The House That Fell From the Sky sounds intriguing and certainly starts strongly. Scarlett is with her father when strange things start happening; A strange hum, booming noises,  flashes of light, a coldness settling over everything. All of this happens within the first pages as does the discovery of the house that appeared from nowhere and could have simply fallen from the sky. Only no one can access the house as it seems to choose when and who can access its interior and those that do come out changed. 


Imagine my surprise then when nothing happens with the house for a year. It just sits there. After the exciting first chapter, the first half of the book focuses on Scarlett, her friends, and what journeys they took to get them to this place and time. However, the timeline of the story is not linear, which I found distracting. I just wanted them to hurry up and get in the house already! The back and forth time jumps exploring the characters' relationships were intended to secure an emotional attachment to the characters but left me impatient instead. 


Then comes the actual house. Its massive Gothic facade covers several city blocks. With "menacing" verandas and "pallid" eaves, there seems to be an attempt to anthropomorphize the house. I feel like the author really missed his calling as an architect. Onion domes and Cyclopean masonry--the descriptions are lengthy and wordy to the point of tediousness. Every new room explored inside the house  involves description upon description. While, yes, we want to be shown what they are seeing, the focus on crown molding was unstimulating. 


The House That Fell From the Sky unfortunately fell flat for me. The idea is fascinating but I didn't find myself caring about the characters or cheering them on to win, except for Vincent the magician. There's potential for real horror here, but it's lost under all the copious amount of filler. 


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