strange and random happenstance

By Earth by T. Thorn Coyle
Published by: Pf Publishing
Publication Date: April 27th, 2018
Format: Kindle, 242 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Legend has it that ghosts can't follow you over water. Between Tennessee and Portland there is a great big river bisecting the country. But legend fails to mention that there are ghosts everywhere. That is why Cassiel buried that part of her deep. Shoved her ability to see ghosts in a box and pushed it to the very back of the closet and kept it there through sheer willpower and rage. That wasn't who she was anymore. She wasn't the broken girl whose parents forced her to work with police. Now she has a new life, a coven, the Arrow and Crescent, whose patron Goddess is Diana, friends, and a job at a local cafe owned by the head of her coven, Raquel. Life is good, it's normal. Sure her landlord is about to make her homeless by increasing the rent, but at least she's in some control of her life. That is until the coven performs their Solstice eve ceremony and a ghost reaches out to Cassie. She's in denial that that is what she saw. That box is buried deep. History CAN NOT be repeating itself. And then into the cafe walks Joe. He's Raquel's next door neighbor. He's hot and he's haunted. His girlfriend Tarkia was a star reporter for the Mount Tabor Monthly who one night ended it all with a bottle of pills chased with some bourbon. An act totally against her nature. Her brother, Darius, has blamed Joe ever since. She's now been gone longer than Joe and her were together and yet he can't get over her. And his life is about to be hit with a dose of the uncanny. He suffers a severe injury at work due to a phone call that didn't register on his call log. When he approaches Cassie for help she freaks and he stumbles into Darius. Darius is not doing well. His apartment looks like the nest of a conspiracy theorist. But, loath as he is to admit it, Darius has a point. Whenever Cassie was working on something big she shut everyone out. Add to that she wasn't the type of person to kill herself and Darius has come to the conclusion she was murdered by whomever she was investigating. A suspicion Joe has had deep down for a long time. But Darius and Joe can't do this alone. Cassie is obviously involved because Tarika has reached out to her. And Cassie knows that three against unseen forces isn't nearly as good as a whole coven full of witches against the unknown. The Arrow and Crescent Coven is going to get justice for Tarkia, and maybe in the process start to help Portland to heal from the corruption at the very top. Sure, their approach might be unique, but after all, the goal is to keep Portland weird!

This book is like a warm embrace when you need it the most. A welcoming community with a conscience. It had the vibe of Charmed with a huge helping of social justice. It took me back to my college days where I moved through a cozy community of homes and restaurants and cafes talking about how the world could be changed while marveling that all my friends had the same moon and stars throw blanket. There is a very specific demographic for this book and I am it. Don't we all just want a safe haven? Don't we all just want there to be something we can do to help make the world a better place? Everyone deserves the right to live. That includes food and shelter. It also doesn't hurt that this takes place in Portland which has been on the news so much for how they are standing up to the government. Long live the frogs! Keep Portland weird! Go chicken man go! The issues I had with By Earth are that cozy vibes and good intentions can only take you so far. The plot matters. And as the book nears its conclusion it started to feel rushed and slightly incomprehensible. Like we were going to get some sort of ending but not everything wrapped up because there are eight more books focusing on different coven members that follow. And, well, even though this is from 2018, things have changed so much that I don't think a politician losing their shit on television is enough to get them ousted from power anymore. Their plan was to take those out at the top and it relied on consequences actually existing. And well, as we've seen more and more, there are no consequences anymore. And their are no editors anymore because dear me, the timeline errors and typos are rife. Because there is NO WAY the timeline of this book works. So, this story starts on the eve of winter solstice and primarily concludes on Christmas Eve. There's a denouement a few days later, but that's not important. Day one, we have our "meet cute" between Cassie and Joe when he comes to repair the pipes at the cafe. Day two, Joe has his accident. Which means they have their first "date" on the third day and Joe runs into Darius and agrees to meet him at his apartment the next day. Day four into day five, after being with Darius Joe stays up all night connecting the dots that Darius previously had and has some takeout with Cassie which leads to a full coven meeting. Day six Cassie and Darius meet and there's an arson attempt and everything concludes on day seven. That's, minimally, seven days it takes for the events of this story to happen. I'm sure I'm missing some and Joe's injury hopefully meant he rested a day or two in bed. But minimally seven days. So, the earliest the winter solstice can be is December 20th. That means our story starts properly on the 20th and concludes on the 24th. Five days. Are there two Mondays or Tuesdays!?! Because there actually are two Thursdays... This is just annoying lack of foresight that drove me batty. If I hadn't gone down the days of the week conspiracy like Darius with Tarkia's murder this would have been such an enjoyable read. As is, I enjoyed it, but with caveats because I could not in good conscience ignore the blatant time discrepancies.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: An Urban Development, By Earth, Charmed, Christmas Eve, Editor, Gentrification, Ghosts, Investigative Journalism, Politicians, Portland, Social Justice, T. Thorn Coyle, The Witches of Portland, Timeline, Winter Solstice, Witches

