Burnt Offerings

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You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Learn more More Like This. Temple of the Undead The Witch Files A group of marginalized young women form a powerful coven. American Fright Fest Edit Cast Cast overview: Jay Michael Anthony Bagozzi Officer Martin Mary Claire Klooster Murphy voice Marshall Seese Jr. Edit Storyline As four teenage graffiti artists run from the police, they hide in an old abandoned schoolhouse.

Edit Details Official Sites: Official Site in development. Add the first question. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report this. Audible Download Audio Books. Hands down, the best dream-house turned nightmare chiller ever. View all 23 comments. Nov 11, kohey rated it really liked it. The thing that I like about this novel is that it is not a hungry house itself but a certain family that goes crazy and freak out with nasty nudges from the monster mansion. How could small things lead us into destruction so easily unfortunately with the help of an uncanny thing ,just when we feel stressed out?

A superb psycho thriller with a bad aftertaste. View all 6 comments. I like psychological thrillers, but cannot say the same of this psychological horror thriller. This is one of those, in which the house takes the center stage for a young couple, Ben and Marian Rolfe, who desperately wanted to escape the stifling heat in their tiny Brooklyn apartment and need a place to go for the summer holiday.

They found this beautiful old house out in the country, in upstate New York. Charming, with an ocean front, a boat, and a big swimming pool. Little did they know that i I like psychological thrillers, but cannot say the same of this psychological horror thriller. Little did they know that it would destroy the husband, possess the wife and terrify their child. Yes, it's that scary! Way too graphic for me, but for the right reader it will be perfect. I don't know why I feel like this about this book since I loved the Alfred Hitchcock books.

It is similar in ambiance, but I think what disturbed me the most was the presence of the old lady and the young boy. I wanted them gone from there. But of course, the author knew that and made me suffer for it: Allardyce for whom Marian had to prepare three meals a day. That was the catch for getting the house so cheap. How can I leave the vulnerable people behind and close the book, you know. Which reminds me, take a very Drive by the house you're interested in at night, I say. See if anybody's waiting for you there. It won't be enough. And that's healthy, that's good, that's right The central dilemma for us, for people, it's that as much as we might spook when our dog won't set foot in a room, we NEED that room.

There's the Stay Away kind, like we get The Amityville Horror or Poltergeist , where you are punished for your trespass, and then there's the Hungry House. Whereas Stay Away Houses just want to be left alone, Hungry Houses aren't complete without people to digest for reasons or decades or centuries. Hill House was Hungry. The Overlook Hotel was hungry. So is this pretty house Marasco give us in Burnt Offerings. Published in , it was a few years before Stephen King hit the book stores with his own books for which the horror shelves had to be created. Look ahead just a decade in , when the horror shelves were spilling over, when the fan base had gone locust, was chewing through pages as fast as the publishing houses could print them.

This was his only one. An oddball beautiful novel which became one of a kind. In the last paragraph of the foreword, Jones leaves us with this final warning before proceeding: The best haunted house novels, they grow their walls up around you, they give you a place to live, if you dare. Open this book, step in. We haven't left the light on for you.

While plowing through the dark, sinister, amazingly beautiful interior of the house with this unfortunate family, I was reminded of those years in which pheromones, teenage oxytocin and the magic of endorphins, triggered by chocolates, created this magic hormonal concoction for teenagers enjoying a movie such as Burnt Offerings We could happily cling to our latest love interest, while sharing a mountain of popcorn, cuddles and kisses in the movie theater.

This would have been the perfect movie for just that purpose! But now in an older period of my life, I knew what this author was doing, and I DID NOT connect with the book on the same level, but nevertheless could still not leave it alone and walk away! Nope, hubby was gone on a business trip, I was sleeping alone with the two Jack Russels and three cats on our bed, and I refused to switch off the lights. The book finally finished. I wrote a note for the staff to wake me up at 7. No darkness for me right now: Life was just beautiful and worth living! I think the next author should try to write a novel in which the reader is pulled into the pages, get strangled in the captivating words, and then introduce that house of horrors to the unsuspecting mind.

