Daniel Beers ‘The Last House’ Review

Written by: Myra Gabor

Bryan and Julie Dylan are a married couple who are not speaking to each other. Julie gave birth to a stillborn child and Bryan is convinced the baby wasn’t his. Julie knows it wasn’t. Bryan gets even by cheating on her. They can’t seem to get past what Julie thinks of as The Incident. They only things they have in common anymore are the bills and the apartment.

When their realtor calls with an amazing house at an amazing price that they can actually afford, they decide that this could be the restart of their marriage.

Instead of the realtor, a neighbor meets them to give them the house key. He seems inordinately happy that they intend to move in. The house is perfectly maintained, inside, as well as out. They explore and everything they see convinces them that this is the house for them.

Problems start slowly. The people who were to meet them don’t show up. Their phones don’t work. Neither the doors nor the windows will open.  Resentment builds. Although they don’t say it, each one blames the other for their failed marriage and the predicament that they’re in.

In the house that they thought was so perfect, their fantasies seem more and more real. Furniture suddenly appears, furniture that Julie would have bought if she’d had the money for it. Their favorite foods and books are suddenly on the shelves. As Julie starts wondering if she’s pregnant again, she finds pregnancy tests in the bathroom.

When Bryan first saw the basement, it was dark. And large. Bryan was sure it was empty. Well, except for the prostitute he had visited in the city after The Incident. He is wary at first, not wanting to accept that she could be there. She doesn’t smell clean. In fact, she smells like a basement. But with each visit down the stairs, he realizes that he is more than happy to have her company. As well as his private whore, he now finds in the basement all the tools he has ever dreamed of owning.

Bryan and Julie start spacing out and lose chunks of time to their wonderful memories of different sexual partners.  And as they come back to reality their bitterness towards each other grows. They don’t talk to each other, they can’t talk to each other and each one finds solace in his own dream world. And, as with most dreams, their comfortableness turns odd and then becomes downright menacing.

They don’t understand why they can’t leave the house. They get so caught up in their dream worlds that they resent every dose of reality that pulls them back into the real world. They especially resent each other. And that resentment turns to hatred for each other.

They are trapped in a house, their love has turned to bitter hate and verbal abuse has turned to physical abuse.

This story is a page turner. You have to keep reading to find out what happens to Bryan and Julie.

Order it here.

Rating: 5/5