Ben Chalmers is a successful novelist. His wife, Rachel, is a fledgling artist with a promising career, and their daughter, Stacy, is the joy of their lives. Ben's novels have made enough money for him to provide a dream home for his family. But there is a force at work-a dark, chilling, ruthless force that has become part of the very fabric of their new home.

A malevolent entity becomes trapped in the wood and stone of the house and it will do whatever it takes, to find a way to complete its bloody transference to our world.

Local sheriff, Elizabeth Cantrell, and former pastor-turned-cabinetmaker, Jim Perry, are drawn into the family's life as the entity manipulates the house with devastating results. And it won't stop until it gets what it wants. Even if it costs them their faith, their sanity, and their lives.

My dad knows Thomas Smith, the author, but I hadn’t read anything by him previously, so I didn’t know what to expect. Christian horror can either be really good or really bad, but due to the chance of a free book in exchange for a review, I figured I’d try it, and it turned out fairly well.

As far as pacing goes, this book was pretty weak. Almost nothing happened in the first two thirds of the book, and then suddenly all hell has broken loose. No pun intended. It wasn’t terrible, but it definitely could have used some work.

The family dynamic between Rachel, Stacy, and Ben was absolutely heartwarming, and I found their relationship and the way it was written – not to mention the way that Jim called them out when it was obvious they weren’t themselves – to be the best part of the book, hands down.

The way that Jim spoke to them about their grief for their son was probably the best thing I have ever read about handling grief, and I applaud Smith for putting that in there, because the way the characters had been handling their grief was so incredibly unhealthy that it hurt.

Jim was a great character to add in, and while I liked the development that we got through him, I would have liked to see more development on the Sherriff’s part. She could have been a much more fleshed out character, rather than the bare bones character traits and love interest that we ended up with.

The demon that is summoned is really creepy and I had to put the book down a few times to take a mental break, due to the fact that I’m a huge wimp when it comes to horror/creepy stuff. I won’t spoil it for you, but this was like six different horror movies stuck together in the end, and it creeped me out hardcore.

The author is clearly skilled, I just wished that there had either been more to the story, like an epilogue, or that the pacing had been a little more even. Another author with a similar writing style and characterization to Smith would be Frank Peretti.

Final rating: 3.5 stars, leaning towards 4.