I loved this book, although I wish I had read it before watching the movie which I saw years ago. Both are good, but I have to admit I enjoyed the movie a bit more (which isn't usually the case). The movie doesn't very closely follow this book, so if you've seen the movie, don't think you know how it goes and let that put you off of reading this. ( )

I’d say I enjoyed the movie more, but this was a great read and doesn’t get enough recognition. ( )

During a social with his friends, Tom agrees to be hypnotised. During the following days, Tom becomes haunted by unusual things - reading the thoughts of people around him, the nightly visitations of an etherial young woman to the house, the uneasy feeling about a babysitter that resulted in the prevention of a kidnapping. It puts a strain on his marriage, especially when they both realise that he knows her mother is dead without being told, and doesnt warn her.[return][return]There are several sets of couples that Tom and his wife interact with - Elizabeth and her husband; the other couple who live next door and who own the house that the Wallaces have recently rented after the departure of the previous owner. During the next few weeks, as the realisation that he has become a "medium" - Tom picks up undercurrents of thoughts and emotions going on between his neighbours. He also tries to work out why he is being visited every night by a ghost. Who she is, and why she is there rocks their little group.[return][return]Written in the 1950s (and made into a Kevin Bacon movie in the 1990s), this does not feel dated.[return][return]Read by Scott Brick, I did struggle in the middle and had to put it asied for a bit. There was nothing wrong with the book or the reader (I actually think he was a very good reader), I just had to put it away for a week or so. ( )

Pretty good but I think I liked the movie better! I will say that when I read it at night I was spooked and had a hard time going to the basement to fill the furnace before bed....I didn't know what may be lurking in the shadows. ( )

I saw the film first, I like some things about the film and there are some things I don't like about the film as well.
If you like mystery/horror books and films then you might like the book or the film.
A man named Tom Wallace attends a friendly party, his friends and brother are also there.
Everyone is talking about spiritual things and if they believe in it or not, until Tom's brother mentions hypnosis and people that have stabbed themselves with blunt objects but didn't feel any pain while hypnotised. None of Tom's friends believe him, but he then decides to ask people at the party if he can hypnotise them but most of them refuse, until Tom decides to agree to being hypnotised.
Tom is very susceptible to hypnosis, so it works very well, it works too well and unleashes a psychic awareness he never knew he had before. Afterwards he develops a psychic awareness sometimes called ESP (Extra Sensory Perception) clairvoyance or mediumship skills because he experiences various types of paranormal phenomena it fits into many categories.
Tom has vivid dreams, can read people's thoughts and desires in their minds, he starts seeing a female ghost or spirit that may or may not have been murdered when they were alive, he has visions and experiences precognition (the knowledge of an event usually something terrible that will happen before it happens)
Tom starts to think that his brother did something to him on purpose, while he was hypnotised to make him feel, see and experience this inexplicable paranormal phenomena, he questions his sanity and if he is going insane.
Nothing is fully understandable or clear until he talks to him friend who is a psychiatrist but they have knowledge of fringe science (the study of psychic and paranormal phenomena) he clarifies all the things Tom has witnessed or experienced and explain to him that it's not mental illness, but he didn't really have an explanation for the paranormal activity other than telepathy and psychic phenomena.
The rest of the book is about Tom trying to communicate with spirits to gain answers, to try and prevent horrible things happening but sometimes he is too late and there is nothing he can do.
Tom discovers that his neighbour that is married had an affair with his wife's sister, but she found out and murdered her which then led to the discovery of her decomposing corpse in a crawlspace under Tom's house.
The wife of the neighbour that had an affair, then decides to try and kill Tom, his wife and son.
The plot for the film, has a particular disgusting and disturbing twist, but the disturbing imagery still remains in the book, which I am glad it is in the book, it helps to create a creepy atmosphere. ( )