Society Place: A Ghost Story

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 where 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.  

The September House

The September House

by Carissa Orlando

Blurb:

A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.

When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.

Margaret is not most people.

Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.

My Reaction:

I chose to read this knowing only that it was recommended by someone, somewhere, to people who want to read books about haunted houses.  (Or at least that's all I remembered by the time I got around to reading it!)  Right off the bat, I was intrigued. It obviously wasn't your typical horror novel.  In fact, I'd describe this as "cozy horror", because it felt like a mash-up of rather gory horror and cozy mystery.  It wasn't what I expected, based on the cover, but it was interesting.  

Unfortunately, I found the book fell a bit flat for me.  I don't regret reading it, but it wasn't completely satisfying.  I'll discuss why below, because there will be spoilers.  Final verdict: Not my ideal ghost story style, but if you're up for something different, it's definitely that!  

SPOILERS

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Okay.  Reasons I didn't fully enjoy this book:

Katherine is extremely bratty and annoying.  Couldn't stand her, to be honest. 

The cursing really annoyed me.  There was so much of it, and I found it so unnecessary.  

The gore isn't for me.  I dislike gory stuff, though I found that when the gore really ratcheted up, it was more boring than anything else.  Gore in movies and TV shows bothers me more because of all the sounds and, well, the visuals, but when I'm reading and it's just one gory thing after another, I find my mind shuts off and I skip over it.  I don't get anything from it, so why read it?  I'm not the best, these days, at visualizing things from books, anyway—more of a dialogue person, I guess—but when it's something I don't even want to imagine, why bother?  But yeah, that's another strike against the book for me. Not a fan of gore.  Give me eeriness, psychological horror, and a creepy atmosphere instead, please. 

The domestic abuse angle... I don't know, I guess it was there for a reason, but I felt it didn't pay off as much as expected.  

It was completely predictable that Hal would be discovered in the basement. 

The grand finale, final battle, or whatever you want to call it was oddly anticlimactic.  That was the part where I just started skimming—because, okay, I get it, the ghosts are all banding together and tearing Master Vale apart, and it's really disgusting and brutal and... yawn.  Once it's clear where this is all heading, I don't need the play-by-play.  Let's just get to the next part of the story.  So I found it boring, but worse, it just didn't make a lot of sense to me.  If all it took to vanquish Master Vale was for the other ghosts to band together, I don't understand why it took them so long to do it.  It doesn't make sense to me that it was so easy—or if it was so easy, why no-one else had done it already.  Yeah, Margaret was defending her daughter, like she (finally) defended her from Hal.  ...Okay?  I don't know what else to say, but it was not a satisfying ending, and I feel the book didn't give satisfying explanations for the ghosts' stories, either.  Not sure what I wanted, but not this. 

The positives?  
I really liked the housekeeper ghost.  The idea of a ghost who makes you supper and offers friendly chit-chat was oddly appealing to me.

A Sincere Warning About the Entity in Your Home

A Sincere Warning About the Entity in Your Home

by Jason Arnopp

Blurb:

"Dear friend,

This is no chain letter, hoax or prank.

It is a sincere warning about your home and the entity which dwells within.

Your home has been haunted for quite some time.

I am sorry that I could not personally deliver this document. I did not even post it myself. The postmark on the envelope will not help you, should you ever attempt to locate me.

When this letter is complete, I shall entrust a friend in another country with repackaging and sending it on my behalf. This letter also may or may not have been translated from its original language.

You do not know me. You must never know me.

Neither do I know you, beyond your name, address and appearance. I have seen you in person but you have not seen me.

Think back to the day that you moved into your home. I contrived to casually pass by as you stood outside. I saw your face, but you did not so much as glance my way. I did not stop walking. I simply committed your face to memory and moved on before you became aware of my presence.

Why did I want to see you?

I suppose my conscience drove me to it. Just as it compels me to finally write this letter.

I wanted to see exactly who I was passing the entity on to."

My Reaction:

Depending on your perspective, this is either a long short story or a short novella.  I saw it recommended somewhere as a good creepy tale and was intrigued by the premise.  The idea is that you've received a large envelope in the mail, with no way to trace it back to its source.  Inside is a letter from the previous occupant of the home into which you've just moved—but instead of wishing you happiness in their much-loved former home, or letting you know that there's a trick to one of the window latches, or even asking to come around and revisit the house they grew up in—though that alone would be worthy of a shudder—they're warning you about a dangerous entity attached to the house—one that they're certain you will encounter soon, if you haven't already.  

It's a great idea for a story!  I didn't personally find it quite as creepy as some readers have.  If I'd read it alone at night, in an empty house, it might have felt a bit more disturbing.  However, I did read part of it in the wee hours after waking and being unable to get back to sleep, and even then I don't think I felt many chills.  (I've lived in this house for over 20 years, and we had it built ourselves, so maybe that has something to do with it.)  

Still, it's an interesting premise, so I'll give some points for that!

Into the Uncanny

Into the Uncanny

by Danny Robins

Blurb:

Into the Uncanny is the story of ordinary people who have experienced extraordinary things and want to make sense of them. Each one is a brand-new case never shared before; modern day, real-life ghost stories that will make your blood run cold. It is also a journey of self-discovery, as Danny explores what the paranormal means to us and the exciting and terrifying prospect that we are not alone.

From poltergeists and apparitions, to UFOs and messages from beyond the grave, Into The Uncanny is a thrilling, adrenaline-filled supernatural adventure. Whether you're Team Believer or Team Sceptic, all you need is an open mind and a bit of courage. So, are you ready to investigate?

My Reaction:

After enjoying the Uncanny podcast, and then gobbling down the host's earlier, similarly themed podcast, Haunted, I figured chances were good that I'd like his book, too—and I did.  There's something endlessly engrossing about ghost stories and tales of the paranormal, and both the podcasts and the book left me wishing for more!  

I listened to the audiobook version, which is read by Danny Robins himself, so it has much the same feeling as listening to the podcast (with the caveat that it's one person talking the whole time).  If you're a fan of one, you'll probably at least like the other. 

