Our Thoughts

This book is a really strange case. It actually caused us to start to doubt our starting belief that Thomas Nelson was a Christian publisher (we double-checked; it is). To make it even stranger, the publisher decided to print an endorsement from R.L. Stine, the popular author known for bringing an endless supply of secular horror to kids, directly on the cover (note: Some covers replaced this with a quote from Ted Dekker, but you can see the quote on other versions and the author’s site for the series). Even worse, there is basically zero spiritual content in this book. Not even quick references to God or praying when things get really tough (At one point there is a random side comment that Mom is adamant about the family finding a church and another mention of Jesus' birth when dating a historical event… that’s it). The only possible explanation we can come up with is that the hope was that people who normally consume horror type content would have an alternative that stimulated the same type of emotions/feel without going “too far”. This is not, in any way, shape or form, a Christian title, as you would expect given the publisher. — There are a few positives here. The main one is the family dynamic, as each of the relationships are pretty solid. Also, outside of the terrifying content, the story is pretty interesting. A house with the ability to transport you to different times and places. In fact, about 80% of the book is not scary and actually interesting. The problem is the choice of the type of book this would be. Choosing to take this in a frightening direction and then, even worse, providing young readers with a barrage of references to secular horror type content… sending the message that every older child and teen should be familiar with them (or go become so) from a Christian publisher is just something we as Christians families should not in any way support.