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
Published by: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: January 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 496 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Michelle Alameddine has a warning for Alex Stern. Whatever is out there, beyond the Veil, it isn't just Grays. And while this advice is prescient it won't sway Alex. The late, unlamented, Dean Sandow planned for the Hellbeast to devour her Virgil, Darlington, because he was too smart for his own good. But those smarts meant that he survived. As a demon. A gentleman demon. Trapped in hell. And Alex is going to rescue her gentleman demon. Because that night, almost a year ago, she did nothing to save Darlington and has been struggling with her responsibilities and her guilt ever since. The members of Lethe are going to stage a sulfurous jailbreak. The problem is, hell doesn't like thieves. But it does like its murderers. Which might actually come in handy. It's not exactly like Alex's hands are clean. The problem confronting them is that first, they actually have to find a way into hell, and second, they have to do it without the Lethe board finding out. And they only have one clue, that the portal to hell, the Gauntlet, is on hallowed grown. They have literally searched all of New Haven's copious churches to no avail. Approaching Scroll and Key would seem the next logical step as they deal in portals but Alex isn't exactly their favorite person. Especially after her and Dawes trick them and things go catastrophically wrong. As in Darlington, the demon, is now trapped in a protective circle in the ballroom at Black Elm. And while the board doesn't know about Darlington's "return" they do know about the damage to Scroll and Key and strongly suspect what they were up to. What they were specifically told never to attempt. And while Darlington is "back" his soul is still in hell, meaning, this heist is just beginning. With time running out and all eyes on them they need to get Darlington's soul as soon as they can. Dawes has pieced together a ritual and once they realize that the Gauntlet is in Sterling Library, a very different kind of hallowed ground, they just need to assemble four murderers willing to take the journey. Thankfully anyone who's worked with Lethe long enough has gotten their hands dirty, which means that Alex, Dawes, and Detective Turner fit the bill. They just need a fourth, and they find that fourth in the surprising form of Bonesman Tripp Helmuth. He's a ray of sunshine with a surprisingly dark past. They are ready to die and go to hell. Who knows if they will make it back. Who knows if they will succeed. Who knows if they will come back alone.

Originally viewed as an epic series Leigh Bardugo has honed Alex Stern's story down to a trilogy. Which means that Hell Bent is now that problematic middle child. And it's an odd problem here. Because while fixing that which I found originally annoying in Ninth House, specifically the insular and esoteric details that only one who attended Yale would care about, and focusing more on the characters, she has lost some of the originality in this series. Hell Bent feels like it could be any other urban fantasy series, and at times there were strong Buffy the Vampire Slayer overtones. Hell Bent lacked the polish and precision of the first volume which is painfully obvious in the copious timeline errors. If there's one murder on a Saturday night and another on that Sunday morning, they aren't days apart. They aren't even day apart. But what we lose in the tight plotting and editing we gain in character development. By narrowing down the focus to only six characters and their journey to hell and back we can understand them better. In Ninth House Alex seemed to not only be fighting the Grays but fighting her very existence. She didn't understand her place in the world or what she wanted so she was all reaction not action. Which, yes, you can build a story that way, it's just not as compelling. Here we see how special Yale has become to her. It's the first real home she's ever had. There's always a roof over her head and breakfast foods in her pockets. She has friends she can rely on to help, not hurt her. She's falling in love with literature and spends copious hours just reading old paperbacks for enjoyment. The academic life suits her. This also makes her more protective of others, she's not just looking out for herself but her friends and, in particular, her mother. She is learning what it is to be an adult and survive in this world and it makes you care about her and Dawes and all the rest of them, even golden retriever Tripp, all the more. Which is why Leigh Bardugo's interpretation of vampires is so interesting and terrifying. While I don't consider myself an expert on vampires I know enough and the fact that in this universe vampires are actually demons that drain a human into nothing more than a husk and then become them is genius and terrifying. I don't know if it's been done before, but it felt fresh and original and, as previously mentioned, terrifying. Add in the soul revelation, and, well, yes, hints of Angelus, but also, something so unique that I almost forgave the more pedestrian plot points. Almost.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alex Stern, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Character, Darlington, Dawes, Ghosts, Grays, Hell, Hell Bent, Leigh Bardugo, Lethe, New Haven, Ninth House, Portals, Secret Societies, Summer School, Trilogy, Tripp Helmuth, Vampires, Yale

