Society Place: A Ghost Story
by Andrew David Barker
(Edited) Blurb:
Set during the blazing English summer of 1976, recently widowed Heather Lowes moves into the house she was supposed to live with her husband.But now she is alone.Or at least, she thinks she is...
My Reaction:
Warning: There will be spoilers in this mini review!
I saw this title recommended somewhere and thought I'd give it a try, since it was available to read for free. I enjoyed the early part of the book, but further along in the story, I began to lose interest. I just skimmed the last section to see if it ended as expected. (It did.)
I could nitpick, but the biggest problem by far was the characters' lack of gumption, which was tiring and frankly unbelievable. If you want me to accept that all these people were living on a haunted street and wouldn't have found some way of leaving, you need to explain that more fully. I guess we're supposed to assume that they couldn't afford to move or that things weren't that bad until starting in the summer of 1976, but none of that is explained to my satisfaction. Why did it take so many decades for someone to do the obvious and burn the place down? Rafferty's own mother suggested as much. Nearly everyone in this book is cursed (or something). Most of them seem to just accept that they're cursed—and it's very frustrating to read! I can't stand books or movies where the characters just give up. I suppose Poppy doesn't give up, but... Eh, it's too little too late, as far as I'm concerned!
I don't know. Maybe I'm expecting too much, but I stand by my position that the story and motivations (or lack thereof) needed more fleshing out—not to mention a more diligent proofreader to catch the typos.
