returns to the small village after the brutal death of his parents. Strange things are happening in this small town that can't be explained. Anthony son makes a new friend name Suman. The new friend tells the boy that he is his uncle. Anthony parents home is not far from where Simon disappeared. Every time...

The fear of haunted houses in the literature has been explored in many different ways. In this instance, Gary Fry presents us with a psychological thriller with a supernatural twist. He delivers an atypical haunting of a house with tones and subtleties of Lovecratian horror. The book is interesting and in the end I liked it but it left me if but a bit wanting. There was fear but not at the level I was expecting. It was interesting and kept me reading but found the second half of the book to arre...

2 1/2 Stars 15 years ago Anthony and his friends watched his younger brother go into an abandoned home called "Conjure House." A place with a haunted past that was owned by a man named Peter Suman who was said to run experiments in the house. Anthony's brother, Simon, never came back out. 15 years later and Anthony's parents are killed and it pulls Ant back to the home and memories he's left behind. Memories of the day his brother disappeared. Memories that won't stay in the past. This sound go...

There are elements in this something-bad-happens-in-this-house, children-go-missing tale, teasing parts of some scenes that I enjoyed (enough to keep me reading). Particularly the author's attempt to blend some Lovecraft (!!Cthulu!!) mythos and cosmic energy. What ruined any significant momentum was how I kept getting hammered over the head with the whole "God's Eye"/time alteration goal for the central antagonist. I understood Suman's grand scheme the first couple times and began to get annoyed...

It reminded me a lot of Stephen Kings It. It was good but much less detail.

Interesting story with creepy atmosphere. Be careful of your artistic creations.

Oooh! have just finished Conjure House by Gary Fry and am all a-shiver.What an excellent, horrible tale it is too. The book is about a haunted house, but a haunted house with quite a difference, and four grown up friends who are drawn to it once again after their childhoods were changed forever by the disappearance of the younger brother of one of the four when he went inside to explore the decrepit property.A clever book, this one, marvellous characters, pacy story, comic esoteric terror galore...

Make no mistake I liked this book. It's well written, creepy and has all the right elements. The characters are well drawn and the pace is neat and tidy. The plot centres around some well worn horror tropes and they are put to good use as the tension mounts and the final terror is revealled. There's a nice satisfying ending. So, you may ask why only the three stars...For me the plot trod a well walked path. The set up is very tradional, even to the point that if I hadn't known when this was writ...

My rating for CONJURE HOUSE is a 4.5, rounded up because of the overall style and engaging story concept.The best part of this novel--aside from Gary Fry's incredible writing style, of course!--is the gothic, all encompassing atmosphere enveloping the tale. The overt Lovecraftian tone came across perfectly, instantly dragging me into the shadowy world being weaved. The overall concept behind the story, I found to be unique and deeply intriguing.There was only one character in the story whose mot...

This is the story of Anthony. When he was younger his brother Simon was kidnapped in a mysterious house called the Conjurer's House. Legend has it that the former owner, Peter Sumas, known as the Conjurer, kidnapped children over a hundred years previously to do horrific experiments on them in an attempt to bend time and space. Many years later and Anthony's parents are murdered and strange things are going on in the village of Deepvale. Now Anthony's son has been kidnapped and it is up to Antho...

In what feels like a much older novel than it is, Conjure House offers up a solid, old-fashioned horror novel story, the kind where the real horror always seems to be just off the margins of the page. Gary Fry establishes each scene beautifully, engaging the reader's imagination so well that it's often a surprise to look back and realize just how sparse the details are upon the page, when they're so vivid and vibrant in the mind's eye. It's a neat narrative trick, and one that's not easy to pull...

** I was given a copy from the publisher** Thank youConjure House grabbed hold of me from the very beginning, and it never did let go. Even still, I find myself thinking about certain passages in the book.Conjure won't let you get off of the edge of your chair. I enjoyed this horror/ sci-fi mix. Definitely a must read. I am looking forward to reading more of Mr. Fry's work!

This was the second book by Gary Fry I have read and it won't be the last. This book was like a gothic ghost story with a little Lovecraft thrown in. About a Man who's brother come up missing after going to Conjure House. Then returning years later with his wife and son and tries to figure out what happened. Don't want to say too much. A little slow at times but overall a very good story. I gave it 4 stars.

I'm giving this 4 stars but it's better than that. Review excerpts:"...It’s in this character creation and symbolic interplay that Fry shows his talent best. Not to mention the explosive and magical ending that kept me turning the page and wondering what could possibly happen next.""Fry has a knack of making the reader feel uneasy, never knowing quite what is happening or in fact when it is happening. This charge of the past toward the future and the end of time is a thrilling journey. It’s in t...

This book immediately reminded me of It by Stephen King because of the disappearance of the younger brother and the reunion many years later of the childhood friends. But there was no clown - which is good if you have a clown phobia, as some people have told me they developed after reading It.As far as the creep factor goes, this book definitely had it: eerie setting, empty decrepit house of ill repute, glimpses of things out of the corner of your eye, and a wardrobe that held more than clothes....

First, let me say I liked CONJURE HOUSE by Gary Fry because it *is* creepy and has all of the elements that make a good horror story. But barely. Unfortunately for me it felt contrived, derivative and forced. From the beginning, I knew where the plot was headed and I was never surprised. CONJURE HOUSE is a bit slow and plodding but okay and I felt some of the characters (especially the main character Anthony) didn't act like normal people. Okay, maybe that was a point in the story, but if so, it...