House of Dark Shadows (Dreamhouse Kings #1) - Robert Liparulo

This is one of those young adult books that I decide to give a shot because I have read other things by the author and like him/her.  I've read 3 of Mr. Liparulo's novels, and they were pretty good.  Comes a Horseman was really long and took me forever, but it was interesting.  I also read Germ and Deadfall, which were scary in a realistic way.  He has another book out, a sequel to Deadfall, but I was freaked out enough by the first one.  A laser weapon that can just pop out of the sky and fry you is scary enough to think about without continuing with the same people crazy enough to use that kind of destruction.  Anyway!

House of Dark Shadows is a book about a house that is hidden out in the woods.  The prologue has a woman being taken through the house by a huge man.  Her family is trying to catch up, stop the man, but he just swats them away and continues to take the mother away through the house to a door.  Once through, the door slams shut.

Thirty years later...

Xander and his family move to the boonies and decide they want to live in this house despite Xander's gut feelings and premonitions about the house.  He confides in his brother, David, and together they try to see if they can figure out the mystery of the house.  They discover that the previous owners of the house disappeared and the town thinks that it was a murder/suicide.  They also find a portal in a closet that takes them to the town school.  They suspect that there is a man in the house one night and follow him to find a secret door in one of the walls.  They find a hallway that has about 20 doors.  I don't want to reveal more, you'd have to read it.

This book was one that I couldn't put down.  Being of a sensitive nature, I tried to read it during the day.  This author reminds me a little of Ted Dekker.  He writes some really interesting suspense that makes you think and now he has this series for the young adults (Dekker has The Lost Books for his YA series).  I looked and there are 6 Dreamhouse Kings books.  I've put them on my watch list, I'd like to know what happens, but I think I can wait to see.  Good book!