I'm biased because I read this a dozen times as a kid but I love this book. This was before all the info came out regarding the hoax and the real "true story"

Re-read 11/22
Okay ten year old me gave it five stars, 50 year old me who just re-read it gives it two stars. Yikes.

Hmm, well, not one I'd recommend. Written as a true story, this reads like a six hour news piece rather than a novel. And in fact Anson wrote it from 45 hours of recordings he received from the Lutz's - the couple who lived at 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville. He didn't ever speak to them directly. And perhaps because it is supposedly based on actual events there is no build or suspense to the story. Kathy and George Lutz and their three children live for about a month in the house they've just bought in Amityville and leave it because of the horrific supernatural events that occur. It was really just lets bung in everything scary we can think of and not worry about the quality of the writing. Horror rating = 1 ghost.

After watching the movie, I had to pick up the book and give it a try. As far as ghosts and the supernatural go it was an interesting read. There are other books in the genre that had captured me more, but I still liked Anson's book. It was a really good October/Halloween read.

By now it's well known that the truth of this story has been debunked multiple times. However, the movie was decent and I like a good scary story, so wanted to give it a try.
The writing was awful. I mean really bad. There were multiple times I almost gave up, and I'm still not sure why I didn't. Anson liked to use exclamation points when things were happening that were supposed to be thrilling or scary, but nothing was. Maybe in the hands of a better writer could it have made me fearful, but throughout the entire read I was amazed that people believed this could happen, and that people loved this book.
I'm not sure the appeal of the book but I guess there's a reader for every book. This one's not for me.

Why is a story that I heard a million times over so good? Jay Anson that’s why! This retold Amityville Horror was so captivating and down right spooky. Pretty sure I got paper-cuts from reading so fast! This was one of my favorite horror books of 2020.

I know this whole story was a publicity stunt, and I do feel it was terrible to use the murders of the family that had lived there prior to better ride the ghost coat tails, as well as the tired "ancient Native burial ground" exploitation, but the book is entertaining nonetheless and an easy read.
If there was a door to hell I'd like to believe it wouldn't be in the basement of a suburban home.

2.5/5

An ok mix of pulpy horror tropes, pychological horror and a matter-of-fact tone. It was made famous by its true story angle but Lutz's and Warren's stories are essentially made up.

I listened to it because it was included for free in Audible Plus catalogue and I love Ray Porter's narration. The narration is, as always, great. The story is rather mediocre. If you're after good haunted house stories, you'll find more thrills elsewhere.

I quite enjoyed the storytelling of this book. I know there is some backlash about people taking advantage of tragedy and falsified stories, I have no idea how much of that is true. The story was told well and brought me to the scenes and made me for a half a second fear a small noise I heard that sounded like marching.