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  • The Amityville Horror

  • By: Jay Anson
  • Narrated by: Ray Porter
  • Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (155 ratings)

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The Amityville Horror cover art

The Amityville Horror

By: Jay Anson
Narrated by: Ray Porter
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Publisher's Summary

In December 1975, the Lutz family moved into their new home on suburban Long Island. George and Kathleen Lutz knew that, one year earlier, Ronald DeFeo had murdered his parents, brothers, and sisters in the house, but the property - complete with boathouse and swimming pool - and the price were too good to pass up.

Twenty-eight days later, the entire Lutz family fled in terror.

This is the spellbinding, best-selling, true story that gripped the nation - the story of a house possessed by evil spirits, haunted by psychic phenomena almost too terrible to describe.

Jay Anson began as a copy boy on the New York Evening Journal in 1937 and later worked in advertising and publicity. With more than 500 documentary scripts for television to his credit, he was associated with Professional Films, Inc. He died in 1980.

©1977 Jay Anson; published in arrangement with Lesia Anson (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"A fascinating and frightening book." ( Los Angeles Times)
"This book will scare the hell out of you." ( Kansas City Times)

What listeners say about The Amityville Horror

Average Customer Ratings
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

What should have been a wonderful scare...

Has been a major disappointment.
The narration by Ray Porter was so void of voice expression that I actually could not finish listening to the first chapter.
In fact I go further to say that a computer generated voice would have more expression.

I love this story. I first read it over 35 years ago. This narration has stripped it of all the scariness that the book is famous for.

Excessively disappointed. If I had have been able to get a refund I would.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Unoriginal

Taking into account the time this book was written, I still found The Amityville Horror book rather dull and unoriginal.

This book has been written to manipulate the reader into fully believing what it says by questioning your intelligence at the very beginning. Saying that everything written has been authenticated and researched empirically.

This book has been debunked by multiple authorities since its publication and has trivialised the original murders that occurred in the home.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Less of a non-fiction - more of a good horror story

I came into this with a fairly open mind as to what happened at Amityville. At this stage I feel relatively unconvinced but entertained by a good story nonetheless.
The writing style of the book doesn't lend itself well to the non fiction category it's in, told in a very subjective first person way. It is an interesting and enjoyable story, however, I found the reading of this story overly dramatic at times.
Overall I enjoyed but am not convinced of it as a nonfiction.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Horror classic

It's amazing how much of classic horror moments are in this, The Omen in particular had a lot of overlap. I guess this is a concentrated account of phenomena reported in haunting-type events, but it's still amazing how much it taps into what makes our hair strands on end.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Dull narration and story

The story seems very unbelievable, specifically the fact that a family would be so dense as to stay in a house with all those strange things happening. Not only did they stay, they also kept doubting the fact something was very wrong with the house. It just makes for an unbelievable story.

Ray also read with little emotion and so the whole thing just felt dull. I'm not sure how others are so fascinated by this book or find it horrifying.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

More in-depth than the movie

Was an interesting story. It covers a lot more of the finer details & facts than what the movie portrays

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Intriguing story

I enjoyed the performance of this book. I found the story scarier than the film adaptations, what these poor families went through. Recommend to any true crime and mystery lovers.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

haunting

this audiobook read by Ray Porter really struck home, I normally listen to audiobooks with a narrative that talks as if from a person's perspective. Ray Porter's voice combined with the haunting tale that is this story added an atmosphere that I haven't really gotten from a horror book before. being a Christian and even before I was a Christian this book brings to light many questions regarding afterlife ghosts demons cetera. if you haven't experienced a ghost story in audio format yet then this one's probably for you listen to it with the lights down and let it question your imagination. as always report his performance was amazing and a great story although horrific.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Could not continue

The narrator voice is horrible I couldn’t continue despite wanting to know more about this story :( might have to buy digital book instead

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Cheated

My expectations were too high I think so I felt somewhat letdown by the book, I was expecting more drama.

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