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Beatriz lost everything with the death of her father. Branded a traitor he was executed and she and her mother moved in with relatives who treated them worse than slaves. When Beatriz catches the eye of Don Rodolfo Solórzano she jumps at the chance of a new beginning and a home of her own. He's well off and has a position of power in the new Provisional Government and is wealthy enough to support two residences, a house in the city and his family pulque plantation in the county. Her mother's dislike of him can be overcome in time, and as for the rumors of what happened to his first wife? She thinks little of it, which might be just what her new husband wants, someone desperate enough to not ask questions. His job keeps him in town while Beatriz will primarily reside at the Hacienda San Isidro, an arrangement that suits him perfectly. Of course Beatriz had pictured San Isidro as her husband romanticized it in stories of his childhood. She did not expect the rundown house with the verdant growth gone to rot. She also didn't expect to be dumped there. Surely a newly wedded man would want to spend time with his wife? But she is soon left alone in a hostile environment. Her sister-in-law Juana wants nothing to do with her or the house and the staff keep themselves apart. Beatriz got what she thought she wanted and is more alone than she's ever been. If she can restore San Isidro, bring the house and the gardens back to life, she can lure her mother to live with her and perhaps then she will feel less alone. But the house doesn't want this. She hears voices and sees things that cannot possibly be real. She looks to Juana for confirmation but gets none. Yet why does Juana only enter the house when she has to and only during daylight? Beatriz has nowhere to turn but the church. Padre Andrés is a newly ordained priest and he is the only one who will listen to Beatriz. He grew up at San Isidro and as soon as he returns he can tell that something is horribly wrong. This isn't the home he knew and Beatriz is right, there's danger here. Thankfully Andrés is willing to help the young bride, but as they battle San Isidro they have to battle their growing attraction and victory is not assured. Not in the least.

This book was lauded as Rebecca meets Mexican Gothic. Now I, for one, will admit that PR for a book has to always go for the biggest names, the one haunted house book with true name recognition to compare to the haunted house book they're trying to get you to pick up. It's all designed to grab our attention, and I totally fall for it. Every. Single. Time. You liked this? Well you'll love this, it's the same but better! No, it never is. Except once in a great while. Whenever I see a book compared to my beloved Rebecca I read the book and wonder if the author or the PR department had actually ever read Du Maurier's classic. And as for the Mexican Gothic comparison, after that book became a surprise hit every Gothic book coming out had to somehow be "like" it. Here's the thing though, Mexican Gothic wasn't that good, whereas this book is. Oh my, they really delivered on the "same but better." I should find those PR people and apologize for how I've always trashed them for their cunning deceptions. It's their job after all... I've even been known to do it! The reason The Hacienda beats Mexican Gothic hands down is Isabel Cañas didn't complicate this story with mushrooms and what have you. She went for the standard tropes of the Gothic genre, dead first wife, hostile family, lonely outsider newlywed, recalcitrant servants, haunted house, conflicted priest, forbidden romance, and wrote these tropes to the highest standard. There isn't much original here, but it is so well crafted, so well drawn out, that you will love it completely. The story of Beatriz is propulsive. How will she survive? I kept turning the pages late into the night. I could see it all before me and yet somehow it maintained my interest. The Hacienda has all the goodness of a true Gothic haunted house story paired with what it means to belong and want a home. And that's where it set itself above the tropes, that's where it was unique, in Beatriz's desire for a place of her own. Her family had been cast out and degraded and she took the first opportunity she had to break free. Yes, it was a dangerous decision in the end, but who wouldn't risk it all to find their place in the world? To finally feel safe? I know I would, wouldn't you?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Place to Call Home, Daphne Du Maurier, For the Love of Book Clubs, Ghosts, Gothic, Haunted House, Isabel Cañas, Mexican Gothic, Mexico, Priests, Pulque Plantation, Rebecca, The Hacienda, Tropes

