The Uninvited Paranormal Book Review
In this true and terrifying firsthand account, Steven LaChance reveals how he and his three children were driven from their Union, Missouri, home by demonic attackers. LaChance chronicles how the house’s relentless supernatural predators infest those around them. He 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, and even causing two people to be institutionalized.
The demons’ next target is the current homeowner, Helen. When the entities take possession and urge Helen toward murder and madness, LaChance must engage in a hair-raising battle for her soul.
Paranormal Book Review: The Uninvited
Things that go bump in the night, or, as was the case in this tale, things that go boom, boom, BOOM! As many of my close friends and family can attest, I’m no believer in the supernatural or the paranormal. Do I want to believe? Yes, I would like to think that there is something out there in the same way many would like to think we are visited by other beings from a galaxy far, far away. Be as it may, being a skeptic, or as I like to sometimes call myself, a skeptic-believer, there is nothing that excites me and gets me giddy like a good old-fashioned ghost story.
Yes, I am a sucker for one despite the reservations I may have on the subject. There’s nothing like sitting beside a dim lamp to give me just enough light to read a story, bask in the silence of my confines, and dive head-first into a story that claims to be a “true story” prompting me to remove my gaze from the books and glance up every so often to pierce through the darkness across the living room and wonder if there is something beyond the dark watching me. Yes, there is nothing like the adrenaline that courses through my veins as the tiny hairs on the back of my neck rise in what can only be deemed as self-induced fear.
I first became aware of the story of the Union Screaming House from an episode of A Haunting, titled “Fear House”. At the time, it was one of the scariest episodes I have seen and left me with a feeling of unease. In the first few pages of The Uninvited, I sympathized and learned a little about author, Steven LaChance. After being dealt a few blows and forced to cope with many unfortunate situations, fate leads him to the Union Screaming House. After being left by his wife and having to care for his three children as a now-single father, and having to constantly move to different locations to not-so-desirable neighborhoods all the while balancing a very demanding job, Steven is ever-so “fortunate” enough to respond to a newspaper ad and land himself and his family in a bonafide and what seems to be the mother of all haunted houses. It is here where, dare I say it, “the shitteth hitteths the faneth!”
Like any good (or bad) horror film, at first, there are minor inexplicable nuisances going on in the house. Eventually, these minor nuisances become an inconvenience, then all-out terror as the spirits of the Union House take a turn for the worse as they begin to terrify and torment Steven and his children. We later find out that these spirits are “demons” as documented in the book’s description so, no spoiler there.
LaChance’s story is a compelling one as he painstakingly describes in vivid detail the horrors that he and his family went through while living at the Union House including an encounter with a demonic clown, harping the children’s fears, an evil entity that seems to dwell in the basement, and a dark, hooded figure in the bedroom. It is one where you start to feel for the guy and the dumbluck that seems to hover over him which add up to the makings of an amazing journey that we, the readers, are fortunate not to have to go through as we sit in the comforts of our living room. But, we do get to experience the chaos that was Mr. LaChance’s life through his words.
I enjoyed this book and found it wildly entertaining. Having completed the book in just two sittings, there were a few instances where I thought the author would take the story in a direction that would have ruined the experience. Fortunately, he did not. Although, I have to admit that by the end of the book the story, in a way, takes a semi-unexpected turn in that LaChance, the protagonist of this story, ceases to be the focus of the story. Is this a turn for the worse? Not necessarily in that we still experience the terrors of the demons and how the “boom, boom, booms” escalate into something more – much more which is where the line between fact and fiction became much clearer to me, as if it wasn’t already. Still, The Uninvited certainly made for good reading and a great ghost story! It is one you want to curl up by the fire or window on a rainy day or, if you’re up to it, by the light of a candle on a dark, and stormy night.