| Title | : | In the House of Mirrors |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 288 |
| Publication | : | First published May 28, 2013 |
B00D2V3OKC
When Ritchie Naughton, amateur photographer, stumbles upon a house in the woods, strange things start happening. His camera captures images that should not exist, things that cannot be explained. Soon, he'll realize that the people of Red River, New Jersey are in terrible danger. There's a darkness growing within the house which threatens them all. The House of Mirrors is open, and once you see yourself in, there's no way out...
In the House of Mirrors is a 90,000-word supernatural thriller recommended for fans of Peter Straub and Robert McCammon.
In the House of Mirrors Reviews
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Ritchie Naughton moves back to his hometown after he caught his girlfriend banging with a football player. Well, starting a job as a photographer for a newspaper website he is drawn into the adventure of his life. When his uncle Bernie asks him to spy on his aunt he suspects having an affair with another man things get really weird. Who is behind the cult of the Black Book? What about the Boone family? Why doesn't anybody know the camera brand Denlex? Can he save Aurelia who tries to become a member of the satanists? What is the secret of the house of mirrors? Who is Quincy Black and what is his relationship to the editor of the newspaper? How is the story of a carnival involved? Tim Meyer did an excellent job here mixing A.R. Morlan with David Lynch, Lovecraft and some dose of Alice in Wonderland (even mentioned in the novel). The story he's carved out is like a mirror itself, a real creeper and page turner. This book is extremely dark and offers some hellish parallel world you don't want to enter. Modern horror at its best. Highly recommended!
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Ritchie Naughton was a newspaper writer, for a paper in Atlanta. Ritchie's life was falling apart. His girlfriend was cheating on him and he saw no reason to stay. Ritchie, decided to move back to his home state of New Jersey. He would have to live with his sister and family, until he could get back on his feet. Ritchie, lands a job a small newspaper, as a photographer and website designer. In the basement of the paper, Ritchie stumbles upon this camera, with the name Denlax on it. He had never heard of that brand before. Ritchie's uncle Bernie, wants to hire him to spy on his wife. Bernie thinks, that his wife and Marty Olberstad are lovers. Ritchie, goes to Marty's house and waits for him to come out. Uncle Bernie's wife is with him. He follows the two to a deep dark place in the woods.. What Ritchie stumbles on, is a church the worship satin. Bernie's wife and Marty, are followers of the order of of the Black Book. Ritchie, has taken a few pictures, with this old Denlax camera and doesn't know what to expect. The old camera takes pictures with supernatural effects, that can not be explained. What haunts this camera and who did it belong to? Ritchie is drawn into a world of darkness, magic and horror. Tim Meyer's is a good writer and a very good storyteller. I am going to checkout other books by this author. I highly recommend this book.
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All Can See in the House of Mirrors:
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, reading it in two short sittings. The concept was truly intriguing and unique. There were a few editing errors, such as the author writing "rest assure" when he meant "rest assured," but these were not so overwhelming that I couldn't enjoy the story. I found the characters well-developed, and each invoked feeling, whether you liked them or not. That's an accomplishment of a good writer. The pace was steady, and I was driven to keep turning pages until the ending, which unfolded in a satisfying way. The ending was believable, with a few surprises, and it even leaves a window for more books in these worlds and featuring these characters. I, for one, would love to read more. -
Nightmare Adventure
From the excellent characters to the stories within stories, this book will blow your socks right off. This book expertly traverses worlds of horror, thrill, adventure, and romance. Magic, Satanic worship, locked portals and hidden keys follow your journey through. This story has it all. -
There are books that are hard to put down because the story is so exciting and compelling and sinister that the reader just wants to know what happens next. Tim Meyer's In the House of Mirrors is such a book. It is a lurid metaphysical page turner about darkness, love, madness and cameras.
While reading 'In the House of mirrors' (2013), I occasionally thought of 'Ghost Camera' (2014) by Darcy Coates and 'House of Long Shadows' (2018) because of the motif of the camera. This device plays an important role in these three stories in a different but very macabre way.
The camera in this must-read by Tim Meyer shows things that aren't there. The intense descriptions of the photos and what they show are very strong and lurid. I associated this with the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer (1), for whom reality as we experience it is only an illusion, a representation and lies like a veil (veil) over the real reality.
