1980s, possible late 70s? it was featured in my father's book club, either one of those book of the month club or literary guild type clubs, and he got it for me since he knew I "liked all that horror crap" but it wasn't as much horror as crap. It was so awful that although I forgot it I never really forgot it and wished I could remember the title and the ending. Here is what I do remember:
A family moves to a new town and a new house, which may or may not have been haunted since I don't remember. The wife was a famous actress which had nothing to do with anything and was never mentioned again after the first page. The father was nothing I recall at all. There was a sullen, too-cool, rebellious, rock and roll, pot-smoking teenage daughter with the typical bratty kid brother and possibly there was a little sister who got involved with an elf or something in the backyard. I do distinctly remember a neighbor kid comes over to help the family settle in and he is handsome so within one chapter the teenage daughter is in love and turns into a clone of a '50s sitcom daughter and says stuff like "hey kiddo" and mom and dad are her new best friends. None of this character exposition is due to the horror or fantasy, just really horrible writing and editing. I honestly don't remember what the horror was since I was so turned off to the entire cast of unreal characters, but I really do want to know if I was the only one who suffered thru this to the point that I wiped most of it from my mind.
A family moves to a new town and a new house, which may or may not have been haunted since I don't remember. The wife was a famous actress which had nothing to do with anything and was never mentioned again after the first page. The father was nothing I recall at all. There was a sullen, too-cool, rebellious, rock and roll, pot-smoking teenage daughter with the typical bratty kid brother and possibly there was a little sister who got involved with an elf or something in the backyard. I do distinctly remember a neighbor kid comes over to help the family settle in and he is handsome so within one chapter the teenage daughter is in love and turns into a clone of a '50s sitcom daughter and says stuff like "hey kiddo" and mom and dad are her new best friends. None of this character exposition is due to the horror or fantasy, just really horrible writing and editing. I honestly don't remember what the horror was since I was so turned off to the entire cast of unreal characters, but I really do want to know if I was the only one who suffered thru this to the point that I wiped most of it from my mind.