The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: Subterranean Press
Publication Date: June 27th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

When you limit a talented person to one specific thing they tend to get really good at it. Peter should have known all along that making a deal with his cousin Abigail was dangerous. She's almost as cunning as the Fae of legend with their bargains. Never agree to teach someone magic if you don't want to by adding a condition that they can easily meet, like getting a GCSE A Level in Latin. Because Abigail is way better than Peter at Latin. Which is very worrying. Though her age means that he and Nightingale have some time until they have to ask her parents for permission to teach her magic. Of course that would require a lot more explanations, but Peter did promise. Until that time comes Abigail is like the Folly's intern and has become the defacto ghost expert. Being unable to practice magic she's really good at finding the uncanny, and ghosts are the most easily observed of phenomena. And at this moment that phenomena is causing trouble on the London Underground. The Metropolitan Line has had a rash of reports. The problem is their witnesses aren't very helpful. Most people who encounter a ghost tend to forget the incident within minutes of it happening. It's like waking up from a dream, try as hard as you might the dream slips away. So the police get 999 calls that when followed up lead to very confused witnesses who don't even remember calling them. Therefore they must catch a ghost interacting with a member of the public and interview the witness immediately. Which doesn't go as well as they hoped. Walking the trains at night when they're in storage does lead to an interesting discovery though, the ghosts don't appear normal. Or should that be disappear. The ghost Peter encounters has an important message it needs to deliver and then it shatters like porcelain. The next ghost he encounters gives him some more information before shattering as well. This leads them into the archives of the Folly and the County Practitioner for Buckinghamshire, George Buckland, who died in 1815. He lived in Chesham and made rose jars, which were a unique form of ghost trap. But most importantly, Chesham happens to be the terminus of the Metropolitan Line. They might have just found out where their ghost commuters are coming from. Now to find out why.

What I love about this series is that you never know where it's going to go and that's rare for me to actually embrace and enjoy. I'm the kind of person who likes to try to figure out where things are going in books, shows, really, anything, that's why I'm addicted to whodunits, because I don't just want to know I want to figure it out before the killer is revealed. I want to be smarter than everyone else. Which is probably a trait I shouldn't encourage. I should know by now that a series ready to randomly drop in jazz vampires and talking foxes is unpredictable to say the least, but this story in particular was a wonderful surprise. You think it's going to be a simple ghost hunting on the Underground story with Peter and Sergeant Jaget Kumar of the British Transport Police, in a similar vein to them working together in Whispers Under Ground, but then it turns out that the ghosts aren't the problem, they're the messengers making them all red herrings. The ghosts have been haunting the Underground in an attempt to save a life. And while, read chronologically and not by publication date, that means we've basically had three cases of kidnappings in a row, I'll forgive Ben Aaronovitch because of those three stories two of them were amazing and this one at least didn't involve children. Plus this case is building on the lore of ghosts. The fact that to most people they disappear like dreams is fascinating. Like the brain can't cope with this information so it just deletes it. So what does that mean about those who retain the memory of seeing ghosts? Are they more observant or just wired differently when it comes to the uncanny? Also the knowledge that ghosts can be caught and that catching them changes them in some manner. I would literally love to read just like Abigail writing a dissertation on her thoughts of ghosts. Because I'm sure that she's going to study those rose jars that remained and figure out a way to recreate them. Which leads us to George Buckland. His wife, who was creole and from New Orleans, taught him how to make rose jars. Which means there are obviously different sets of skills and beliefs depending on where you've learned or practiced your magic. And while I adore the history of magic as codified by the Folly, it's only been around since 1775 which means even George Buckland himself lived in a world without the Folly for awhile. Which makes you wonder about the really old history. I would just love to read a history of the magical systems of Ben Aaronovitch's world. It could be a couple thousand pages and I would devour them all. Or just let me into the Folly and set me loose in those libraries, I want to know everything. I just love this world so much!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Abigail Kamara, Ben Aaronovitch, Chesham, Ghosts, Kidnapping, Latin, London Calling, London Underground, Peter Grant, Rivers of London, Sergeant Jaget Kumar, The Folly, The Furthest Station, Whispers Under Ground

