Kindle Price:	$9.99
Sold by:	Amazon.com Services LLC

Promotions apply when you purchase

Add an

audiobook with Audible narration for $2.66

Audiobook Price: $18.33

Save: $15.67 (85%)

Read with our free app

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Follow the authors

Burnt Offerings (Valancourt 20th Century Classics) Kindle Edition

by Robert Marasco (Author), Stephen Graham Jones (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 1,416 ratings

See all formats and editions

Ben and Marian Rolfe are desperate to escape a stifling summer in their tiny Brooklyn apartment, so when they get the chance to rent a mansion in upstate New York for the entire summer for only $900, it’s an offer that’s too good to refuse. There’s only one catch: behind a strange and intricately carved door in a distant wing of the house lives elderly Mrs. Allardyce, and the Rolfes will be responsible for preparing her meals.

But Mrs. Allardyce never seems to emerge from her room, and it soon becomes clear that something weird and terrifying is happening in the house. As the suspense builds towards a revelation of what really lies behind that locked door, the Rolfes will discover that their cheap vacation rental comes at a terrible cost . . .

The basis for a classic 1976 film adaptation and an acknowledged influence on Stephen King’s The Shining, Burnt Offerings is one of the most original and scariest haunted house novels ever written. This edition, the first in decades, features a new introduction by award-winning author Stephen Graham Jones.

“Burnt Offerings has no peer. Better than Rosemary’s Baby, The Other, and The Exorcist.” - Hartford Courant

“Insidiously frightening . . . It snares you early and draws you inexorably to one of the most nerve-shattering finales in years.” - Publishers Weekly

“Just pick a quiet place and an uninterrupted time to read this novel. You’ll be inclined to jump at sudden noises or even hurl the book at intruders.” - Chicago Tribune

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

8 1.5-hour cassettes

About the Author

Robert Marasco (1936-1998) was an American horror writer best known for the 1970 Broadway play Child's Play.

William F. Nolan (b. 1928) is an American author, who is best known for writing stories in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres. He is best known for co-authoring the novel Logan's Run, with George Clayton Johnson. Nolan was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He attended the Kansas City Art Institute. He worked for Hallmark Cards, Inc. before becoming an author. He was voted a Living Legend in Dark Fantasy by the International Horror Guild in 2002. In 2006, he was bestowed the honorary title of Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. In 2010, he received the Lifetime Achievement Stoker award from the Horror Writers Association.

J.K. Potter is an award-winning digital artist living in Portland, Oregon.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00TPWB26K
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Valancourt Books (March 17, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 17, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2406 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 170 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #186,322 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #153 in Horror Fiction Classics
- #2,240 in Fiction Classics
- #5,147 in Classic Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.1 1,416 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Stephen Graham Jones
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Born and raised in Texas. In Boulder, Colorado now. Forty-nine. Blackfeet. Into werewolves and slashers, zombies and vampires, haunted houses and good stories. Would wear pirate shirts a lot if I could find them. And probably carry some kind of sword. More over at http://demontheory.net or http://twitter.com/@SGJ72
See more on the author's page
Robert Marasco
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
See more on the author's page

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

1,416 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Bob Lewis

A classic of quiet horror

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2023

Verified Purchase

This is the tale of a family who move into a grand mansion for the summer, accepting a too good to be true kind of a deal. Well as we all know, especially in the horror genre, anything that seems too good to be true very likely IS too good to be true. In this case, things start to seem particularly strange when they’re told the house won’t be empty. Instead they’ll be responsible for bringing meal trays three times a day to the reclusive elderly Mrs. Allardyce who lives on the top floor of the house. But the mysterious woman never seems to emerge from her room and the family gradually start to behave strangely toward each other.

If you think it sounds a bit like The Shining, you’re not wrong, but you need to realize this novel predates King’s by several years and is even acknowledged as an influence on the more famous work. So of course it’s probably inevitable that the two novels are going to be compared.

In this case, I think I can say with some confidence that Burnt Offerings never quite manages to be as SCARY as King’s novel. However, it treats the reader to a sophisticated intellectual sort of horror that’s likely to be quite memorable. It’s indeed quite refreshing to read a work that never seems to insult the reader’s intelligence and spends a lot more time on genuine character development than forced scares.
Despite its short length, it’s a bit slower of a read than several books I’ve gone through lately, but it rewards the reader’s effort with a surreal ending you won’t soon forget.