"The Thing in the Hall"

"The Thing in the Hall"

by E.F. Benson

Synopsis:

A man invites an unknown spirit into his home.  This proves to have been unwise.

My Reaction (with SPOILERS):

I don't have much to say about this one.  It has some gruesome and creepy elements, but I didn't find it particularly effective, overall.  Not destined to be a favorite, I'm afraid.  The main thing that stuck out in this one, for me, was the fact that cheating at cards is presented as roughly the equivalent of torturing one's own pet to death.  Both are described as "depravity", but needlessly, intentionally hurting an animal (especially one you've agreed to protect and care for) is several orders of magnitude worse than card sharping, in my opinion.  The two aren't even comparable.  I've observed this attitude in books before: In the past, at least in certain circles, cheating at cards was seemingly a much bigger deal than it seems to me.  Not that I condone cheating, of course, but it simply doesn't feel deserving of quite the level of gravity that some authors grant it. 

That my main focus from this story was this should tell you that the rest of it fell a bit flat for me.  There are some things going for it, but they are undercut by the same pseudo-scientific approach and strange pacing that plague many of these stories (from what I can recall of the ones I read years ago).  There are moments of horror and eeriness, but sometimes they're buried under too much "evidence".  Does the author think we can so quickly forget that these are fictional short stories?  Frankly, I'm not interested in made-up science or "proof", because—how can I put this politely?—I know you just made it up.  Trying to dress it up as scientifically documented truth is pointless.  Just make it feel creepy!  To be fair, Benson is doing essentially the same thing as M.R. James and many other successful "ghost story" writers, framing his tales in realism and attempting to lend them a sense of verisimilitude, but maybe he's just not as good at it.  Some of his horror tales are lacking in a sufficiently haunting atmosphere and instead have an almost clinical feel.  

And...that's it!  That was the last story in the collection of E.F. Benson's short horror fiction!

This was a bit of a weak note to end on, but I'm glad to have finally finished this collection of short stories so I can scratch it off the list once and for all.  I can't believe it was sitting neglected on my Kindle all this time with only two stories left to read!  

It's been so long since I read the bulk of the stories that I no longer recall much about the individual tales.  My opinion is that Benson is a much better satirist / humorist than writer of horror, but that's not to say that his eerie stories aren't worth reading (and some might be worth a re-read, at some point).  However, I suspect most of them may be a little too dry to appeal to the casual modern reader; they're better suited to people who appreciate a more old-fashioned writing style.

"Inscrutable Decrees"

"Inscrutable Decrees"

by E.F. Benson

Synopsis:

An unnamed narrator stumbles upon the death notice of a remarkable woman he once knew.  He then shares his memories of the woman, followed by a discussion with an old friend, which reveals the solution to a macabre puzzle.  

My Reaction (with possible SPOILERS:

I can no longer recall if I stopped writing reviews for individual stories in this collection of E.F. Benson's short stories that I have... I know I stopped reading, years ago, but am uncertain of whether or not there may have been a backlog of stories I had read but not reviewed.  At this point, I suppose it doesn't matter.  I thought I might try to finish the collection, so I'm picking up where I left off with reading (if not reviewing).  

I found the beginning of the story was actually more amusing than horrifying, which reminded me that it may be time to revisit the Lucia series again.  As for this story, it was merely okay.  There's some vague creepiness, but you see the culmination coming from a mile away, so there's no element of surprise, and if anything, I thought the crime committed was milder than expected.  The ghostly element undercuts the horror, I think.  I'm not big on stories with seances that reveal visible ghosts, and... well, spoiler alert, I guess!  There's a visible ghost called forth by a seance.  Not the best of his work, but the central character herself is an interesting one for an armchair criminological psychologist to ponder.  

Horrorstör

Horrorstör

by Grady Hendrix

Blurb:

Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking.

To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.

A traditional haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting, Horrorstör is designed to retain its luster and natural appearance for a lifetime of use. Pleasingly proportioned with generous French flaps and a softcover binding, Horrorstör delivers the psychological terror you need in the elegant package you deserve.

My Reaction:

This was my first time reading anything by this author, and it was a shared read-aloud with Donald.  I happened across it on Goodreads; the idea of a horror story set in an IKEA was too intriguing to pass up.  Since Donald is Swedish, I thought he might be interested, too.  

I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I guess I was picturing very mild, even goofy horror.  Something like a slightly more adult version of Scooby-Doo, maybe.  It started out kind of like that, but then it turned into more traditional horror.  Unfortunately, that part of the novel wasn't really to my taste. 

There is one genuinely creepy scene where people are trying to navigate the empty store and simply can't find their way around.  That's my kind of horror.  After that, when the scary stuff is actually there in the flesh and starts inflicting torture and blathering on and on, I basically lost interest and just wanted it to be over.  On a positive note, it did get a tiny bit better again at the very end.   

The catalog format is clever, and I did like the humorous IKEA references.  I've never worked retail, but I can see how the book is tailored for those who have or do.  Still, I think suggesting (even in jest) that working retail is akin to being imprisoned and tormented is extremely silly, to put it mildly.  

I feel the novel as a whole lacked polish.  There are major plot points that are never fully explained (such as why the police couldn't find the store for so long), and it lagged a lot in the middle (again, the horror-heavy part).  Still, I'm intrigued by the blurbs/titles of some of the author's other books, so I'll probably try another.  

Home Before Dark

Home Before Dark

by Riley Sager

Blurb:

What was it like? Living in that house.

Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father's book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father's death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.

My Reaction:

I believe this is my second time "reading" (listening to an audiobook version) anything written by this author.  The previous one, The House Across the Lake, was more to my liking, though the major plot twist comes out of the blue and feels odd and out of place.  Home Before Dark, on the other hand, had essentially the opposite twist—a comparison that will make no sense unless you've read both books...

I found it more entertaining before it became obvious that... Well, without going into spoilers, before that twist I referred to before.  