The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: Subterranean Press
Publication Date: June 27th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

When you limit a talented person to one specific thing they tend to get really good at it. Peter should have known all along that making a deal with his cousin Abigail was dangerous. She's almost as cunning as the Fae of legend with their bargains. Never agree to teach someone magic if you don't want to by adding a condition that they can easily meet, like getting a GCSE A Level in Latin. Because Abigail is way better than Peter at Latin. Which is very worrying. Though her age means that he and Nightingale have some time until they have to ask her parents for permission to teach her magic. Of course that would require a lot more explanations, but Peter did promise. Until that time comes Abigail is like the Folly's intern and has become the defacto ghost expert. Being unable to practice magic she's really good at finding the uncanny, and ghosts are the most easily observed of phenomena. And at this moment that phenomena is causing trouble on the London Underground. The Metropolitan Line has had a rash of reports. The problem is their witnesses aren't very helpful. Most people who encounter a ghost tend to forget the incident within minutes of it happening. It's like waking up from a dream, try as hard as you might the dream slips away. So the police get 999 calls that when followed up lead to very confused witnesses who don't even remember calling them. Therefore they must catch a ghost interacting with a member of the public and interview the witness immediately. Which doesn't go as well as they hoped. Walking the trains at night when they're in storage does lead to an interesting discovery though, the ghosts don't appear normal. Or should that be disappear. The ghost Peter encounters has an important message it needs to deliver and then it shatters like porcelain. The next ghost he encounters gives him some more information before shattering as well. This leads them into the archives of the Folly and the County Practitioner for Buckinghamshire, George Buckland, who died in 1815. He lived in Chesham and made rose jars, which were a unique form of ghost trap. But most importantly, Chesham happens to be the terminus of the Metropolitan Line. They might have just found out where their ghost commuters are coming from. Now to find out why.

What I love about this series is that you never know where it's going to go and that's rare for me to actually embrace and enjoy. I'm the kind of person who likes to try to figure out where things are going in books, shows, really, anything, that's why I'm addicted to whodunits, because I don't just want to know I want to figure it out before the killer is revealed. I want to be smarter than everyone else. Which is probably a trait I shouldn't encourage. I should know by now that a series ready to randomly drop in jazz vampires and talking foxes is unpredictable to say the least, but this story in particular was a wonderful surprise. You think it's going to be a simple ghost hunting on the Underground story with Peter and Sergeant Jaget Kumar of the British Transport Police, in a similar vein to them working together in Whispers Under Ground, but then it turns out that the ghosts aren't the problem, they're the messengers making them all red herrings. The ghosts have been haunting the Underground in an attempt to save a life. And while, read chronologically and not by publication date, that means we've basically had three cases of kidnappings in a row, I'll forgive Ben Aaronovitch because of those three stories two of them were amazing and this one at least didn't involve children. Plus this case is building on the lore of ghosts. The fact that to most people they disappear like dreams is fascinating. Like the brain can't cope with this information so it just deletes it. So what does that mean about those who retain the memory of seeing ghosts? Are they more observant or just wired differently when it comes to the uncanny? Also the knowledge that ghosts can be caught and that catching them changes them in some manner. I would literally love to read just like Abigail writing a dissertation on her thoughts of ghosts. Because I'm sure that she's going to study those rose jars that remained and figure out a way to recreate them. Which leads us to George Buckland. His wife, who was creole and from New Orleans, taught him how to make rose jars. Which means there are obviously different sets of skills and beliefs depending on where you've learned or practiced your magic. And while I adore the history of magic as codified by the Folly, it's only been around since 1775 which means even George Buckland himself lived in a world without the Folly for awhile. Which makes you wonder about the really old history. I would just love to read a history of the magical systems of Ben Aaronovitch's world. It could be a couple thousand pages and I would devour them all. Or just let me into the Folly and set me loose in those libraries, I want to know everything. I just love this world so much!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Abigail Kamara, Ben Aaronovitch, Chesham, Ghosts, Kidnapping, Latin, London Calling, London Underground, Peter Grant, Rivers of London, Sergeant Jaget Kumar, The Folly, The Furthest Station, Whispers Under Ground

