House

I have just finished reading the book co-authored by Peretti and Dekker.
Imagine finding yourself after a fishy car accident in an old house with strange hosts and another couple in a similar predicament, and then being told three "rules": 1. God came to my house. I killed God. 2. I will anyone who comes to my house like I killed God. 3. Bring me one dead body and I might let rule 2 slide..
(quoting by memory here, so it may not be the exact words, but close enough)

Makes you think. It's a good thriller, I've always been a big fan of Peretti's. I wouldn't go so far as to say this is my favorite book by him (I think The Oath, or The Visitation or Monster would get that title. I can't really choose. Perhaps The Visitation.) But it is nonetheless excellent, exciting, and a page-turner. It's actually much scarier than his other books, I'm guessing this comes from the association with Dekker. But perhaps a bit sloppier in the storyline- normally I'm crying out in pain because I long to know what's coming next- here it was going so fast I could barely breathe. I didn't even see the 300-something pages go by!!!
A good summer read. But I guess the problem is that since it's less a thinking book than an action book, I wouldn't enjoy reading it again and again. Other books by Peretti always have hidden facettes to discover.
Until the end I wondered who would kill who and what would happen, who would survive, and I wondered for a long time about the mirror. I was very happy to understand in the end. But I had the intuition about the "bad guy" from the 3d chapter.
The only problem with the book is that it is somewhat confusing in the basement, you tend to forget where the characters are. Perhaps that was intentional: the house seems to have a mind of it's own.

Apart from that, there was one thing that really bothered me, but saying it would be a sort of spoiler. So don't read this next paragraph if you're planning on reading it.
What bothers me is it's recurrent. In The Oath, the woman dies too. I think she could have been saved, should have been. I think this woman was perhaps a bit further away- but not nearly as far as Stephanie. I wish she hadn't died. I've always seen her as a victim. Of course she sinned- havn't we all? I really wanted her to be free from what was haunting her in her past. I genuinely feel for women who have been abused, and her whole life she was trying to figure it out- by being with men, by studying psychology, etc... And in the end she seemed to understand she had been going about it wrong- and for no good reason (IMHO) was killed off. She was the only "interesting" character, the only one I found to have much depth. And even then... The others were too stereotyped and sometimes just plain annoying.

The end wasn't really that surprising. Online lots of people have said the "message" wasn't very clear- I disagree. I found it clear. Peretti's books are novels, not sermons. Novels that make you think, of course, but still novels.
Think fiction. :p I only wish perhaps that we could have seen more into the character's thoughts and feelings towards the end, their inner struggles...
I think the story was very much along the lines of The Oath- that is, practically allegorical- and it also has the same "message". I got more into the other one though, partly because I'm "into" dragons. I even named my iPod Smaug!!
Ok I'm going off topic here, but I do recommend this book and I did enjoy reading it. I just had very high expectations because I'm a fan!