Berkley Street: Berkley Street Series, Book 1

This book has been in my recommendations forever, because I love scary stories, but I only now just decided to take a chance on it. I was sorry I did. First of all, the writing style is unemotional and matter-of-fact. The plain, bland prose adds no sense of spookiness or creepiness. Nor does it add any suspense or foreboding tension. Then, the whole story is just a mess. There's at least a half dozen human spirits from different eras in the house. Then there's the Dark Ones in the root cellar and the Girl in the Pond, and disappearing rooms and floors that don't exist. The author tries to squeeze way too much into one book for it to make any kind of believable sense. On top of that, there's Shane Ryan's miraculous "gift" of instantly becoming fluent in any language the minute he hears it spoken aloud. (eye roll). As well, Shane's character never changes. He's the same person at forty that he was at fourteen. I could go on, but suffice it to say I didn't like the book, and I probably won't read any more of the series.

I can't for the life of me understand why this terrible book has so many good reviews. I've read better Goosebumps fanfictions written by edgy high schoolers.The characters have no depth and give readers no reason to like them or to care about them. The parents of the main character are incompetent morons, but the local police are even dumber because somehow people have been dying in and around the house for at least a hundred years and no one has bothered to investigate or do anything about it.The main character's modus operandi seems to be to get drunk, moan about the house, then live there anyway because reasons. He has about as much personality as a cardboard cutout of a kumquat, which is somehow more personality than the love interest (whose only trait seems to be being attractive and French) has.Can we talk about how the main character has the magical, unexplained ability to understand and speak any language he hears? And how he is able to punch the little ghost girl in the end because the house and ghosts love him so much it gives him power?The hauntings are ridiculous and the book's structure is confusing. Also, the layout of the book is bad--sometimes there are paragraph errors and the headings change size.The sound of my cat retching scares me more than this book ever did.

Every so often you come across a good horror novel that has just the right everything that makes it a great page turner building suspense that lets the imagination run wild . This is one of those good books if you like a good haunted house story with twists like The Shining then this will be one you won't put down. The author grabs you within the first chapter, not graphic or gory your imagination can do that for you. The characters are visual and the ghost are so well created. I am sure others who read this book will agree everyone enjoys the ghost Carl and RobertoSince this is a series book I am sure book 2 will keep the readers on the edge

My favorite genre is the classic Gothic haunted house novel. Yet, unfortunately, most are the same basic plot - family moves into a house in the country, ghosts happen, family members turn against each other....blah blah blah. Berkley Street, however, is different - refreshingly so. Yes there are ghosts, but they work more like characters than objects. Some are good, some are bad, some are scared of each other. My only complaint is that there are a few threads that aren't tied up as nicely as I would've liked, but overall, an exceptional Gothic horror story worth reading. I was so impressed, I picked up the next 2 books by Ron Ripley.

BERKLEY STREET is the first novel in the Berkley Street series, by author Ron Ripley. In the house at number 125 Berkley Street, the author has created a most unique and terrifying environment positively riddled with ghosts of different backgrounds and temperaments. Shane Ryan and his parents, Hank and Fiona, buy the house after it had belonged to the Andersons. It doesn't take long for young Shane and his family to find out what the rest of the neighborhood already suspected--that their house is indeed, very much, haunted to the maximum capacity."Everything's impossible until it isn't . . . "Ron Ripley has created a morbid "fun house" of sorts, filled with macabre spirits, hidden passages, and a house that likes to conveniently change its shape and form impossibly, from the inside.". . . you can disappear into the walls. Places and rooms which shouldn't exist, but they do anyway."Twenty years after the disappearance of his parents, a series of events leads Shane to move back to the house at 125 Berkley Street. On his first day, he meets a neighbor and former Marine, Gerald Beck--a man who has always believed the rumors of Shane's house to be truth.". . . there are things which the Good Lord does not rein in. And some of those things are in the root cellar."Along with the unique atmosphere of this house, Ripley brings us characters--both living and dead--that you'll come to care about as if they were real people. Each death that occurs there has it's own special kind of torture, and each spirit trapped there retains their individual personalities. Some, like Carl, are simply grateful to be remembered: ". . . My Oubliette . . . My little place of forgetting. I shall forget he existed, and so shall the world . . . ". Others, like the Lady of the Lake , are still as twisted and sadistic in death as they were in life--more than capable of causing the painful deaths of so many others.". . . when he fell asleep, he died. They call it dry drowning. A little water in the lungs is enough to kill . . . "Shane is aware of the danger he faces in returning, but his character is so convincingly portrayed that the reader can easily accept that his homecoming was inevitable.I found Berkley Street to be a unique and compelling supernatural horror novel. This was the first book that I'd read by Ron Ripley, and I've already purchased another.Recommended!

