The book was a bit drawn out and slow except for the last two chapters which seemed to try to explain all of loose ends, which still left a lot of questions for me. I just got a lot of his books and are now hoping that most are better than this one. It was ok, but I wouldn’t read it again. This one is going into my to be sold stack! ( )

A little hard to classify. SF with a bit of horror I guess would be closest, since it has elements of both, but the ending is classic SF (discovery) rather than horror (either the protagonist or antagonist dies).
Was tempted to down the rating by one for being a little week near the end, but considering originality and lack of big plot errors like most modern "thriller " SF, I'll give it four ( )

A haunted tree attacks new owners.
The non-horror parts never approached credibility for me. ( )

Definitely not what I expected out of my first encounter with this author...but not at all bad. Fun, in fact, and probably a keeper. A widower New York programmer goes to Florida with his family to live on property he inherited from his uncle. Events that unfold seem to indicate the land is haunted...but is it? The denouement comes in a bit of a rush, but it's not so sudden that it doesn't wrap well. All in all very satisfying and not the last I expect to read by Piers Anthony. ( )

This is not your average Piers Anthony book. Those who picked this up because they read the Xanth books or Apprentice Adept series might be confused and ultimately disappointed. I would liken this book more to Dean Koontz or Stephen King (the cover blurb even mentions the latter author, which was helpful for me knowing what I was getting into, but might not be present on other editions).
Recent widower Joshua Pinson inherits a house in rural Florida from an eccentric uncle. He moves his two children and various pets to this place for a change of pace and recovery from their mother’s death. However, almost immediately, very strange events begin to occur and it’s possible that there’s something sinister at work in the vicinity.
The cause of these events was pretty immediately obvious to this reader, so it was a bit frustrating that the characters were so obtuse about it. Joshua himself has no belief in anything that can’t be logically and scientifically explained, and even after he personally witnesses something for which Occam’s Razor would suggest the supernatural, he’s still trying to rationalize. Long-time residents of the area, even and especially ones who seem intelligent also fail to add up the obvious clues to the origins of the spectral happenings.
However, even with that criticism, I found I was unable to put the book down. Anthony creates such complex and relatable characters, even including brief paragraphs told from the minds of the pets (I was preoccupied for quite some time with the humans continual neglect of their fish, although I’m not sure it was intentional for me to be, it may be Anthony forgot to mention their being fed, or maybe we were supposed to assume..).
The writing was excellent for genre prose, with superlative vocabulary usage and sentence structure. The pacing was quite suspenseful and nothing unnecessary to moving the plot forward seemed to be included. I found that since I wasn’t much curious about the central “mystery” of the novel, I was more fascinated by guessing characters’ reactions, motivations, and ultimate fates. (I can tell you the eventual new romantic partner in Joshua’s life was not the one I expected!)
In other books I have read by this author, it seems Anthony displays a rather problematic view of women, and this is no different, but if one is aware of his particular failing, it can be overlooked for the enjoyment of the story.
Overall, a pretty worthwhile book to have read, but not one I would stridently recommend. ( )