Sibling rivalry leads to murder and a lifetime of evil in “The Beach House.” At the novel’s beginning, Damon and his younger brother Jonathan are spending time with their parents at family beach house, and Damon is sick of how his parents favor Jonathan, the “genius” and perfect younger brother. With no emotion except elation and glee, he lures Jonathan to his drowning death in the ocean.
Flash forward a decade or so, and Damon is a young man who feels no more remorse over that first murder than he did at the time. He and his beautiful girlfriend are double-dating with another couple to the beach house, which will again bring out Damon’s dark and twisted nature.
“The Beach House” is a horror novel without any supernatural element to it, which made me a little less excited while I was reading it—I generally do prefer my horror novels to have at least a touch of something beyond the ordinary. I also wished the author had addressed Damon’s childhood more—there are hints that he worries his parents with his lack of grief, but it’s not explored and it seems Damon’s evil nature lies dormant until he’s near the beach house. However, it is still an exciting and page-turning read, especially since you as the reader know Damon has potential for murder and could lose it at any moment—but the other characters have no idea and are not nearly as cautious around him as they should be. I also liked that the novel kept a low-level of gore while keeping tension high. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy thrillers as well as horror books.
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Reviewed by Jezelle McLeod
Jezelle is a staff writer and horror book critic.
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