House of Roots and Ruin by Erin A. Craig
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: July 25th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 544 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A modern masterpiece, this is a classic Gothic thriller-fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Erin A. Craig, about doomed love, menacing ambition, and the ghosts that haunt us forever.

In a manor by the sea, one sister is still cursed.

Despite dreams of adventures far beyond the Salann shores, seventeen-year-old Verity Thaumas has remained at her family's estate, Highmoor, with her older sister Camille, while their sisters have scattered across Arcannia. When their sister Mercy sends word that the Duchess of Bloem - wife of a celebrated botanist - is interested in having Verity paint a portrait of her son, Alexander, Verity jumps at the chance, but Camille won't allow it. Forced to reveal the secret she's kept for years, Camille tells Verity the truth one day: Verity is still seeing ghosts, she just doesn't know it.

Stunned, Verity flees Highmoor that night and - with nowhere else to turn - makes her way to Bloem. At first, she is captivated by the lush, luxurious landscape and is quickly drawn to charming, witty, and impossibly handsome Alexander Laurent. And soon, to her surprise, a romance...blossoms.

But it's not long before Verity is plagued with nightmares, and the darker side of Bloem begins to show through its sickly-sweet façade...."

Oh, the question then becomes, who are ghosts and who aren't!

Yvonne Got to York by M.C. Beaton
Published by: Blackstone Publishing
Publication Date: July 25th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 178 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A dead employer's legacy of five thousand pounds has allowed spinster Hannah Pym to resign from housekeeping and enjoy traveling the English countryside by coach. But adventure soon finds Miss Pym in the form of runaway brides, spirited heiresses, and international refugees, who continue to test her expert matchmaking skills.

The shy Miss Yvonne Grenier, a beautiful fugitive of the French Revolution, is quite terrified when a dangerous enemy boards her coach to York. Luckily, Miss Hannah Pym is also on board. Ever the matchmaker, Miss Pym sees the answer to Yvonne's plight in the hands and heart of another passenger - the Marquis of Ware.

Handsome and tailored to perfection, the Marquis has birth and fortune enough to defend Yvonne. Although the girl is of the French bourgeoisie and below his rank, Miss Pym is certain that Yvonne's Gallic graces and quick wit have more than piqued his interest. After all, a maiden in distress is irresistible - even to a confirmed bachelor."

While I'm over the moon at these books being reissued why is a Marquis riding in a common coach?

Her Little Flowers by Shannon Morgan
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: July 25th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Readers of Eve Chase, Kate Morton, and Anita Frank will devour this bewitchingly atmospheric, melancholy modern ghost story set in the lush hills of England's Lake District. There, a solitary women's quiet life spent in her crumbling ancestral manor house with the company of a child's ghost is dramatically interrupted when her estranged sister returns to share a horrific story of cruelty and desperation from decades earlier...

Francine Thwaite has lived all her fifty-five years in her family's ancestral home, a rambling Elizabethan manor in England's Lake District. No other living soul resides there, but Francine isn't alone. There are ghosts in Thwaite Manor, harmless and familiar. Most beloved is Bree, the mischievous ghost girl who has been Francine's companion since childhood.

When Francine's estranged sister, Madeleine, returns to the manor after years away, she brings with her a story that threatens everything Francine has always believed. It is a tale of cruelty and desperation, of terror and unbearable heartache. And as Francine learns more about the darkness in her family's past - and the role she may have played in it - she realizes that confronting the truth may mean losing what she holds most dear.

As moving and poignant as it is chilling, Her Little Flowers is a story of grief and enduring love - and of the haunting regrets only forgiveness can dispel."