Come to think of it, this is exactly what happened here. My only salvation was that I refused to switch off the bed lamp - or so I thought. Honestly, I think it worked! This is an excellent book, with a deeper dimension, leaving a moral message behind. It's more than just a scary experience. That's all you're gonna get out of me. Why I always choose these books for my alone-time is just beyond me.

What can I do. And I desperately need some sleep. Oh, and chocolates and a cuddle! Read Jeffrey Keeten's superb review. View all 8 comments. Well, even after only a couple of years before reading this the first time, there were some scenes that I was delighted to re-discover! This stands among my top ten "haunted house" stories, easily--among others such as Hill House, The Elementals, and The Shining. The best part for myself in Robert Marasco's novel is the slowly building tension and atmospheric terror that I could get from just about every page! Yes, the movie version was great, but do yourself a favor and pick up the actual novel--there is so much more awaiting you behind those walls The rental turns out to be a giant estate on acres.

Yes, Mother is staying! Marian immediately takes to the home as if it were her own, obsessively preparing meals for Mother and cleaning and fretting which sounds like a vacation in Hell to me while Ben, his aunt and their young son fritter away their days in the sun. They can try to escape but the house wants what it wants!

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This was an unnerving listen that allows the dread to slowly build. It is read expertly by R. Bray who is perfect for this kind of old-timey story. His voice is so serious and wizened just enough to set the scene and make the words even creepier. Just look pretty and keep your mouth shut.

I am so very glad I was too young to have to deal with this WTFery!

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This was one of the best haunted house stories I've ever read! I just loved it! They live in a noisy apartment building in Queens so in order to get some peace they rent a house in the country for two months for their summer vacation. The house turns out to be a huge mansion that has fallen in disrepair.

They present them with an offer they can't refuse though so they move in and take possession of the house but they'll come to find out that the house has taken possession of them; and as Marian's obsession with the house intensifies and her will to choose her family over the house is slowly taken from her, the house comes back to life Sometimes I find the endings to haunted house stories can be kind of hokey but I thought this one was very satisfying. The entire story was very atmospheric and I really enjoyed the sense of dark foreboding that overcast their stay. Seeing the house take possession of the family was very eerie and nicely written by the author.

It was kind of sweet at first, and to give the author credit where credit is due, it was pretty realistic but I really don't care to hear couples baby talk in real life so I definitely don't care to hear it in a book either. That's really just a personal preference though and it didn't bother me enough to sway my rating. On a side note, my 'obsession' with books 'possessed' me to buy a first edition of this but I'm so glad I did!

It was totally worth it and I know I'll go back and reread it one day. For now though, it's going back in its Brodart and I'm going to find a copy of this movie that I'm dying to see! View all 3 comments. Oct 22, TPK rated it it was ok. Perhaps it's simply because it doesn't hold up to an unfair comparison, but Robert Marasco's Burnt Offerings, though not an awful read by any means, was not everything I imagined it would be.

The premise isn't bad, as horror novels go: The "evil house" Perhaps it's simply because it doesn't hold up to an unfair comparison, but Robert Marasco's Burnt Offerings, though not an awful read by any means, was not everything I imagined it would be. The "evil house" concept has been used by more than one author to advantage, but that's not really the problem with this particular book. Here's the thing about writing psychological horror: And Marasco simply didn't take the time to make me care about anyone in the family. From the outset, one rarely gets the feeling that the husband and wife feel anything more than mild annoyance toward each other; Ben, the husband, is barely sketched out as a harried English teacher who may be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and Marian, the wife, is teasing and shallow, obsessed with acquiring beautiful objects.

The two tend to ignore their son -- who is largely a cipher -- when they aren't actively traumatizing him. Aunt Elizabeth, who could have been a sassy old broad in the right author's hands, is little more than a cigarette holder and a paintbox. I followed these people with a kind of dull curiosity, wondering merely which one would die first and how the rest would be dispatched. Then, too, there are a number of dead ends in this book -- cul-de-sac ideas that aren't properly followed up.