And then in my experience there is the key chapter. That's the nineteenth because it contrasts nihilism with faith and that gives an ironic twist to the story that is masterful.
This book also has a sympathetic main character, Ritchie Naughton. You will love this amateur photographer through everything he goes through in the story as a reader. Yet he also has similarities with the protagonist in the story. Both have a point in their lives where they have to take or retake their place in the world. The way in which both make their choices makes the difference between them. Ritchie is guided by love and friendship, while his opponent is guided by other motives.
Then there's the great way the story scrapes chapters through several passages around Foucault's work and his stance on madness (2). According to him, this is not a mental illness, but the excluded. With this in mind, some passages get even scarier. In my opinion, Meyer plays in a macabre way with the unity experience of madness, as can be found in the dissertation of this French philosopher.
So this book is not only recommended for readers of excellent horror, but also for readers who like stories with ambiguity, 'In the House of Mirrors' has enough interesting interfaces with the work of Schopenhauer and Foucault to almost be called literature. #inthehouseofmirrors #timeyer
(1) Schopenhauer, A. The World als will and representation (2020). Cambridge: Cambridge university press
(2) Foucault, M. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (1988) New York: Vintage books -
If you are looking for a horror novel with an edge, and one that will keep you guessing, IN THE HOUSE OF MIRRORS is for you. It quickly draws you in and before you know it, you won't want to put it down.
The story is suspenseful, fast-paced and gets more and more interesting as you go. Plus, it's got satanic cults, demonic forces, sadistic murderers, dark magic and even a few laughs. What more could you ask for?
At the heart of the story is Ritchie Naughton. Ritchie returns home to New Jersey when his life comes crashing down, thanks to a health scare and an unpleasant end to a long-term relationship. But that's just the beginning of his bad luck. After taking a job as a photographer for a small, local paper, the strange, old camera he finds in the office basement starts to capture some disturbing images that should not be there. Before long, Ritchie is neck deep in the dangerous underworld of Red River, NJ and the dark forces hidden IN THE HOUSE OF MIRRORS.
Forget those same old vampire and zombie stories you've been reading for years and try something new and different. Take a trip IN THE HOUSE OF MIRRORS; you'll like what you see. -
Just finished reading “In the House of Mirrors”, by Tim Meyer. This was one of those reads where at the end you say to yourself “what the hell did I just read”...those are the best books to read in my opinion. This book had a little bit of everything, horror, supernatural, a dash of tongue in cheek humor, some detective work a relationship gone bad, cheating, hate and love, just to name a few. I loved this book. This was my second read by this author and I am so looking forward to many more of his books.
“This was the Denlax Effect, ladies and gentlemen, watch as it extends its ever-so-powerful arms, embracing whoever dares to cross its path.”
Armed with the Delax camera that takes pictures with supernatural effects, Richie Naughton is on the trail of Marty Olberstad and and his cheating Aunt Danica...and trying to unravel the mysteries of the Satan worshiping “Order of the Black Book”, who meet in an old house in the middle of the woods on the outskirts of Red River, New Jersey, this is “The House of Mirrors”. “The house is the doorway, and the camera is the key”...a real page turner this one. -
Throw in a bit of the movie Sinister, add teaspoon of the film Funhouse (80's) and a dash of a creepier Reverend Henry Kane (main antagonist of the Poltergeist series). The finished result would be *In the House of Mirrors".
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THIS BOOK WAS SO AWESOME. I NEVER WOULD HAVE THOUGHT UP ANYTHING LIKE IT. A VERY GOOD STORY LINE AND A LOT OF CREEPINESS TO THE BOOK. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
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This book started out pretty good. It has a cheesy 80s horror vibe to it, which I don’t mind at all, the MC was easy to sympathize with, and there were some genuinely creepy situations. A camera that takes bizarre pictures, including a man trying to crawl out of the photo? Black Masses held at a mysterious house far out in the woods? Count me in, this all sounds great.
After the 50% mark, everything went downhill—especially the quality of the writing. Another pass with an editor would have helped a lot. And the story got bogged down with some long, disjointed scenes—I almost DNF’ed after a ridiculous, PAGES long description of a raccoon dragging a severed limb from a dumpster across a road, getting flattened by a car halfway across, with the narrator’s voice appearing out of nowhere to announce, (paraphrasing here): Ladies and gentlemen, this poor mother raccoon was doomed to die, because of the cursed camera!