The atmosphere through much of the book reminded me of the recent(ish) miniseries adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House.  But unfortunately, part of that similarity was a pervasive feeling of sadness.  It feels less frightening than depressing.  So much wasted potential, in so many lives!  

Another problem was that I couldn't warm to the main character, or feel much of anything for her, one way or the other.  Her father, who speaks through his "book within a book", is more engaging, but there are issues with him, as well.  (For one thing, you never know—until the end—how much of what he's saying is true.)  

Ultimately, it's fine, but not something I'll revisit.  I'd happily read or listen to more by the author, though.  This type of book doesn't need to be amazing and unforgettable to be a perfectly decent read, in my opinion.  I'm just looking for something fictional to think about while I quilt, and this did the trick!

Nitpicky Specifics:

• The title doesn't make much sense.  I like it as a title, but it doesn't fit with the story.  
• I really don't understand the need for a father to discuss any aspect of his sex life with his daughter.  Gross.  Should have been left out, as it was completely unnecessary. 
• The regional accents adopted by the two narrators are strange and distracting.  Every time the male narrator voiced the teenage girl I cringed, and all the "locals" voiced by the female narrator sound like a version of Rhoda Morgenstern from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which I very much doubt was intentional.  
• The female protagonist keeps making unforced errors, putting herself into stupid situations for no apparent reason.  Not uncommon in fiction, but always annoying!

3.5 stars, but not rounding up this time. 

Hidden Pictures

Hidden Pictures

by Jason Rekulak

Blurb:

Mallory Quinn is fresh out of rehab when she takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.

Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.

Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.

Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late.

My Reaction:

I found this an enjoyable paranormal thriller.  It made a change to get a Christian main character.  It's been a long time since I've read anything (written in the recent past) that didn't portray Christians as either boring simpletons or evil hypocrites, so this was a nice surprise.  

Judging by some of the reviews I skimmed after finishing the book, this novel has struck a nerve with some readers, to an amusing degree.  I guess a book has to be 100% "woke af" to pass the smell test.  (Purity spirals are so much fun.)  

I, on the other hand, thought the author did a decent job of not being totally skewed in one direction or the other, politically.  I'm bemused that people read this and thought it was "right-wing propaganda" full of "conservative dog whistles", because that's not at all how it came across to me.  I didn't agree with or like everything in it, but on the other hand, it didn't slap me across the face with so many obnoxious political opinions that it was impossible to enjoy the story.  It walked the line better than many other recently published books I've read.

I wouldn't say this was amazing, unbelievably good, or mind-blowing.  On the contrary, some of the twists are predictable, and at times I found the writing style a bit odd, almost as though it were written for a slightly younger audience—but it was an entertaining read, all the same.  The drawings add an interesting element, too.  

This would probably ordinarily be a 3 or 3.5 for me, but I'll bump it up to 4 just because I appreciate reading about a Christian character presented as a normal person.  

Anna Dressed in Blood

Anna Dressed in Blood
by Kendare Blake

Blurb:

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas's life.

My Reaction:
I had reservations about this one, because I knew it was YA fiction, and that's not my usual fare these days.  I should've listened to my doubts, because this wasn't for me.  It's not terrible, but I wasn't enthused by it.  I didn't care for the characters-- or about them, really-- and... Well, almost everything that makes me hesitant to read more modern YA fiction at this point in my life?  It's here.  This book has demonstrated that my instinct to avoid was correct.  I might have liked this somewhat better when I was quite a bit younger, though I would've found the coarse language off-putting at that age.  Now, in my forties?  The language isn't a problem for me, but it's just not an enjoyable reading experience.  There may be exceptions, but I suspect that most modern YA fiction won't be to my liking, now.

The romance was inexplicable.  I guess it was based solely on looks, because they barely interacted, and what interaction there was didn't seem sufficient.  Then there's the horror aspect.  This version of horror is heavily reliant on gross descriptions-- enough to make me skip a few lines, because I'm not a fan of the disgusting, but probably a yawn for fans of body horror.  It's severely lacking in suspense and psychological horror, which I much prefer to the gross-out stuff.  

This book kinda-sorta stands on its own (if you're okay with major plot holes and abrupt, unsatisfying endings), but there's a sequel, and the ending makes that very clear.  I won't be reading it.  I can't see what could happen that would make it "worth it".  I'll just imagine my own sequel.  ...There.  I probably whipped up an ending I'd find more satisfying than whatever is in the actual book, anyway!

The Silence of Ghosts

The Silence of Ghosts

by Jonathan Aycliffe

(Edited) Blurb:

Those who live in silence hear them best...

After Dominic is severely wounded in service during WWII, his family sends him away from London and the Blitz, to the relative safety of their country home.  His instructions are to look after his partially deaf sister, Octavia, while he comes to terms with his new reality.  The crumbling family estate on the shores of Ullswater is old, neglected, and doesn’t seem a promising place for happiness or recovery.

However, despite his reservations, Dominic's life soon seems to be taking a turn for the better.  He has an attractive and kind new nurse named Rose, and there's hope that Octavia's asthma and hearing might be improving.  But even as Dominic catches his first glimpses of a happy future, there's an eerie darkness creeping at the edges of his consciousness.  Slowly, he realizes that there's something deeply wrong with this house...  Octavia is hearing the voices of children-- voices that no-one else can hear-- and there is worse to come.  Can Dominic solve the mystery of these phantom voices before it's too late?

My Reaction:

I enjoyed a few of the author's earlier works, but unfortunately, this one really didn't work for me.  The biggest problem is that it's a ghost story that inspires very little fear.  Apart from one or two creepy moments, it falls flat.  Most of the efforts at horror are repetitive (the dancing!!!) and not particularly scary, in my opinion.  (I think it's rare that I'll be creeped out by a detailed description of a ghost's old-fashioned clothing, and an author needs to be very clever indeed to make me shiver in fear when a ghost "plain-talks" as much as Sir William's ghost does.)