Before finding the main house, the family comes upon a ruined summer cottage; the son swears he saw a tricycle covered in dried blood next to the place. At the house, the husband finds a set of broken glasses in the bottom of the pool; they don't belong to anyone in the family and the lenses are smashed in a way that suggests unusual violence. There's no spoiler in mentioning these plot points, because neither one has any follow-up in the story. I kept expecting the gory tricycle, in particular, to turn up again because the son has very little to do and is often bored; what would be more natural for him than to go exploring around the property, and maybe to find that tricycle again?

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But it never happens. Marasco wrote his thriller before a number of modern horror authors started their work, and perhaps his work was judged at the time of its publication based on a dearth of entries in the genre. But this book doesn't even compare to a number of quality titles that were completed a decade earlier -- including the one I was concurrently re-reading, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. This review was previously published on my blog, Confessions of a Laundry Faerie. View all 9 comments. I discovered Burnt Offerings through a recommendation by Stephen King, who described it as "disturbing tale, and one which comes highly recommended not just to fans of the genre but to the general reader" , praising its "near brilliance" , which he considers to be second only to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House.

King deemed this book to be important enough to include in his recommended reading section of his work on horror fiction, Danse Macabre. I couldn't resist a book praised so h I discovered Burnt Offerings through a recommendation by Stephen King, who described it as "disturbing tale, and one which comes highly recommended not just to fans of the genre but to the general reader" , praising its "near brilliance" , which he considers to be second only to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. I couldn't resist a book praised so highly by one of my favorite authors, and I have to admit that I picked it up with a certain level of expectation.

I wanted to experience something wonderful and memorable, which would keep me up at night. First published in , the novel is almost entirely forgotten today - its lifespan was probably extended by the movie adaptation , but not quite enough to make it a classic on the level of Rosemary's Baby by my favorite Ira Levin, or Stephen King's own The Shining , both novels also immortalized by their respective film adaptations - in Levin's case extremely faithful, not so much in King's. After years of being out of print, the novel was re-released two years ago in a variety of formats - allowing us to finally experience it again.

In Burnt Offerings , Marian Rolfe - wife of Ben and mother of David - tries desperately to get her family out of the overcrowded and unbearable borough of Queens in New York City, which she dearly hates. Much to her husbands' chagrin, she has been looking through ads in various papers and found an offer which is almost too good to be true - a home in the country available for the entire summer, available for "the right kind of people".

Low on cash but high in spirit, Marian manages to get Ben to agree to go and see the place. When they arrive, they see not a regular home but a real, proper mansion - run down and neglected, but livable. There's just a single catch: But she's not any trouble at all, they say; she never leaves her room, and all that is required are three simple meals a day which are to be left in front of her door. Surely, this can't be that bad? Of course not - Marian packs her family up, along with their older aunt Elizabeth, and they set out to what should be the summer of their lives.

As you can probably guess, it's not just that bad - it's worse. Soon it becomes apparent that taking care of Mrs Allardyce's meals is the least of Marian's worries - she begins to feel incredibly attracted to the house itself, spending most of her time cleaning, organizing and tending to it, at the same time feeling growing physical repulsion towards her husband; Ben is horrified at his own aggressive behavior towards his son, which turns an innocent game in the pool into a fight for life and death; aunt Elizabeth, the image of virility and humor at the beginning of the book discovers that she grows tired quicker and quicker, and becomes frailer with each passing day.

Instead of feeling the joy of the summer, they begin to feel an increasing sense od dread - that something dark and terrible is happening to them. Like many popular novels, Burnt Offerings reflects the period in which it was written - the 's were a period of widespread urban decay in America. Work was leaving major American cities in the north - Detroit alone lots tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs as its auto industry contracted and struggled to survive - which was followed by all sorts of social problems: Big cities in the north were no longer neighborhoods in which people wanted to live, and in which businesses wished to invest; political and economic power begin to shift towards the southern and southwestern states, as jobs, money and people began to move to these warmer regions.

As big cities began to be considered dirty and dangerous, Americans fled the blight of the inner city by moving towards the suburbs, attracted by better housing opportunities, friendlier neighborhoods and other factors; even if they still had to work in the city itself, cars were widespread and easily available and made commuting relatively easy. Thriving development of suburbia only added to the trouble of cities, now even more deprived of desperately needed funding and investment.

