Sean Dorsey – Outside Reading 1 - The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

Though in terms of the facts presented the account is sound, I definitely do not recommend reading this book if you are looking for a quality horror story. The writing is intensely amateurish, which may be seen as being because it is supposed to be a reporter’s account of the events rather than an actual story, but this is only the barest of excuses for it. In between redundant or incoherent descriptions of the setting or even the characters’ emotions and the exclamation points placed after what are (I guess) supposed to be ‘shock’ moments, the experience of both reading about and being affected by a supposedly true story of diabolic activity is more or less ruined; it does nothing to reveal any of the ‘essence’ as described by Lewis. Does anyone have a suggestion for such an account that is more effective than this book? Or has anyone read this book and has an opinion on the matter?