I found this novel poorly written in other respects, as well, I'm sorry to say.  I realize it was set during WWII, so a mention or two of ration-related difficulties would be fine, but the author got carried away.  The frequent references to rationing and the specifics of what everyone was eating/drinking, morning, noon, and night-- no, thank you!  It's a ghost story, not a cozy mystery or a cookbook!  Similarly, there were just too many references to Hitler and the war for a book that isn't "about" WWII.  

Dominic's parents are such absolute caricatures of Evil Rich People that I laughed out loud.  They were so completely over-the-top!  Also, I wasn't expecting so much romance, and I ended up just skimming those parts of the book. (Well, to be honest, I skimmed a lot of the second half of this novel.  I wouldn't have finished if I hadn't.)  I like a good romance as much as the next person, but this one wasn't for me.  I was cringing over the lovesick, lust-fueled conversations. 

I hate to be so negative when I've enjoyed some of this author's other books, but this one was a big disappointment.  Maybe I was expecting too much, because I enjoyed the other books.  Oh well!  I still haven't read The Talisman, and that one sounds promising.

Other Worlds

Other Worlds

by Barbara Michaels

Severely Edited Blurb:

In a London Club, Houdini, Conan Doyle, and other psychic investigators and debunkers gather to tell ghost stories. Their purpose is to tell the tale, and then each will pick it apart to try to find an explanation for the phenomenon in question. The first story is one of the most famous historical hauntings in U.S. history: the Bell Witch in Tennessee. The second is a moderately well-known haunting in Stratford, Connecticut, called, appropriately, the Stratford Haunting. Each tale is told, and then the guests gather around the club describe their understanding of whether the hauntings are either fake or very real.

My Reaction:

Well, the title (Other Worlds) certainly sounds like it could be creepy and interesting and typical of a Barbara Michaels gothic thriller.  The reality, unfortunately, is nothing like her usual tales.  I'm sorry, but I found it dry and dull.  I recognize the Bell Witch, so I don't expect a satisfying conclusion-- or indeed, anything from this retelling to be worth this slog... I just can't.  Not right now.  Maybe I'll pick it up again at a later date, but for now, it's a DNF!  I stopped 15% of the way through.  On to greener pastures! 

(Incidentally, this is the second DNF I have for this author.  With the other one, Smoke and Mirrors, I think I quit after the first page or two, because something annoyed me, I peeked at a few reviews, and I had my suspicions confirmed.  Political plot?  Heavy on the "Democrats are good, Republicans are evil"?  Oh, good grief!  No, thanks.  Life's too short.)

Bitesized Audio Classics

Bitesized Audio Classics
Read by Simon Stanhope

This is a bit of a different kind of review for me.  The subject is not a book or a traditionally produced audiobook, but a YouTube channel.  

If you like English mystery, ghost, and suspense short stories from the Victorian and Edwardian eras-- and the audiobook format-- you may enjoy Bitesized Audio Classics.  I happened to stumble upon one of the stories and have since listened to a few more and subscribed to the channel for future listening. (I like them for easy listening while doing a diamond painting!)

These short stories are selected and narrated by UK-based actor and voice artist Simon Stanhope, and they have the same sound quality and professional polish as traditional audiobooks.  The stories are all in the public domain, but while some will likely be familiar to fans of the genre, others were new to me.  

Definitely worth a listen!

Witch

Witch
by Barbara Michaels


Blurb:

A silent stranger moves in twilight shadows...

It was more than her dream house. For Ellen March, buying the secluded old house nestled in the pine woods marked the start of a new life. Now she could put her failed marriage behind her, enjoy the quiet solitude of small town life, and get to know her worldly new neighbor, handsome Norman McKay...

But strange visions began to cloud her mind-- the shadowy figure of a woman, a ghostly white cat-- and Ellen's safe haven slowly became her prison. Had she buried the past? Or had a dark legend come back to haunt her...?

My Reaction:I have vague memories of actually enjoying some of Barbara Michaels' "gothic" thrillers, but apparently I either happened to read the better ones first or my tastes have changed.  Either way, this was yet another dud.

I had relatively high hopes for this one, as I'm always a sucker for a nice tale about a gently haunted house.  When executed with skill, descriptions of house-buying, redecorating, and general "doing-up" are like catnip to me, too.  (Living vicariously, I guess!  So much easier on the back and the pocketbook to read about fictional characters' home improvements rather than carrying out some of your own!)  Unfortunately, the fixing up of the house is glossed over to make way for more boring topics, and the ghostly subject matter is exceptionally weak.

Yes, it's dated (the descriptions of what the "adolescents" are wearing!), but that can be charming and nostalgic. Less charming is the stupidity and offensiveness of the main character.  I just didn't really care what happened to her, to be honest.  The overall impression is one of BLAH.


Observations, Reactions, and Nitpicks (with unmarked SPOILERS):
-- What a strange coincidence that this and the last book I read on my own (which means "not including the 372-Pages selections I read with Donald") should both include characters with ailurophobia (fear of cats)! I don't know if I've ever encountered a reference to this before, which makes it seem even odder.

-- Ellen is thirty-eight.  I realize that 38 isn't young, and that a 38-year-old in 1973 (this novel's year of publication) likely seemed older than a 38-year-old in 2019, but still... Seeing how her age was presented in the beginning of the book made me feel old! Not flattering to read at forty! To be fair, she doesn't act like an old lady, at least. (Maybe I'm just being sensitive.)

-- "It was not only her appearance that the older, country-bred woman unconsciously resented; it was her urban background, her accent, her clothes, her manner."  Here, have an eye-roll. Yes, everyone who's "country-bred" is unconsciously jealous of people with an "urban background".

-- "Later, Penny had tried to get her to experiment with makeup and wigs, but by then Ellen had lost interest." I can't imagine choosing to wear a wig if I had a perfectly good head of hair underneath.  It's another thing that dates the book.