New York City was hit particularly hard in that era: As urban housing decayed and new housing was not built, more and more middle-class white Americans left the cities which began to be populated by more and more immigrants and minorities. Of all major cities New York City experienced the largest population loss of a single U. Although novels should ideally be timeless, urban decline is at the heart of Burnt Offerings ; it is not political or social commentary, but it's impossible to not see these things reflected in Marasco's depiction of Queens as loud, dirty, hot and just unbearable.

Marian's desire to escape it was shared by most of New Yorkers at the time; she is attracted to a prospect of life in an enormous mansion in beautiful countryside, even if it's reclusive and neglected. Although Marasco doesn't outright explore the theme of class division in his novel, it is not difficult to see it in the story of a financially struggling family from a decaying city turning up to serve the rich, country aristocrats.

Marian loves the material aspect of the house, its gold and silvers, spacious rooms and all that they represent. She can polish all of the silvers and dust all of the tables in their house, but it is not hers and it never will be - she can never belong to their world and inhabit it the way they do, and at the end she is there to serve the purpose that they have arranged for her and her family, and not fulfill her own desires and ambitions.

By living in the mansion she can pretend to have climbed the social ladder, but in the end it is only an illusion; and one for which she will pay the highest price. She can pretend to own the house, but in the end it is the house that will own her. In an interview Marasco said that he initially wanted his book to be a comedy: This can be most clearly seen in the character of aunt Elizabeth - the bubbly, elderly woman who was probably meant to serve as comedic relief in his initial idea of the book.

The end result isn't perfect - his characters are on the thin side when it comes to personality, especially the Rolfe's son, David, who is seemingly unfazed by his parents' descent into madness - but it's definitely not terrible, and not something I regret reading. I see it as an icon of popular culture of its time - something which paved the way for other and better things to come. Rounded up from 4. Marsh with my Kindle light and couldn't stop reading until it was done. A young family needs a break from the city and gets a great deal on a house in the country. The house is huge but run down, the wife is a little OCD and sees it as the project of h Rounded up from 4.

The house is huge but run down, the wife is a little OCD and sees it as the project of her life. Grandma comes with the house! You can imagine what ensues from there. Great writing, a really interesting dynamic between the family members and a haunted house plot with a slow burn. Mar 15, Bandit rated it really liked it. This novel is basically a classic definition of insidious horror.

It manages to unsettle, disturb and scare without relying on gore, violence or any other typical horror trappings. It's sort of in a class of its own, the mixture of a haunted house and a possession story that works so well in no small part due to the excellent writing. It's quite remarkably not all that dated with exception of real estate rentals, of course for a 40 year old book.

Sep 22, Rachel rated it it was amazing Shelves: Completely unsettling and disturbing! Ben rather reluctantly , Marian, and their young child David go with Ben's Aunt Elizabeth to an old and sprawling mansion in upstate New York for the summer. The house, which belongs to a pair of adult siblings, The Allardyces, seems too good to be true: For an incredibly low price, the family can stay in the home for the entire summer. There's just one catch: Mother is to b Completely unsettling and disturbing! Mother is to be fed three times a day by leaving a tray of food outside her bedroom.

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No one is to see her. At this point, any reasonable person would have said, no way. But of course, this is a horror novel, and a supernatural horror novel at that - and here we begin to see the influence the house has over its guests. Once settled into the mansion, Marian becomes obsessed with it, and the rest of her family starts to suffer, and transform, under a mysterious malevolence.

Someone asked me how is the story disturbing and unsettling. I will paste my reply here. I don't think what I wrote spoils the story, so: But basically, with the exception of the child character, the major characters go through a transformation because of the house. The wife, Marian, is the one the house has targeted.

She's the one who has to bring Mrs. Allardyce, the mother who stays in her room, the food 3x a day. Marian's obsession with this responsibility and her obsession with fixing up the house causes a rift between her and the rest of the family. Through her actions, the house is becoming "alive', and more powerful. Ben, her husband, is heading towards a mental breakdown.

