Possible Triggers: Supposedly true horror; Animal Killings
It began in May 2001. From the book:"Having been cramped in a small apartment with his children for a while, LaChance was eager to stretch out. His lease was up anyway and fearing homelessness he looked at every classified ad for a possible lead. So, when an opportunity arose to look at a real house for rent in Union, Missouri he jumped at the chance. Not only was it big, but it also had a yard and quiet neighborhood. Or so he thought. Moving day came on a Friday and nothing of note happened inside the house, however, a local pulled up to the curb and said something odd: “Hope you get along okay here.” LaChance consults paranormal investigators, psychics, and priests, but the demonic attacks, screams, growls, putrid odors, invisible shoves, bites, and other physical violations only grow worse. The entities clearly demonstrate their wrath and power: killing family pets, sexually assaulting individuals, even causing two people to be institutionalized." Shortly after moving in he began to watch how his neighbors reacted to the house. He noticed that people would NEVER walk in front of the house...instead they went out of their way to cross the street...even in bad weather where walking in from of the house side would have offered a shorter route. The author and his three children soon found out that they weren't dealing with "Casper the Friendly Ghost".... this, entity was evil incarnated...what his son had labeled the "Basement Monster" ...a thing possibly from the bowels of Hell whose only form seemed to be oily black fog and mist. They had watched in horror as it would drift through the house as if searching for them. They had heard as it screamed either in pain or rage or a hellish combination of both; plenty of time as had other people in the neighborhood including all the dogs in a four-block radius. The author and his children finally saw its face for the first and last time, as they fled the house leaving most of their belongings behind, mere weeks after moving in. Is it true or is it a work of fiction? I don't know and I'm certainly not willing to put it a test. It doesn't really matter rather you read this as fiction or as the truth in which it's told, but please treat the authors feelings with delicacy. This is the story of people who glimpsed Hell and lived to talk about it. I have wondered why they didn't burn the thing and salt the Earth it stood on. I believe there is a sequel to this book. ( )

Summary:
This book follows the experiences of the author with what would become known as the Union Screaming House of Missouri. He recounts the events which led him to the house, the odd events that occurred during his time at the house, and later the similar experiences of the next family that rented the house. In the case of the next tenant the haunting proved to be much worse and almost ended in tragedy.
Throughout the ordeal the author slowly discovers that by rediscovering his spirituality, which he had given up on due to some tragic life events, he is able to resist the entity that plagues the house and better understand why and how the families that live in the house are affected by the entity. The book also covers some of the history that surrounds the house and the town where it is located.
My Thoughts:
If your looking for a quick paced haunted house book this it. The chapters are short and the writing doesn’t really waste time with communicating the authors experiences. A lot of what happens takes place after the author’s marriage imploded in what can only be described as something out of psychological horror film itself. So it’s not too much of a surprise that author had a few years of “glass half full” mentality. That’s really my only problem with the book though, the first half of the story deals with, more or less, how beaten down the author was with bad life experiences. I get that he is setting the tone for why he thinks that he may have been drawn to the house to begin with and later on in the story how rediscovered his faith but, it gets a little repetitive. It’s a problem I have with these types of books sometimes as I always want a little more history about the area or site of the haunting. Other than that though this is a good read and worth picking up if your interested in haunting stories. ( )

Pretty creepy. I hope that once this story came out it affected the rental of this house. Pretty simply written, but effective. ( )

Lady Zombie Journal Review

Steven Lachance was this nice guy who ran in to a crap load of some case of what I like to call crap luck (This is putting it mildly).Here this poor guy thought he was coming home to his bestfriend/wife and 3 kids.Home to his happy and content life. Only to find her ,his wife packed and ready to leave. When she told him ,I'm sorry Steven .Its not you ,its me. I told you that I didnt want to be a mother. Here this heartless woman leaves this man heart broken,to raise there 3 kids alone. And drains his account and says that she hasnt paid the rent in 6 months and the lights will be off by tomorrow . Just heart wrenching !! So steve picks the pieces up from his life and quicly puts them back togther . (For the childrens sake) He finds them this home in Union Missouri . Only to find it haunted by demons.

Read More: http://zombiegirlreveiw.blogspot.com/... ( )

I don't know if the things this author alleges happened or not. We're not offered much in the way of proof, although there's a lot of hearsay and a certain amount of vague religious hysteria. The story I came away with was that of an unpleasant man with a pleasant writing voice who wants attention for something that he says happened to him.