-- "On the whole the reflected image pleased her.  It was a bit sedate, but not bad for a woman who was slipping downhill toward forty." ...Nope, I wasn't being too sensitive before.  She also refers to herself as "a silly old lady" later on in the book.

-- Not only are the adolescents in this book mostly described as all having shaggy hair and dressing like hobos, they sound absolutely filthy: "The bare feet were in vogue, too, but Tim's feet were black with mud; a trail of dirty prints marred the shining hall floor behind the boy." ... "Tim's bare feet had left a trail of dust this time." Yuck! Teens in the 70s were downright nasty, apparently.

-- "Ellen was surprised when Norman went on talking, despite the cook's presence."  ...Not the done thing, I guess? It amuses me.

-- Ellen asks, "Do I strike everyone as a feeble-minded female?"  ...Weeeeeell... Don't ask a question if you don't want the answer!

-- The author strikes me as someone who probably thought pretty highly of herself-- her intelligence, education, breeding, manners, etc.  I'm sure she felt that she had an impressive degree of "social consciousness".  And yet... Some of the opinions she puts into the mouths and minds of her heroes and heroines are definitely not "correct", by current social barometers! Based on these characters, she seems to have had a particular antipathy toward people who were not thin.

-- Ellen is more than a little catty about the other people in town.  Some of these characters turn out to be the "villains", but others are just unattractive or not dressed to impress:

"She was simply a very large woman, tall and big-boned, with the massiveness that overtakes such women later in life unless they diet strenuously. Mrs. Grapow's long-sleeved dark print dress and gray hair compressed into a bun made it clear that she would view dieting as tampering with the will of the Lord." ... "That beefy, stupid-looking--..."

"She was a faded blonde of approximately Ellen's age, although her lack of makeup and her shapeless cotton print dress  made her look older."

-- Guffaw moment: Mrs. Grapow calls Ellen "Miz March".  "After a moment Ellen realized she was being addressed in dialect, not in the latest mode advocated by women's liberation." Ew, dialect is so icky. (Care for another eye-roll?)

-- "Ellen was more amused than offended by the unsubtle tactics of the questioners.  Poor souls, she thought tolerantly, they haven't much to talk about. She fancied, however, that meaningful glances were exchanged when she admitted to being divorced."  No, Ellen's not judgmental at all.  Not like those poor hicks.

-- When a character isn't nice, it's fun to make him/her as physically repellent as possible.  Take Bob Muller, for instance.  He has acne and tries to hide it by growing a beard, but his beard is "too sparse to hide anything, including Bob's negligible chin and obtrusive upper lip".

Bob Muller's sister Prudence gets even tougher treatment: "She was pathetically plain, except for big blue eyes that had an unfocused look, and she wore a frilly blouse and full skirt that made her heavy hips look even wider." ... "The girl was so hopelessly unattractive. The sight of her made Ellen's maternal instincts itch; if Prudence had been her daughter she would have prescribed a dermatologist, a diet, and some decent clothes, just as a start. Penny had never looked that bad, even in the worst stages of puppy fat and pimples. Prudence was a hopeless case; her personality was as limp as her stringy hair."  "...Prudence needed more than a psychological boost. She needed a whole battery of experts working full time."

Bob and Prudence's father is a horrible man-- an abusive drunkard-- but her descriptions of him are distasteful, too.  "...she had recognized the gross, fat body..." ... "He was a revolting spectacle with his greasy, unshaven face and his fat belly wobbling above his belt."

-- I'm sorry, but I simply don't believe that a group of teens (whose only similarity is that they all live in the same small community) would all instantly take to someone like Ellen (who is the ripe old age of 38, remember!), as happens in this book. It seems remarkably unlikely.

-- "The Earthly Church of the Wrath of God".  ...Oh, come on.  You have to be kidding! (But she's not!!)  And of course the church is absolutely insane and evil-- one of the most insulting, ridiculous depictions of religion I've come across-- led by a preacher she compares to Hitler himself.  (Well, she claims she won't flatter him with that comparison, but it's too late for that, because she's pretty much already made it!)

-- Ellen goes shopping and buys a "pale-pink chiffon 'at-home' gown" (whatever the heck that is). "It would be totally out of place in her Early American living room..." ...Um, excuse me? What? Does anyone actually dress to match their home's style/period/decor? What an utterly bizarre thing to think about, much less write!

-- Jack (Ellen's brother-in-law and love interest) comes to visit Ellen and her daughter (Penny) after a while: "He embraced both of them and made sarcastic comments about the effect of country living on their figures." ...Huh? Weird thing to joke about, honestly. Seriously, I begin to wonder if the author might've been a bit obsessed with dieting and weight control. Either that or she believed that her readership enjoyed thinking about dieting even while indulging in escapist literature.

-- Ellen tells herself that even if Tim and 16-year-old Penny are in a relationship, it's okay. "Tim wasn't the friend she would have chosen for her daughter, but Penny was sound. She had probably dated boys who had equally serious problems. God knows there were plenty of them these days."

Now, keep in mind that at this point in the book, Ellen believes that Tim has severe emotional and/or psychological problems that have led him to torture and kill multiple animals, including neighborhood pets. I mean... really? Maybe it wasn't widely known at that time that animal torture is a behavior common to young men who go on to become serial killers, but obviously anyone would recognize it as a giant red flag in flames (with a blaring alarm off to one side)-- and yet she's okay with her daughter dating this guy? And she assumes that Penny has dated boys with equally serious problems?! Good grief! Washington, D.C., in the 1970s must've been a heck of a place!

-- After Ellen catches a drunk Muller shooting a gun on her property, she disarms him, then wonders what to do with the gun: "She didn't want to take it home with her; Muller might be inspired to come looking for it, since it was obviously dear to him. A sex symbol, no doubt. He was probably impotent without his gun." Ha ha, how clever and funny.  But also, it is his property, so of course he's going to want it back! You could tell him you were taking it to the police station for safe keeping, and he could get it back from them-- but obviously you can't confiscate someone's property and expect that they'll just go, "Oh well, c'est la vie!" and accept that they aren't getting it back. (Besides, guns aren't that cheap!)

