Book Review - The Haunting Season
The Haunting Season by Bridget Collins, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Andrew Michael Hurley, Jess Kidd, Elizabeth Macneal, Natasha Pulley, and Laura Purcell
Published by: Pegasus Crime
Publication Date: October 12th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy
Morton is not a good man. He has secrets in his past, but his future looks bright. He has just stumbled upon the most perfect house he has ever seen. His love of chess was obviously shared by the previous owner. Everything about this place is perfection. He is so in love with it he inquires about leasing it immediately. Deciding to spend the night there without any provisions might have been unwise. There's a storm coming and there's something lurking in the house. Could Morton have been lured here? It seems inconceivable, but someone who plays chess knows that it's best to anticipate your enemy's plan of attack. A mother and her son have taken refuge in many places, but now that the money has run out they have resorted to the old Thwaite house. Yet her father insists after a time that she return to her husband. Yet what choice does she have, her husband or a house that creaks and groans with thuds in the night. Perhaps neigther is in option and she must run again. Ketia Mori is exhausted from remembering the future. For the holidays he and Thaniel and Six are going to have a respite. But a place that dampens powers giving a long desired rest might have reasons for the powers to be dampened. Lily Wilt has passed away. Young Walter Pemble has been hired to take her memorial photograph. Yet something odd happens in the development of the print. Something that sends him back to Lily. All are being drawn to Lily and her beauty in death. Yet something in Walter makes him do things he would never thought himself capable of. He must have Lily, even if the darkest of rites are all that will bring her back to him. Evelyn was injured at Chillingham Grange. Old Chillingham had an infirmity that led him to use a chair. A chair that is given to Evelyn to help her in her recovery. But if anything the chair is driving her insane. As her sister's wedding day grows near her family and the Chillinghams are worried for Evelyn's sanity. But what if the chair was trying to give her a warning? Salter Farm was bedecked with greens, yet they hid a secret in their depths. A secret that they will try to tell. Catherine Mary Blake has reached her confinement. Yet upon the birth of her daughter she wasn't allowed to care for her. She knew something evil was coming for her daughter. A witch. A witch who can only be stopped by the blessing of God on her child. Victor plans to make an archaeological find in Lyme Regis. Yet he can't see what is happening right in front of him. Could his great discovery come at too high a cost?
I have issues with short story collections. Mainly just because I have issues with short stories. I'm always the one who wants more. I agree a story should be just as long or as short as it takes to tell the tale, but I will always gravitate towards a television show over a movie because they have more time to be expansive. Therefore a collection of short stories isn't something I'm inclined to pick up. That is unless it's a book of stories by a favorite author or a collection of favorite authors. And here I had Natasha Pulley and Laura Purcell. So right there I was sold. Also, I do like the very British tradition of telling ghost stories around Christmas, and that is what this book sets out to do, entertain on a long winter's night. But there's also an unspoken rule that this has to be new material. You aren't here to sell your other work in any way other than writing a story so good that the reader goes and picks up your back catalog. Natasha Pulley just did not get this brief. Which pains me more than I can say. She made it not about the theme of the book but about shoehorning a story about her own characters into this book. That's just not cool. It takes you out of the book, it makes you confused, it just isn't done! Oddly enough one of my friends whom I always disagree with about books but who has contributed to and edited several short story collections heartily seconded my disbelief that Natasha Pulley did this. Why didn't the editors go back to her and make her do it again? In fact it makes me actually not want to pick up The Watchmaker of Filigree Street series because I was forced to read about Ketia Mori, Thaniel, and Six before I wanted to read about them. And there's the whole I wasn't sure what was going on with them and their powers angle, but that just feeds into the whole THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T DO THIS! Another downside to short story collections is the whole consistency aspect. There's just no conceivable way that each story will be equally awesome to each individual reader. Which is why the overall collection gets a middling grade. It's not that there weren't amazing stories here, it's just they were balanced by some truly spectacularly bad ones. Ironically the friend whom I disagree with got the same rating as me but each story we disagreed on. So read this collection for the haunting "Confinement" by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, the Mary Anning inspired "Monster" by Elizabeth Macneal, and the VERY Avengers-esque "A Study in Black and White" by Bridget Collins. And I mean the Steed and Peel Avengers, not the Marvel. They were truly spectacular, in my mind.
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