He does something that traumatizes the family and himself, and starts experiencing hallucinations. Aunt Elizabeth, who is 74 years old, begins the book as a lively and sociable woman, but is now deteriorating. Marian has these moments where she knows she should do the rational thing leave the house with her family , but force of the house is very strong. So it's disturbing to see this family collapse because I felt helpless watching it all unfold. A must read for fans of haunted house stories. View all 7 comments. Aug 17, shan Littlebookcove rated it liked it Shelves: Burnt offerings is a classic of a book from the same guy that wrote about a catholic boys school.

This book of his "Burnt Offerings" is spooky haunted house read. The pace is set with a relaxed feel that soon evolves you into a suspenseful feel. Well written and very good char's I was very impressed to begin with. I was expecting a better ending with the build up. And was sad when I didn't get it.

Burnt Offerings

But I loved how it left me with a Must know feeling at work Burnt offerings is a classic of a book from the same guy that wrote about a catholic boys school. But I loved how it left me with a Must know feeling at work I personally love book's like that. Reprinted by Valancourt books, this makes for a good Haunted house read. One of THE best haunted house stories ever written! Burnt Offerings is a dated yet classic take on a haunted house, a hungry house. Great Introduction by Stephen Jones. Written in , his novel was not widely known. The film adaptation however, established its cult following.

And those who have a copy in their possession can attest its awesomeness! If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. We all want to get away, more so when summer approaches! As she peruses through the classified ads back in the day, pre-Craigslist to circle what interests her for a call and an appointment — there IT is! Perfect for large family. While at first they believe it is the dilapidated cottage off of the vast and overgrown estate, it is actually the house or rather, mansion.

There they are met by owners Roz and Brother or Arnold Allardyce. They begin to convince them — and are convinced — this is the perfect home for Marian, for them all, while sharing thoughts of nostalgia the grand mansion has been a part of throughout its years. Allardyce in their care. Happy wife, happy life. In the next three weeks, well…. Its paranormal tension and lingering sense of danger abounds throughout. Thank you Valancourt Books for returning this classic to print!

This has been on my to-own booklist once I found out the movie was based on a novel. Aug 31, Grady Hendrix rated it really liked it. Not as good as you want it to be, but this is the most important haunted house book of the Seventies. Ben and Marian Rolfe decide to get away from the city for the summer with their son David and aunt Elizabeth. When Marian finds an ad to rent a mansion in the country for the summer at a reasonable price, it seems too good to be true. Ben is suspicious but Marian, always the optimist, believes that the house is fate—that they are meant to have it, and Marian is unusually Review of Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco Burnt Offerings, by Robert Marasco, is far from your typical haunted house story.

Ben is suspicious but Marian, always the optimist, believes that the house is fate—that they are meant to have it, and Marian is unusually insistent upon this. Ben reluctantly agrees to go look at this house they cannot possibly afford, if only to prove his point. The house is everything Marian imagined and more. Their mother who is said to never leave her room and who only needs three meals a day. For the use of a house that is everything she has ever wanted.

A classic, slow burning tale of the things that consume us and the things we are willing to sacrifice to have it all. Robert Marasco is a man who knew obsession. He is a man who understood a level of insanity that I sincerely hope never to attain.

I received this e-book from Valancourt Books in exchange for an honest review. Oct 30, Cody codysbookshelf rated it it was amazing Shelves: What scares me most, as a horror reader, is not gore or on-screen frights; what gets under my skin is the unseen. The imagination is a helluva thing, and mine is good at creating terrors worse than what is usually on the page.

Perhaps this is why horror from the s and s is my favorite: Burnt Offerings is one such novel. This is quiet ho What scares me most, as a horror reader, is not gore or on-screen frights; what gets under my skin is the unseen. This is quiet horror at its finest. The estate is two hundred acres of water-front property.

The mansion has tons of rooms, endless hallways, a pool, the finest furniture and dishes. But, of course, some things are too good to be true. A rather unrelenting descent into obsession and insanity, this novel is a force to be reckoned with and should get more recognition. It seems to be largely forgotten these days. I listened to this on audio, and I thought the narrator really added a lot to the story.