Helpful

P. Whoody

An author from New York, writes about characters from New York.. okay...

Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2016

Verified Purchase

Okay, the characters - except for Aunt Elizabeth- maybe, are just unlikeable. Period.

Marian is a house wife, that isn't exactly the independent woman type. She is basically a vapid stereotypical female that p**sy whips the husband to the point he can't make a decision and stick to it. She's cunning manipulative, extremely materialistic, self-involved, sits at home all day doing housework, and rules the roost. She decides it's that time of the year for a summer vacation, since Ben is a school teacher and has 3 months off. She looks in the magazine ads, finds this one in particular, talks to the owner and becomes hell-bent on renting the place. No matter what weak objections her husband may have, she wants that rental, by gawd.

Even though she's not paying for the stupid place (that's right friends and neighbors, she's not even employed), she pouts, withholds sexual favors, does the cold shoulder routine, and distances herself from her weak willed husband, until finally she gets her way. This type of maneuver has been proven unsuccessful in 2016. Just ask Jada Pinkett if worked for the Oscars.

Then we have Ben. yes.. him. Obviously, the poor guy will never be half the man his mother was.

The weak-willed, classic passive-aggressive school teaching whipped husband who loves Marian soooooo much, that he is willing to give her his complete devotion - even though it's obvious that if his belly was on fire, and she had a glass of water - she'd drink it instead. "Sacrifice" and "honor" are not in her vocabulary.

I truly wonder why he was even in the story. Oh yeah, Antagonist Protagonist, victim, etc.

She finally gets her way - unlike Jada - and they go to the house and interview the couple and the handy man. From the interview with the "eccentric" brother and sister, to the very end of the book. There is basically no more reality.

These are NEW YORKERS, people.. NEW YORKERS!! Anyone who's visited New York, Jersey or the Statue of Liberty, knows for a gold-plated fact that if a couple from NEW YORK came out and interviewed these two nut cases, they would have jumped back into the car faster than a horse could trot, pulled the fastest K-turn in the history of stunt driving, and drove NASCAR style out of that driveway without looking back.

It's obvious that Stephen King used this book for his novel, The Shining. The only difference was the family was "snowed in" and couldn't get out of the Overlook hotel. He was a much more sagacious author, by having Wendy the anti-hero-wife, stop the insanity by calling out her husband on his deception, and trying to get her and her son out of that place and damn near murders Jack in the process.

Not in this book. Most school teachers are SMART.. Nope.. not Ben from NEW YORK! Aunt Elizabeth dies in the house. That would have sent families high-tailing it out of there without a second glance back, while calling in coverage on the 6:00 news. Obviously? Marian could have cared less if Ben and Dave dove off the Empire State building together. And she didn't really give a flying falafel about Aunt Elizabeth kicking the bucket either.

They leave the house, and go to the funeral - she stays and gets a great perm and dye job by the house. (Her hair turns white).

Now, on all counts. This is where the book should have ended. Davey and Ben leave the twice-possessed wife. (House-possessed and self-absorbed).. But they re-pack their suitcases and COME BACK TO THE HOUSE, knowing full well, that Marian was longer that into him. He should know? He took enough cold showers to prove it.

The story gets pretty predictable after that and well written. The author draaaaaaaaaaaaags out the end with great flourish, and we have a horror story that inspired and made lots of money for Stephen King's novel and movie.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Carnal Butterfly

Great for an Older Read

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2024

Verified Purchase

I had heard wonderful things about this book and while I definitely suggest reading it, it was a bit slow for me. That said, it was published in 1973 and at the time I'm sure it was a knockout.

Helpful

Eclectic Reader

"She Wasn't `Old' Back in Town"

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2015

Verified Purchase

In college I took a class on Shakespeare and the popular, much-noted instructor of the class began by saying, "The great drives out the good." That was his way of introducing the class to the fact that for the semester we were going to read and study the plays by Shakespeare most people over-looked because of the fame (and greatness) of many other works by the Bard of Avon. Although certainly not in the same league as Shakespeare, the expression about the great driving out the good applies to the first novel by Robert Marasco (1936-1988), Burnt Offerings (1973, re-issued by Valancourt Books, 2015, with an Introduction by Stephen Graham Jones.

