The Amityville Horror

Creepy, fake or not fake.

Just wow....I have watched the original Amityville horror movie so many times but never read anything about it. This is so much more terrifying to listen to now....whew

Most often tagged as “a true story”, this is more likely ‘inspired by' as the countless lawsuits have tried to prove. Anyway, this was included with audible, so I gave it a go as I haven't read it or seen any of the movies about it. 
This is the story of the haunting that took place during the 28 days the Lutz family stayed in the house they purchased at 112 Ocean Avenue. The previous owner had been sent to jail for killing his entire family within the house, but the Lutz family did not mind at the time. 
Part of this really comes down to whether or not you believe in paranormal activity and ghosts. That seems to be the biggest deciding factor between the reviews I've seen. If you're a nonbeliever and you take the ‘true story' to heart, then yes, this sounds insane. If you're a believer, this is probably a horrifying example of possession, obsession, demonic presence, and haunting. 
For me, this was just super cool to see how influenced horror is by it. Not only general things, but actual huge plot points as well as how they actually happened. I am not a believer, but I enjoyed this a lot. Not scary, because it's written kind of documentary style, with fact after fact (scene after scene) happening without much separating them. It makes it quick and snappy, but you lose what the people were feeling and thinking, for me that's normally where the creepiness comes from...
Personally 4/5* I wouldn't want to stay there regardless. 

I've seen most of the movies based on this book but I had never read the book. I decided to listen to it on audible and see how much different it was from the movies. I've never thought of this as a true story and still don't but as a fiction book it is fairly decent. A few differences from the movies but overall very familiar. A decent read.

The horror classic that I'd never gotten round to reading. I suspect it would have made more of an impact on me if I'd read it in my teens because reading it at forty-one, it all seems faintly ridiculous. I laughed out loud at several points and was left feeling more bemused than terrified. Still, the writing was good and the intertwining narratives well crafted. Definitely one of those rare cases of the movie being better than the book.

Reads like the transcript of a dramatized podcast about a family and their experience in a haunted house.

It was okay. I listened to the audio version of the book. The narrator was fine but the book itself just didn't scare me or creep me out. I figured the audiobook would give me the spooky ambience I wanted but it played out more like a documentary. Overall I'll keep it at a 3. This is one of those rare instances where I enjoyed the movie over the book.

Horror en Amityville o Aquí vive el horror by Jay Anson.

Según su autor el libro fue redactado a partir de cintas de voz grabadas por los señores Lutz, en las cuales exponían los secesos sobrenaturales ocurridos durante los 28 días que habitaron la casa, de aquí que la historia sea contada a forma de un diario.
Para empezar, tengo que mencionar que muchas de las situaciones del libro son absurdas, sosas y repetitivas, tanto que si de una ficción se tratara serian motivo para abandonarlo. Por lo tanto, para no agobiarte en la lectura, tienes que entrar en la convención de que todo fue “real” y no tratar de buscar lógica a los comportamientos y actitudes de los personajes.

Aquí vamos...

Nos presentan situaciones que parecen interesantes y no se ahonda en ellas, es más, en algunos casos no vuelven a mencionar más en el libro; La visita al veterinario, los sueños eróticos de Kathy, ¿Qué es el pozo del sótano?, ¿Qué sucedió en el cuarto rojo?, ¿Por qué la médium, cuando entra en trance, habla con la voz del padre mancuso? ¿Que les dice la voz a Kathy y George cuando tratan de bendecir la casa?
Comportamientos sumamente irracionales por parte de los adultos, por ejemplo: ¿Quién, después de ver como su familia es atacada físicamente solo por leer la biblia, osa leer un libro de demonología en plena sala con el fin de buscar la manera de combatir a esas entidades?

El padre mancuso, el sacerdote más cobarde del mundo. En serio, es desesperante como sigue quejándose y compadeciéndose de sí mismo capítulo tras capítulo en lugar de armarse de valor e ir a esa casa de una vez por todas ¿Que acaso no es lo que se espera de un hombre de fe?

Sin embargo, y para concluir, debo admitir que ciertos capítulos te mantienen tenso e incluso logran perturbarte por momentos, claro que esto no justifica todo lo malo que tiene la historia, pero al menos, ligeramente, cumple con su fin.

If you look at this as the work of fiction it so clearly is, it's not bad. It's actually pretty gripping in places, even if it starts to feel a little repetitive and padded out as the days of the Lutz family's stay at Amityville pile on. Overall, I'm torn - it was a solid read and I don't regret it, but I also feel like it's a cash grab that shouldn't exist in the first place. I'll go 3/5 because, as a story, the good mostly outweighs the bad. It's decent schlock.

As expected, this book crept me the F out. I finished the book questioning some of my religious beliefs–mainly that I don't really have any–and I had to look up more info about the story to put my fears to rest. It's definitely not for everyone, but I'm glad I listened.

Not really at all scary if you don't buy that it's a true story (and it's clearly not).