There was also a lot of pointlessly crude language describing the staff and patients at a mental hospital. The nurses were obese and cruel, with “massive rumps” and similar descriptions, and the patients were described as slobbering lunatics, including an old lady who went around saying she couldn’t find her vagina. Not only was the scene dumb, it detracted from any suspense that should have been building up as we approached the climax. Also, it just seemed immature.
And for the love of little green apples, I wish authors would research just a tiny bit before writing about health care systems. So many books describe chatty nurses just reaching for a chart and blurting out confidential information, or yeeting critically ill people on the street due to an unpaid balance while the hero works seven jobs a day to pay off grandma’s medical bills…and please just stop with this nonsense already. As someone who has worked in the field since 1997, these situations are just dumb.
In this book, the particular instance involved the MC calling the hospital looking for an employee, and a nurse just randomly tells him she doesn’t work there but she’s listed as a former patient’s emergency contact. HIPAA aside, that scenario simply couldn’t work. That’s a minor issue with the book, but please authors, don’t just wing it all the time. Realism in the real world stuff actually makes the paranormal parts more convincing.
The second half of the book was full of a lot of similarly bad writing, enough that I debated between one and two stars. But I went with two—three stars for the first half and one for the second half. It’s a shame, because the bones of a good story are here, if only it had been better written. -
3.5 stars!
In the House of Mirrors is a fun book. It's not deep or profound but it's a fun, engrossing story and sometimes that's all I need. I don't need or want every book I read to shake my world. It's fast paced and entertaining and I easily got lost in the plot and characters. It is very plot driven because it is primarily told through first person point of view. Because of that, I did feel like it was lacking some deeper, descriptive language that could have enhanced the overall story. But it was never boring to see the situations through Ritchie Naughton's eyes. He definitely keeps his wit and sarcasm throughout. It could have been a pretty dark and depressing book if Ritchie wasn't as funny as he was. While Ritchie is the main protagonist, my love goes to Little Chris. Oh Little Chris; he reminds me of a young Ben Hanscom (from It). He's chubby, kind of dorky, so sweet, and fiercely loyal. He really added an additional layer to the story, gave it more depth and definitely made it more emotional. -
Well this book was certainly entertaining! The author gives us a taste of a little bit of everything! Supernatural, horrors, murders, insanity, magic, other dimensions, love, betrayal, satanic worship & a camera that is the key to holding the horrors at bay.
“The Denlax Effect-the camera just didn’t have the power of taking pictures, of our world and another one similar to ours, it had the power to change things. Alter the future, skew fate, create its own rules.”
It all starts for the main character when he forgets his wallet one day. Ritchie says it perfectly, “Who knew a forgotten wallet could cause such a chain of events.” This one thing leads his life onto a whole different path, ending at the House of Mirrors. This is an entertaining book, great characters, horrifying events and its moves along, drawing the reader along for the ride! -
Amazing storyline
This was quite the awesome read! Mystery horror & fantasy all in one book! I could not out it down a real page turner ! Do not miss this one .i highly recommend this book! Great author .amazing read! -
Looking in Mirrors
I will never look at a mirror the same way. I enjoyed this book and its spooky camera. I am on team God (for the record), and to me it seems the good team won. It was a tough battle. -
Quite a good story.
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Note - This is a review of the audio book version.
In the House of Mirrors is a thrill from start to finish. It's a horror novel with a supernatural mystery and a character study into one of the most unluckiest people in the world, Ritchie Naughton. Ritchie was a happy young man with a beautiful girlfriend and a job he loved until he had the misfortune of leaving his wallet at home one day. This singular event had life altering consequences. Upon returning home, he discovered his long-term girlfriend in bed with another man. The shock is too much for Ritchie and he ends up in the hospital with a heart problem.
Facing the end of his relationship and looking for a change of pace in his life, Ritchie returns to his home state of New Jersey. He takes up residence in the fictional town of Red River with his sister and her husband until he's ready to get on his feet again. In an effort to better himself, he takes a job with a local newspaper as a photographer and is given a camera which captures more than meets the eye. With camera in hand and the universe seemingly setting unavoidable events into action, Ritchie is drawn into a world of darkness, magic, and terror.