Are the ghosts people murdered by the family!?! I can't be the only one thinking that!

Ghosted by Amanda Quain
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: July 25th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Never Have I Ever meets The X-Files in Amanda Quain's Ghosted, a gender-bent contemporary retelling of the Jane Austen classic, Northanger Abbey.

Hattie Tilney isn't a believer. Yes, she's a senior at America's most (allegedly) haunted high school, Northanger Abbey. But ever since her paranormal-loving dad passed away, she's hung up her Ghostbusters suit, put away the EMF detectors, and moved on. She has enough to worry about in the land of the living - like taking care of her younger brother, Liam, while their older sister spirals out and their mother, Northanger's formidable headmistress, buries herself in work. If Hattie just tries hard enough and keeps that overachiever mask on tight through graduation, maybe her mom will finally notice her.

But the mask starts slipping when Hattie's assigned to be an ambassador to Kit Morland, who's just transferred to Northanger on - what else - a ghost-hunting scholarship. The two are paired up for an investigative project on the school's paranormal activity, and Hattie quickly strikes a deal: Kit will present whatever ghostly evidence he can find to prove that the campus is haunted, and Hattie will prove it's not. But as they explore the abandoned tunnels and foggy graveyards of Northanger, Hattie starts to realize that Kit might be the kind of person who makes her want to believe in something - and someone - for the first time.

With her signature wit and slow-burn romance, Amanda Quain turns another Austen classic on its head in this sparkling retelling that proves sometimes the ghosts are just a metaphor after all."

Wait, do ghost-hunting scholarships exist? Because if they do I really need to know!

The Woman in the Castello by Kelsey James
Published by: John Scognamiglio Book
Publication Date: July 25th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Set in 1960s Italy, this stylish, atmospheric debut spins a bewitching web of ruthless ambition, family secrets, and the consequences of forbidden love, as an ambitious American actress snags the starring role in a mysterious horror movie shooting on location in a crumbling medieval castle outside Rome...

Readers who enjoy the moody Gothic allure of Kate Morton and Silvia Moreno-Garcia or the immersive settings of Lucinda Riley and Fiona Davis will be enthralled by Kelsey James' spellbinding web of intriguing mystery, family secrets, forbidden love, and midcentury Italian flair.

Rome, 1965: Aspiring actress Silvia Whitford arrives at Rome's famed Cinecittà Studios from Los Angeles, ready for her big break and a taste of la dolce vita. Instead, she learns that the movie in which she was cast has been canceled. Desperate for money, Silvia has only one choice: seek out the Italian aunt she has never met.

Gabriella Conti lives in a crumbling castello on the edge of a volcanic lake. Silvia's mother refuses to explain the rift that drove the sisters apart, but Silvia is fascinated by Gabriella, a once-famous actress who still radiates charisma. And the eerie castle inspires Silvia's second chance when it becomes the location for a new horror movie, aptly named The Revenge of the Lake Witch - and she lands a starring role.

Silvia immerses herself in the part of an ingenue tormented by the ghost of her beautiful, seductive ancestor. But when Gabriella abruptly vanishes, the movie's make-believe terrors seep into reality. No one else on set seems to share Silvia's suspicions. Yet as she delves into Gabriella's disappearance, she triggers a chain of events that illuminate dark secrets in the past - and a growing menace in the present..."

Nothing says Gothic horror to me like a mid-century movie set in Italy!

The Lady from Burma by Allison Montclair
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: July 25th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In Allison Montclair's The Lady from Burma, murder once again stalks the proprietors of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau in the surprisingly dangerous landscape of post-World War II London...

In the immediate post-war days of London, two unlikely partners have undertaken an even more unlikely, if necessary, business venture - The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. The two partners are Miss Iris Sparks, a woman with a dangerous - and never discussed - past in British intelligence and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a war widow with a young son entangled in a complicated aristocratic family. Mostly their clients are people trying to start (or restart) their lives in this much-changed world, but their new client is something different. A happily married woman has come to them to find a new wife for her husband. Dying of cancer, she wants the two to make sure her entomologist, academic husband finds someone new once she passes.