-- Ellen invites a couple and their teenage son to dine at her home, but she seems to hate them and dread their visit. Why did she invite them, then?! She also invites Norman and warns him that the other guests are not "brilliant conversationalists". "The Randolphs were not only boring, they were a pain in the neck." Good grief, woman! No-one forced you to invite them! Could you be any more annoying?! Ah, and the icing on the cake-- they're fat! "Like his parents, Morrie was overweight and puffy from lack of exercise. He had fat, clumsy hands..." ... "The Randolphs' idea of exercise consisted of a gentle stroll around the yard. They refused to enter the woods." How dare they?!

-- Tim sounds so, so stupid sometimes, when he speaks: "'He was, like, you know, kind of dumb with kids. Like ho ho ho, if you know what I mean.'" ...Actually, I really don't know what you mean. False/forced joviality?

-- Eesh, this one's harsh... Penny's just as sweet and caring as her dear old mum! Talking about how it was actually Norman instead of Tim who assaulted Prudence: "'Just look at the probabilities, Mom. Look at Tim! Do you think that flabby female would have escaped with a few cuts and bruises if Tim had really wanted--' She glanced at Tim, who was beet-red, and took pity on him. 'He has better taste,' she concluded."

-- Then there's the mob of townspeople who descend upon Ellen's house. Some of them are literally carrying torches. It's painfully ridiculous. That whole section-- and the thing with the magical ghost cat/witch/familiar-- meh.

-- "Ellen turned as Jack came in. His chin was covered with a hideous salt-and-pepper stubble..." Ha, how the times have changed! These days, a little stubble is often considered attractive on a man-- certainly not "hideous"!

-- Everything's wrapping up, and Ellen declares her intention to stay in the house. I guess that's fine, but it seems like it will be just the teeniest bit awkward around town, for a while. Even if the worst offenders have been arrested, they'll have family and friends still living in town-- and at least some of those people who came to her house with torches are going to be her neighbors. It's not the kind of situation I'd want for myself!

-- Ellen asks Jack, "How did you happen to arrive at the last minute, like the deus ex machina in the play?" Well, at least she's kinda-sorta admitting to the laziness of the writing, I guess.

-- I resent this book's audacity in stealing the "disembodied voice of the beloved calling across the distance" from Jane Eyre. Maybe Jane Eyre wasn't its origin, either, but JE is just such a classic, whereas this is... decidedly not.

-- The so-called romance in this novel is so unromantic. I'll admit that it was going to be a mighty tough sell, in my case, because I don't particularly like the idea of a romance between a woman and her dead sister's husband. (Sorry, but it's off-putting!) If it had been handled skillfully, however, I could have come around to the idea. As it is, it's clear from the very beginning that Ellen loves Jack and that the two will be together by the end of the book, but we really don't get much of the two of them interacting or even a satisfying explanation of why they're in love. Evidently it just sort of "happens" when you live in the same house, raising kids together. Telling us that Ellen loves him despite the fact that he's balding (but not a bit paunchy, of course-- perish the thought!) just wasn't enough for me.

-- For a book titled Witch, there was precious little witch in it! The shadowy figure Ellen sees from the corner of her eye is creepy, and there were one or two little things that I thought were hints to some bigger, more mysterious history between Ellen's witch and Norman's family, but the latter never pans out, and the former is only barely mentioned at the end of the book. All in all, this novel is a let-down on the paranormal front.

The house still seems creepy to me, though, especially with the shadow woman hanging out (pun intended) in the bedroom! I wouldn't want to live there, even after Ellen's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Naomi's Room

Naomi's Room
by Jonathan Aycliffe


Blurb:

Charles and Laura are a young, happily married couple inhabiting the privileged world of Cambridge academia. Brimming with excitement, Charles sets off with his daughter Naomi on a Christmas Eve shopping trip to London. But, by the end of the day, all Charles and his wife have left are cups of tea and police sympathy. For Naomi, their beautiful, angelic only child, has disappeared. Days later her murdered body is discovered.

But is she dead?

In a howling, bumping story of past and present day hell, Jonathan Aycliffe's haunting psychological masterpiece is guaranteed to make you sink to untold depths of teeth-shaking terror.

My Reaction:  
I have come to the conclusion that I am a picky reader.  I make what are probably unreasonable demands of authors.  Reading this book reminded me of one of those tightropes I expect a good author to walk.

I've complained (more than once) that so much ghostly horror doesn't even try to explain itself-- and when there are "explanations", they are often disappointingly weak and thin.  Usually, this leaves me unsatisfied with a book-- but now I'm about to complain that this book provides too much explanation!  Impossible to please.  I guess I want something to go on-- to feel that I more or less know what the author intended-- but not a too-clearly spelled-out and delineated specter.

The first half of the book is wonderfully atmospheric and creepy-- full of promise.  Then the narrator finds a diary, and things start to go downhill...  Evidently it is possible to simultaneously go into too much explicit detail and yet leave one or two of the biggest questions unanswered.

Ah well, despite shortcomings, I "enjoyed" reading this, if you can say you enjoyed something that made you shudder, squirm, and occasionally feel guilty that you were even reading it...

If you don't mind a slight pall of depression and darkness hanging around after you turn the last page, give it a try!  Aycliffe is still one of the best modern authors of atmospheric horror I've yet come across-- though I believe this book has more graphic violence than any of his other novels I've read so far.

Recommended for fans of ghost stories that blend psychological and physical horror-- but you may want to give it a pass if you're particularly sensitive to violence against children in works of fiction.