In the House of Mirrors features a wide cast of characters which the narrator, The Soliloquy Man, brought to life brilliantly. Although, some times the parts where he yells or shouts get too loud. He does an excellent job bringing different voices to each character and making them feel authentic.
Unfortunately, the majority of the characters except for Ritchie are one dimensional. The helpless love interest, check. The bumbling sidekick, check. The nonredeemable villains, check. It was very difficult to empathize with the villains. Their motivations were stated but I never really felt as if I could relate to them since they were so cartoonish in their evil. Ritchie's sister's family is also central to the beginning of the story and are never mentioned again for the rest of the story until the end. Considering he was living with them, it would have been nice for them to have had a little more interaction.
Despite the characters, the plot is fascinating. If I'd been reading a book, it would have been a real page turner. The pacing was just right for this book. It slowed down long enough for the reader to catch their breath. It picked up the pace when it started to seem as if it would languish. There were moments of humor as well which relived some of the tension, Ritchie-my-Bitchie! Gar Gar instead of Wawa. Red River is a play on Red Bank and Toms River. Small details like this made the story more enjoyable.
For the scale of the forces at play in this universe, the ending was as satisfying as could be. That's a rare thing to find these days.
Overall, In the House of Mirrors is a fun novel. It doesn't take itself too seriously and in doing so allows the reader to enjoy the experience. I'd definitely read more from the author's future releases. Great job!
Since this was the audio book version I heard, I should mention the narration by The Soliloquy Man. As I said above, he did an amazing job bringing these characters to life and acting out the parts in different voices. It made it easier to follow the conversations and figure out which character was speaking without getting lost. His voice range is great. He can do from doing a feminine voice one moment to a deep gravely voice the next. My only gripe with the audio book are some of the extra long pauses. They feel awkward considering I don't think they should be there. Otherwise, it was an enjoyable listen and kept me entertained during my commute to work and washing dishes in the kitchen. -
Different!
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Nice and creepy! Well developed plot with a solid ending. Great book to read in a thunderstorm!
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Interesting, yet weird read. This writing style reminded me a lot of Stephen King, with a demented camera that haunts it's owners.
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Good beginning. Nice hook. Writing became more and more elementary. I just had to stop listening not even halfway through. Too bad.
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If only Tim Meyer would've left out the overuse of "Ritchie my bitchie", I would've enjoyed it much more.
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A pretty good story, but with sentences like "she looked unpleased," I feel 3 stars is very generous with regard to the actual writing. Tim, you badly need an editor!
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I didn't hate this novel. I just thought it was kind of meh.
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First horror I have read since The Shining in 1987. I loved it. Couldn't put it down.
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Ritchie Naughton's life is falling apart. After returning home on a break from work one afternoon, he discovers his long-time girlfriend in bed with a football player. The shock triggers a heart condition that Ritchie never knew about. After all this, Ritchie makes a decision to move back to New Jersey and into his sister's basement. Ritchie finally he finds a job as a staff photographer at a local paper. The paper has an older camera for Ritchie to use, and is only inscribed with the name Denlax. Along with his newspaper gig, Ritchie reluctantly agrees to work for his uncle in order to provide picture proof of his aunt's infidelity. With this side gig, Ritchie finds that the camera produces disturbing images of other worlds. Soon, the Denlax drags Ritchie into a dangerous world with extreme consequences.
In the House of Mirrors is a slow-burning horror that sucked me in with great characters and a unique plot. From the beginning, I never quite knew which way the book would take me and that made me keep reading. All of the characters, human and otherwise were thoroughly created. The camera itself was the most intriguing, bringing is elements of horror, supernatural, and the occult. The mystery of the Denlax kept me guessing as the pictures with imperfections soon showed separate worlds and beings that moved within the picture, sort of like an otherworldly camera obscura. I loved the history behind the camera and the story that was passed down along with it. As Ritchie learned about the camera, he began to change, but not as I would have suspected. The pieces started to fall together as the story wrapped up and the horror, suspense and gruesomeness of the acts that the camera precipitated. Overall, an intense and different horror read.