In his Introduction Jones writes that the release of Burnt Offerings suffered from bad timing. Stephen King was about to make a huge splash in popular horror fiction followed by the likes of Robert R. McCammon, Clive Barker, and Peter Straub. Even though Burnt Offerings was made into a film with notable stars, it soon was left behind in the ash (no pun intended).

Burnt Offerings falls into the category of "quiet horror." There is no gore, no moments so horrific that it would demand CGI effects in a modern film, no moments of true, gut-wrenching fear. It is a work of subtlety. Burnt Offerings also reads like an "old friend." It covers some familiar haunted house ground and doesn't really have any new twists or gimmicks to offer to the genre. None of this, however, is meant to imply that there aren't some truly memorable scenes and moments in the book.

Burnt Offerings begins with a typical scenario: a couple, Ben and Marian Rolfe, tired of the "less appealing every day, more abrasive" noise and chaos of life in Queens, look for a summer retreat to which they and their eight-year-old son, David, can enjoy a break from the "tension." They find an ad for a "unique summer home. Restful, secluded. Perfect for large family. Pool, private beach, dock" two and a half hours away from the city which is for rent for the summer and "very reasonable for the right people." Skeptical, the Rolfes go to meet the owners, an elderly couple, the Allardyces, attended to only by their rather peculiar chauffer. Nothing prepares them for the "formidable" estate they are offered at a ridiculously affordable price. The Rolfes accept the offer, move in bringing their elderly Aunt Elizabeth with them, and the Allardyces leave. The stage is set. The foul play begins.

In addition to those already mentioned, a number of things set Burnt Offerings apart from typical horror novels. Marasco's writing is quite literate and he builds the novel's suspense slowly. From the ridiculous rental price to the one string that is attached to the rental: that the Allardyces will be leaving behind their elderly mother who must be served her food on a regular basis but stays in her room behind closed doors and is likely never to be seen or to be a bother, the novel is sprinkled with hints like crumbling, falling tiles off of an old house's roof, that all is not what it appears to be. Like the best of comedians, Marasco's timing is brilliant. The punches he delivers, delicate though they mostly are (with a few exceptions), come at the right time and leave an indelible impression upon the reader. Astute readers will take note of clues (especially as they become more and more obvious) and are bound to appreciate both Marasco's writing style and his timetable of revelations.

Burnt Offerings has neither real evil spirits in it desiring revenge or looking to wreak havoc upon the living, nor are there specters looking for a way to "cross over" and find peace and serenity. The house in Burnt Offerings has, instead, a very human yearning: to stay alive and the entity is willing, like most humans, to do whatever is necessary to achieve that goal. Likewise, the real terror to be found in Burnt Offerings is also human: the effect of staying at the house that is inflicted upon the Rolfes and Aunt Elizabeth and what happens to them, their relationships, and their mental and physical well-being.

Less terrifying than Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House (1959) (although Burnt Offerings is of that novel's tradition), readers are likely not to be too surprised by the climax of the novel--but it is a conclusion which, if pondered, is both dramatic and fret inspiring. It is the perfect ending to a "good" entry to the genre that deserves the attention of those who enjoy that which "moves within the night/That is not good and is not right" (Dean Koontz in The Book of Counted Sorrows.) [NOTE: A new Blu-ray edition of the film version of Burnt Offerings is scheduled for an October 2015 release.]

26 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

neil bedard

🔥😎

Reviewed in Canada on July 15, 2022

Verified Purchase

😎

Carter McCoy

inquietante e spaventosamente bello

Reviewed in Italy on April 4, 2024

Verified Purchase

“Burnt Offerings”
Libro di Robert Marasco

Edizione inglese
Libro pubblicato da Valancourt books (2015)
Copertina flessibile
Font/tipo di carattere: Dante MT 10.5/12.6
Numero di pagine: 218

Il libro è di alta qualità. Ha una copertina molto bella. Secondo me le lettere sono un po' piccole ma si legge bene.

"Burnt Offerings" appartiene alla categoria dell'orrore dal ritmo lento. La storia è inquietante e gradualmente affascina il lettore. Mi piace molto.

Grazie.

Translate review to English

Linda Phillips

Brilliant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2023

Verified Purchase

The film is one of my favourites, the book is just like watching it with extra background bits. The ending was a little different to what I was expecting but still a fantastic read.

D. Jung

Ware 1 A

Reviewed in Germany on September 1, 2022

Verified Purchase

Buchcover sehr gut gestaltet, gut zu lesen.

Translate review to English