It's always a pleasure to find a new author and if Berkley Street is anything to go by, Mr Ripley is a real gem.Great writing, empathetic characters and clear plotting make this a joy to read. There are so many awful ghost/horror stories around at the moment, it's wonderful to discover such a innovative, engaging writer.I don't think it's the job of a reviewer to outline a book's plot, read it for yourself, you'll be glad you did.

Seven years old ,Shane Ryan moved with his parents Hank and Fiona Ryan to 125 Berkley Street into an old house. This house is haunted and Shane experience a scary childhood, till he leaves to join the Marine.At his Graduation he is waiting for his parents, but he get the message that his parents has been missing or better vanished.Since then his uncle and aunt had fought him since his parents had initially disappeared, to take away the house. The day arrived as he is been told that the house is his. He wanted nothing more to find his parents, over twenty years has past, he is been waiting to have this chance.But it will awaken his nightmares, his fear of the house. Well written storyline with lot's of great details. Truly haunting.I liked Shane the main character, he is normal and still scared what he need to do. But still is able to make some new friends to help him.Well I have enjoyed the first part of this book. I would have liked more information at the end about his parents and the conversation he might have with them. Because this is what we all waiting for....pity. But I was grateful that he found them at last.

When I want to read a good ghost story I come to kindle store and search. Most of the books I manage to find are mediocre, some are full of cliche, rare ones are good. This one was easily the best ghost story I have read in a while (the other one is Reiko by James Avonleigh). Why? It has all the traditional elements of the "haunted house" genre but with a good dusting of details and twists I didn't anticipate. First of all, I liked the main character, Shaun. I liked his reactions to ghosts and ghosts reactions to him, I liked that he is not a charming superhero from a magazine cover. I liked the language of the story and the house that grows rooms and floors at his own volition. And I loved the skeleton playing beautiful violin music. In fact I loved the book so much I went and bought several other stories by Ron Ripley. They were good but still can't beat the first one in the series.There is one thing I didn't like. Graphic cruel murders Ripley's ghosts commit so easily. But I suppose they work to emphasize how difficult is the life his hero chose to live.

I’m not normally a ghost story fan but when you add mystery to the mix, it’s more likely to be much more up my street. Shane – a very likeable, ordinary and brave main character - now in his forties moves reluctantly back into his childhood home, a house reported to be haunted; a house that has always been haunted, and his main purpose is to find his parents who disappeared over 20 years previously. They never left and Shane is determined to find out what happened to them because he knows the house took them and he’ll face his deepest fears to get to the bottom of the mystery.This might all sound improbable but the story often flits back to the past to pad out the truth of what lies within the walls at 125 Berkley Street, telling a chilling tale of how the house terrorised the occupants all those years ago when Shane was a boy, and still does to this day. There is more than one ghost in that house, thankfully some friendly; some even helpful and kindly, but there is one malevolent entity behind all the evil, and intertwined in the ghost story is the present-day investigation by the local police into the disappearance of Shane’s aunt and uncle who contested ownership of the house (and lost) and they think Shane has something to do with that, but the lead detective, Marie Lafontaine, ends up investigating something much more sinister.This is not your run-of-the-mill ghost story – there are twists and turns you don’t expect.This was a very enjoyable and satisfying read and you stay awake at night for all the right reasons – you want to know what’s happening and you can’t bare to put this book down (pardon the cliché) turning page after page as the intrigue deepens. I’m a new convert to ghost stories after reading this one, and really pleased to note there are sequels by this author so I can continue this ghostly adventure.

Take an old house with a long history of gruesome deaths, and a small boy who moves in there to live with his parents.. Ghosts who talk to the boy , scare him , threaten him and make his life completely miserable. He escapes and joins the army, on the day of his passing out he is told his parents have disappeared without trace, and he knows that the house is responsible. Years later he moves back into the house and he wants answers!I loved this story and couldn't put it down. I can't wait to read the sequel. I also have trouble sleeping at night!