Specific Tidbits (with SPOILERS):
--Liddley's "origin" leaves me scratching my head and thinking, "Is that all?  Dude needed to get over himself..."  We're probably supposed to find it especially awful that Liddley started out as just an ordinary man-- even a good man who wanted to spare his patients unnecessary suffering.  That a good man could end up being so evil is frightening, of course, but I find it difficult to believe (in a ghost story, where above all else one demands plausibility, darnit!)-- particularly when the things that drove him to it seem so... insignificant and ordinary.  He didn't love his wife, then felt betrayed by his mistress?  Well, boo-hoo and cry me a river.  I guess we're supposed to be appeased by the convenient explanation that he had dabbled too far into the arcane (plus he contracted syphilis and may have been driven mad by that-- though I think insanity doesn't manifest for years)... Maybe I just don't like the idea that a good person could go so bad-- not just everyday kinds of bad, but beyond the pale.

--The cover I've linked for this book is awful.  It has nothing to do with the book at all-- except maybe the watching eyes...  Who is that woman supposed to be?  It's not Naomi, obviously.  It looks nothing like the description of the narrator's wife, either.  And those eyes, while somewhat more related to the novel, are hilariously close-set!  (This author has at least one other mass market cover in a similar style, with similarly close-set eyes behind a woman with no relationship to the story.)  Embarrassingly bad!

--"The act of forgetting has itself become the trigger for memory.  Some things are like that, they lodge in your mind for ever.  Trying to forget just makes it worse."

--"...I harboured a belief in an essential current of goodness running through things, I saw a shape, a pattern to the whole, even if life in its particulars seemed at times shapeless or inchoate, even if children died in pain.  It was, I suppose, a religious sense of the world, though I did not formulate it in theological terms.  A sterner theology, a dogma, might have seen me through what happened.  But my innocence was not made of such iron stuff, nor so well defended.  It was half-formulated, lax, too much in tune with the time and too little with the experience of generations."

--The idea of law enforcement officers who work on the case dying mysteriously (murdered, coming down with serious illness) after coming into such close contact with the affected family-- it's familiar, to the point that I think the author might've used the same device in one of his other books.  (Not that it's unheard-of in other works, of course.  I can think of several other examples, off the top of my head-- such as in The Grudge)  I find this especially eerie.  Someone just doing his job happens to get this assignment, and then he's somehow cursed.  (Creeeeeeepy!)

--The title of the book is a bit of a stretch-- not the title I would've chosen.  It's explained near the end (Naomi's "new room" is the attic torture chamber, where she says she's allowed to play any time she likes), but it's weak and misleading.  Obviously, the reader expects there to be some special significance to Naomi's original bedroom-- and I can't see that there's any point in that little deception.

--The last bit of the book is reminiscent of The Shining-- the movie, not the book, which I've never read.  The loving family man "possessed", turned into a violent, sadistic monster who turns on those he's meant to protect.

--"They will fit into my old trunk, the one I bought when I was an undergraduate.  I never thought then that I would have such a use for it."

--The next candidate, the prospective buyer, a "medical man" (like Liddley was) is a Galsworthy-- an old family for the area.  Liddley's wife's maiden name was Galsworthy.

Wylding Hall

Wylding Hall
by Elizabeth Hand


Blurb:

When the young members of a British acid-folk band are compelled by their manager to work on their second album, they hole up at Wylding Hall, an ancient country house with dark secrets. There they create the album that will make their reputation, but at a terrifying cost: Julian Blake, the group’s lead singer, disappears within the mansion and is never seen or heard from again.

Now, years later, the surviving musicians, along with their friends and lovers—including a psychic, a photographer, and the band’s manager—meet with a young documentary filmmaker to tell their own versions of what happened that summer. But whose story is true? And what really happened to Julian Blake?

My Reaction:
This novella is strong on atmosphere, but a little weak on story-- particularly when it comes time for a conclusion.  That seems to be a common trait for "these kinds of stories", and it's something I can overlook, to some degree-- but the ending left me more confused than satisfyingly chilled.

The atmosphere and a few creepy-crawly moments might merit four stars.  The ending was disappointingly inconclusive, though, so it ends up at three stars.


Specifics (with SPOILERS):
--Some reviewers don't like the long-after-the-fact interview format.  It does take away some of the suspense, since you know that the interviewees will all survive their time at Wylding Hall, but it was still pretty tense at the right moments.  There were times when I didn't really need to have the same information repeated by the different characters, though I must grudgingly admit that it lends a certain verisimilitude to the interview format/framework.

--Two or three of the male characters seemed to blend together for me.  I eventually could keep Jonno separate, but Will and Ashton might just as well have been blended into one character, as far as I was concerned.  One of them (Ashton) is supposed to be the skeptic of the group, I guess, but neither of them were distinct enough.  That's a quibble, though.  Most of the other characters were easy to keep straight.

--This book introduced me to the "Abbots Bromley Horn Dance".  Amazing that such a bizarre custom could survive all these hundreds of years!  The power of tradition!

--There are a handful of creepy incidents scattered through the book, but I never felt that they came together satisfactorily.  Sadly, there was no moment of even semi-revelation.  The closest we get to it is Will saying this: "The photos I saw in the pub-- the hunting of the wren-- the song Julian unearthed and a half-naked girl with feathers on her feet... It all adds up, doesn't it?"

...Um, no, actually.  It doesn't add up for me, at least.  Maybe I'm being dense, but-- huh?  I'd appreciate a little more to go on, here.  Is the girl the embodiment of the wrens the village hunt?  Or are the hunted wrens some type of sacrifice to keep her at bay?

Much was made of Julian's dabbling in "magick" and his obsession with different kinds of time.  His odd watch is finally found in a place where it shouldn't possibly have been able to be-- and one of his friends sees Julian and "the girl", years later, in another country, looking as though he hasn't aged a day since his disappearance.  Spooky... But what does it mean?  How does it fit in with the weird ghost/fairy-girl and the wrens?  Did he finally figure out a way to stop time or switch into a different time mode?

Did Julian somehow conjure the girl out of hiding-- intentionally or not?  She's clearly drawn to him-- both when she practically throws herself at him in the pub and when she zooms up to him in the photo shoot.  Is the girl the one responsible for the strange things that happened at Wylding Hall (such as doors that mysteriously lock and unlock on their own, never-ending hallways, etc.)?  And what in the world is the story behind the pile of wrens with missing beaks?!  (Let me guess.  The village-caught wrens are sacrifices to keep her away, and the beak is her favorite part?  Ok, only joking, but seriously-- what does it meeeaaannn?)

