I know this book has been around for decades, and was written at the request of the Lutz family who hired Mr. Anson to turn their story into a book. Most people by now have seen the movie(s) and are familiar with the fact that the Amityville horror story has been debunked.
But, I thought, what the heck? It's probably a good read since it inspired such a long series of movies and even a remake (what hasn't?). I have to say that I didn't particularly care for this book. It's not that the story wasn't there, or that it didn't have the potential to be scary. It was the writing style. I felt like I was reading an 300 page newspaper article. The author is SO withdrawn from the story that you just read event after event with no connection to the characters or their true mental state. I suppose that I had really high hopes from this book, it's rare to find a really good haunted house story. Unfortunately this is not one of them.
Jumping back and forth from watching the Lutz family and Father Mancuso you really get the idea that a reporter just sat and interviewed them then smashed it all together to make a book. By simply relating the events I believe that they were going for the "this is the truth, draw your own conclusions" but the problem is that now, 30-40 years later, we know it is all hogwash. Without the mystery of calling it a "true story" the writing style does not hold up as a fictional story.
I'm not going to tell you not to read it, because if you're like me you won't listen anyway. I'm just saying buy the book used or get it from the library because it certainly isn't something you will want to read over again.
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The Amityville Horror Books In Print, Audio Books.