Helpful Score: 1
I generally dislike books that start with a Prologue. As a slow reader I sometimes can't remember the significance of those passages and need to reread it to understand the point being made. So I automatically took off ½ star from my review when I saw an 11-page Prologue, which I dutifully skipped (it seemed to outline the recent history of the three men invited to the mansion.) In fact I didn't need to re-read it since I abandoned the whole thing about halfway through. It's way too long and many rambling parts and dreams could have been eliminated. It's not badly written, just sort of boring. For much better haunted house books try The Uninvited by Dorothy MacArdle, Hell House by Richard Matheson or, of course, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