Honestly, I just don't believe that any of this happened. Perhaps if the writing had been better, or if this guy had been a bit more likable and had not come off from the beginning as such a complete arrogant jerk, I'd feel differently about it. As it is, I can understand, reading this, why his first wife left him with three kids that he apparently wanted more than she did but had no clue how to care for. (I do feel sorry for the kids.) I was glad to finish the book to get away from this guy. He spent more time whining about his wife leaving him than he did giving a clear picture of his purported haunting.

I have seldom finished a book and still been so glad to send it out on Paperbackswap. ( )

First off, I want to say that I believe in ghosts and have some some experiences I enjoy reading paranormal books, but this was so over the top, it was kind of comical.

The plot is simple. A guy and his family moves into a "haunted" house, then moves out, and someone else moves in, and the author tries to help them. The author thinks that everything that happens in the book is due to a demon. Not a ghost mind you a demon. First off, demonic hauntings are very very very rare.

As I was reading this, it reminded me of any episode of a TV show called, "A Haunting", and trust me, it's not a good things. I did a amazon search of this book to see if anyone else felt that way, and it turns out it *was* an episode of A Haunting! So right off the bat, it has a major cheese factor to it.

The author claims that he's lived in other haunted houses, but none of it is really explained. As the reader, we're told, "We found out later a woman died in our old house". What? You offer up something like that, and don't add anything to it?? Are you kidding me? Okay, I can deal with it. I had other problems with this book.

The author claims things are "true", even things he's never seen. Here's an example, on page 39 the author states, "As I drove away, I didn't notice that the lights in the house were coming on, one by one." Um...okay....if he didn't notice it (his words) then how did he know it happened? That's kind of hard to do.

Another thing that bothered me about this book is he never really did any investigation on the home, or contact the previous owners. Heck, he didn't even talk to the neighbors. We read that the neighbors wouldn't walk across his house, always crossed the street, and Steven (the author) and his family noticed it, and they don't ask why? Or they don't ask the neighbors what they've heard about the house? It's the first thing I'd do. Steven said that when he did do (a very small) investigation on his house, he said that the courthouse was "hiding things". What on Earth would they do that?? For what purpose? It doesn't make sense for them to do that.

He blamed the fact that he couldn't sleep at night on the house. I feel that it's just the stress and his subconscious comeing through. I mean, he's going through a lot (his sister died, and his wife left him) and he thinks he and his kids are living in a haunted house. Of course it's going to weigh on his mind. That's normal. He even blames "demons".

Okay, he moves out of the house and into a new one, one that's ghost and demon free. Someone then contacts him and said that someone is living in the house and asked if they could drive by their old house. This is that part that just threw me. Why would someone ask for Steven's okay to drive past a house that he moved out of? Okay, so the woman drives by then contacts the new homeowner, and the new owen wants to contact Steven. So Steven calls her and they've had the same stories. He said he's help her out. Then said, "the house drew me back in." No, the house didn't, Steven contacted the owners. The house didn't make him.

I could go on and on about this. It's just pointless. I doubt its' true and things have been blow out of porportion. Heck, this even has demonic possession of 4 people. UG!

The writing is silly at best. On the moving van that Steven and his family rented had a "dinosaur boldly painted on the side." Oh please, give me a break. Oh, I can't forget this jem, "My negativity was my ticket to the dance."

As I said, I could go on and keep talking about how silly this is, but I don't see any need to. Over all skip it. I picked it up at the library, and I still feel cheated borrowing it. ( )

uthor and his kids move into house in Union, Missouri where the lights turn on by themselves, they see and hear the groans and screaming of demons and sleep ruining nightmares are a nightly fixture. Guy moves out shortly after, but then he learns another tenant has moved in with similar results, so he tries to save her from the house with the help of psychics, priests and paranormal researchers.

Pros: A bit scary, short chapters. You'll probably enjoy this if you liked Amityville Horror.

Cons: True story? I believe not, as this would probably not be the only tale about it and extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence. Not scary enough for my tastes. Writing is simplistic. Seems like an unoriginal Amityville Horror /Poltergeist knock-off. He does some research on the house's background and doesn't cite his sources. Ending is unsatisfying. ( )