The sickest house I've ever visited.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes I would recommend this audio to certain members of my friends and family, its exciting , thrilling and in some parts sickening. it brings your heartbeat up and anxiety levels. your imagination can run wild with the characters because they are sturdy , well described and rich language is used to keep your mind on the characters.

What other book might you compare The Sick House to, and why?

I would compare it to Silence of the lambs, both of them give you that nauseous feeling as you 'walk' into the buildings. Also some of the characters could be matched to thise in that film.

What about Jake Urry’s performance did you like?

I liked Jake Urry's performance he put guts into the parts where it needed it , his dark deep voice put the horror feeling into the rooms, cars and wherever he was. i felt he really enjoyed the performance and tried really hard to make it feel gruesome, He succeeded !!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I would have liked to have listened to it in one go but I listened to it at night and you can't hear it with your head under a pillow!!  

Any additional comments?

Only One, Jake's performance was great but sometimes he seemed not to be able to get his voice out of character' by that i mean if there was a line 'he drove up the road' it would still sound like he had a menacing voice instead of just saying 'he drove up the road. it did change a little towards the end. but something to look at :-)

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1 person found this helpful

A gripping dark tale with many twists and turns

What does Jake Urry bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

This narrator is one of my favourites, his gritty, solemn tone is perfect for this book. The character voices are well done and amusing at times, and the story is brought to life very vividly by this great voice.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I liked the main character, Ulrich, in general and felt for him as he moved through the plot. I hope there will be a series following this as I feel there is a lot of potential to find out more about him.

Any additional comments?

Dark, gripping and really well read, I'd reccommend to any horror lovers and keep my fingers crossed for a sequel!

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5 people found this helpful

Liked the story, loved the narration

Any additional comments?

A great story which moves along at a brisk pace and certainly kept me interested. The highlight though has to be the narration, which made a great story really come alive and had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up in all the right places. Highly recommend a listen

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Brilliant

I Enjoyed this audio book very much from start to finish great story line too

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I can't believe his protagonist reads Chandler

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Yes.
Three problems stood out for me with this book.
The first was something I can only think of as reverse motivation. Why is Ulrich a private investigator when he clearly hates the job, and doesn't appear to have much aptitude for it? It's not as if he considers other possible employment, Why does he go to so much effort to turn down what he assumes will be routine work when he's already behind on the rent? Philip Marlowe comes across as a world-weary worldly-wise cynic who gets on with it; Ulrich comes across as a lazy idiot. Why does Ulrich decide to go the extra mile for a town that has treated him so shabbily? And - trying to avoid spoilers here - Ulrich (and the author) seems to have a very strange idea of what constitutes positive identification.
Secondly, it is a useful technique in detective stories to sum up the events so far; freshly reminded of the various events, the reader is prepared for the next big development, which is probably going to be the denouement. Unfortunately, Ambrose Ibsen sums up the events so often that it feels as if a good hour of this already short book is taken up with summary. At least once the summing up occurred so soon after the actual event that I shouted, "Yes I know, I was there!"
The final problem is that there just isn't that much to the story. It's not a long book, but I expected a bit more.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The changes I suggested above were to make it less enjoyable?

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Give him better material, I suppose. He was okay, though some of his pronunciation seemed a bit odd - "look" sounding like "luck" for instance.

Could you see The Sick House being made into a movie or a TV series? Who would the stars be?

A straight to DVD film, probably. (For some reason I wanted to put "straight to VHS"!)

Any additional comments?

Despite my largely negative comments, the book is moderately entertaining, and funny in places. I particularly like the fact that although the reader suspects it's going to be a supernatural story, and indeed there is a certain Lovecraftian feel quite early on, it could go either way.
I may well get the next one in the series when it comes out.

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2 people found this helpful

very cool haunted house story.

the descriptions of the sick house were very tense but I think reading the book would have been scarier. the narrator didn't quite nail it. I did enjoy the story though and I will probably check out some more Urich files novels.

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Book 1

Have you listened to any of Jake Urry’s other performances? How does this one compare?

I have a couple of books read by him, he is a good narrator

Did The Sick House inspire you to do anything?

THE SICK HOUSE absolutely blew me away It has horror plus implacability, a feckless antihero P.I., a really evil villain, and multiple breathtaking frights. , I'm eager for the next!

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4 people found this helpful

Challenges your own perception of fear

A riveting read taking you into the realms of realistic horror, the spider we won't touch the dark house we won't enter.
I enjoyed the experience but found it a little predictable and direct to its conclusion, but was happy at the end game and wasn't left with that come one it can't end like this feeling. Well worth a read.
Jake Urry again takes you into the roll narrating with true professionalism and an artist passion. Well done. Jim

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1 person found this helpful

Creepy and Chilling Great Narration

This Horror story is grimly good. It is creepy and hearing it through my headphones, those voices ringing in my ears? intense!

The narrator, Jake Urry, has the best voices for the characters. the men all sound sinister when they should and sound intelligent and he has a large amount of accents. I love his depiction of women. Such emotion and he is able to capture all ages of the characters. For narration I can only give 5 stars.

I give the book a solid 5 stars because it was chilling and the mystery is consuming.
The writing is great. The wording keeps you involved. Some of the descriptions were so involved, I could almost hear his chair creaking as he swiveled back and forth in thought. I loved it.

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4 people found this helpful

Creepy paranormal mystery without too much gore

The Sick House used to be an infirmary run by nuns but it has lain abandoned since the 1950s. Doctor Siegfried Klein got called out to this deserted place and then vanished. Private Investigator Harlan Ulrich is hired to look into the doctor's disappearance.
This was quite a creepy paranormal suspense story. Don't be put off by the cover, I was expecting a lot of blood and gore, but there wasn't. The horror elements are mainly created by means of detailed and very vivid imagery of surroundings and moods in the vein of traditional stories of haunted houses.
The author took great care to develop his protagonist, PI Harlan Ulrich, fully. It took me a little while to warm up to him as he came across as a bit of a grumpy old man, but his dogged determination is quite admirable and his obsession with coffee quite funny.
The story itself took a while to get going too but turned into a really engaging, clever murder mystery with supernatural undertones.
The narration of the audio book was thoroughly fitting for the story. I loved the way Jake Urry made the story sound truly sinister and eerie by skillful use of emphasis, intonation, and pace. The voices he used for the different characters were distinct and believable. It's the first story narrated by Jake Urry that I've listened to that is set in the US and he succeeded in making it sound authentic. His narration is fantastic for these dark and menacing stories. It definitely adds to the experience.
I received the audiobook in exchange for an unbiased review.

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3 people found this helpful