All those creepy, spooky, eerie moments are so thinly connected that I can't quite see what's intended.  It may all add up for some readers, but apparently my trusty spookulator is out of order, because I can't seem to crunch these numbers.

This was an enjoyable, quick read, even if I can't do the calculus.  

"The Case of Frank Hampden"

"The Case of Frank Hampden" 
from The E.F. Benson Megapack
by E.F. Benson


Synopsis:
A doctor suspects that his young cousin suffers from a type of possession.


My Reaction:
This is one of Benson's "scientific-spiritual" tales.  Though they're often based on interesting ideas, they tend not to be my favorites, and this was no exception.  The germ of the story reminded me a little of the movie Fallen (which I'm pretty sure I've referenced in other book reviews, because it made a strong impression on me), but this short story is not even in the same galaxy, as far as the sense of fear or horror goes.  There are a few creepy moments, but nothing to keep you up at night.


Silly Tidbit:
There are a couple instances of spiritual manifestation, and I found it particularly amusing that even the evil spirit is so concerned with decency that it appears "swathed" in some sort of spiritual (ectoplasmic?) version of clothing-- "some misty and opaque vesture".  It's funny enough that the spirit should necessarily take the shape of the body it inhabited, but that it should even be provided with clothing was the icing on the cake!

The Turn of the Screw

The Turn of the Screw
by Henry James

Blurb:

A very young woman's first job: governess for two weirdly beautiful, strangely distant, oddly silent children, Miles and Flora, at a forlorn estate... An estate haunted by a beckoning evil. 

Half-seen figures who glare from dark towers and dusty windows-- silent, foul phantoms who, day by day, night by night, come closer, ever closer. With growing horror, the helpless governess realizes the fiendish creatures want the children, seeking to corrupt their bodies, possess their minds, own their souls... 

But worse-- much worse-- the governess discovers that Miles and Flora have no terror of the lurking evil.

For they want the walking dead as badly as the dead want them.

My Reaction:
Reading reviews for Peter Straub's Ghost Story, I saw repeated references to The Turn of the Screw, which reminded me that I'd never read it, so I decided to finally read the (classic) novella.  (Having now read it, I can easily see why other readers said Straub borrowed heavily from Henry James.  Yes, he really, really did!)

After a few moments of déjà vu, I soon realized that I must have watched a film adaptation, at some point, but I'd forgotten more than I remembered of the story-- and this was certainly my first time reading it.

And now, having read it, I wish I could say that I'd enjoyed it very much, but honesty compels me to admit that I found much of it a terrible slog.  The plot was interesting-- though so subtle in some key points that I suspect many modern readers, unfamiliar with some of the coded hints, might not understand just how awful the villains are/were-- but all too often the story is buried under a heavy, suffocating layer of convoluted prose.  There are a few sentences that require careful parsing to even understand!  Admittedly, I don't read many "classics" these days, so maybe part of the problem is that I'm out of practice with more serious literature.  However, I read classics for fun in middle school, so I do think that some of it comes down to peculiarities of James' own style, which apparently isn't to my liking.

This will not be on my list of favorites-- not one I'll re-read or recommend willy-nilly-- but I still am glad I've finally read it.  Certain moments and aspects of it are powerful.

"Mr. Tilly's Séance"

"Mr. Tilly's Séance"
by E.F. Benson


Synopsis:
Mr. Tilly decides that a little thing like his sudden, unforeseen death won't keep him from keeping his appointment to attend a séance.


My Reaction:
This is one of Benson's more comic tales of the supernatural-- nothing particularly spooky about this story, though the very beginning is rather gruesome.  Benson pokes light fun at some of the more ridiculous aspects of spiritualism and mediums, though he also seems to be making excuses for it-- offering explanations for its frauds and dearth of concrete evidence.  Not a favorite of mine, but more enjoyable than the previous story in the collection ("In the Tube").


Random Thoughts:
--While I have no serious problem with séances in fiction (especially when played for laughs), spiritualism in general makes me uncomfortable-- especially when it is dressed up as something respectable or remotely honest.  It cheapens true spirituality and religion by pretending to be associated with them, and under the guise of helping the suffering and the seeking, instead leads them astray.  At best, it wastes their time and energies by encouraging a focus on the wrong things.  At worst, it's an outright scam.

--I had to laugh at the book disguised behind "an old cover called 'Elegant Extracts'", because it reminded me of another faux "Elegant Extracts" in Miss Mapp's garden room.

"In the Tube"

"In the Tube"
by E.F. Benson


Synopsis: 
A man tells his friend an eerie tale beginning with his vision of an event that had not yet taken place-- a suicide in a tube station.


My Reaction:
Hmm... Well, to be fair, I started this one as a shared read with Donald, when we were at loose ends, one day.  We never finished the story-- moved on to more interesting fare and never looked back.

Months passed before I was inspired to picked it back up (again, as a stop-gap measure when I finished my "main read" in the middle of a treadmill session and hadn't settled on what to read next).  Remembering that the story (so far) hadn't been outstanding, I didn't care to start from the beginning again, so perhaps I missed the full effect, after such a long intermission.  However, I think I remember enough of the first part of the story to give a reaction to the whole.  That reaction is... this is not one of my favorites of Benson's spooky tales.

It's not bad, by any means, but not a favorite.  There's much philosophizing and pondering on the nature of time.  When should we count an action as "settled" or "done"?  When it physically takes place?  When the person involved makes the decision to act?  Or when the person takes the first step on the path that will eventually lead to an inevitable conclusion?  What is time?  How much do we mere humans know of it?  Could it be that time is only an illusion?  So on and so forth.


Quote:
"I have talked to a soul in the hell of remorse, which is the only possible hell."