Shortly thereafter, she's found dead in Epping Forest, in what appears to be a suicide. But that doesn't make sense to either Sparks or Bainbridge. At the same time, Bainbridge is attempting to regain legal control of her life, opposed by the conservator who has been managing her assets - perhaps not always in her best interest. When that conservator is found dead, Bainbridge herself is one of the prime suspects. Attempting to make sense of two deaths at once, to protect themselves and their clients, the redoubtable owners of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau are once again on the case."

Never trust a wife trying to find a second wife for after she's gone. That's solid advice I'll always believe in.

The Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec
Published by: Ace Books
Publication Date: July 25th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The lives of two women - one desperate only to save her missing sister, the other a witch destined to become queen of Norway - intertwine in this spellbinding, powerful novel of Viking Age history and myth from the acclaimed author of The Witch's Heart.

Oddny and Gunnhild meet as children in tenth century Norway, and they could not be more different: Oddny hopes for a quiet life, while Gunnhild burns for power and longs to escape her cruel mother. But after a visiting wisewoman makes an ominous prophecy that involves Oddny, her sister Signy, and Gunnhild, the three girls take a blood oath to help one another always.

When Oddny's farm is destroyed and Signy is kidnapped by Viking raiders, Oddny is set adrift from the life she imagined - but she's determined to save her sister no matter the cost, even as she finds herself irresistibly drawn to one of the raiders who participated in the attack. And in the far north, Gunnhild, who fled her home years ago to learn the ways of a witch, is surprised to find her destiny seems to be linked with that of the formidable King Eirik, heir apparent to the ruler of all Norway.

But the bonds - both enchanted and emotional - that hold the two women together are strong, and when they find their way back to each other, these bonds will be tested in ways they never could have foreseen in this deeply moving novel of magic, history, and sworn sisterhood."

Norwegian Witch Queen! Now that's something my ancestors probably aspired to.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Allison Montclair, Amanda Quain, Erin A. Craig, Genevieve Gornichec, Ghosts, Gothic, Italy, Jane Austen, Kelsey James, M.C. Beaton, Northanger Abbey, Norway, Shannon Morgan, The Right Sort Marriage Bureau, Witches

The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
Published by: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: August 29th, 2013
Format: Kindle, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than on reviewed)

The Problem started about the middle of the last century. The dead no longer stayed dead. They roamed the street at night and were deadly to the living. Cemeteries were exhumed and the dead burned. Marissa Fittes and Tom Rotwell are credited with discovering the Problem and through their methods teaching others how to subdue paranormal phenomena by locating it's Source, the epicenter of it's haunting. Marissa set up the Fittes Agency and soon Tom set up the Rotwell Agency. And other psychic investigations agencies sprang up like mushrooms from corpses after that, one of them being Lockwood and Co. But the peculiarity of the Problem is that it is only children who can see and therefore destroy ghosts. The only adults on hand are those who were legends in their day but can no longer see ghosts and therefore have to pass on their knowledge to the younger generations now wielding psychic abilities. But not all children can see these supernatural foes. Some are blind to it, others are just slightly touched and aren't agency material, but some have special skills, from hearing, to touch, to smell. Lucy Carlyle is very talented. Any agency would kill to have her on their team. The problem is she left her last job under a bit of a cloud so she doesn't have the bona fides needed to secure a job at one of the prestige agencies, so instead she gets a job at Lockwood and Co. Before her job interview the "Lockwood" was young and dashing Anthony Lockwood and the "Co." was George Cubbins, the master of research if nothing else. They don't have uniforms, they don't have many jobs, but they have a nice headquarters at 35 Portland Row. After Lucy's job interview the "Co." increases by one. One night they are tackling what should be a simple case for their client, a Mrs. Hope, when things go pear-shaped. As in, they burn her house to the ground. With legal action being threatened they need a big case to pay off their client and keep the agency open. Which is why they accept a job at Combe Carey Hall. The estate is notorious. So many people have died there. So many investigators, even top trained Fittes investigators, have been victims to the house and the infamous Red Room. But as Lockwood says, they are desperate so they might as well go out with a bang. And if they succeed? Well, their name will be made and the agency secured.

If there's one thing I'm always looking for it's something spooky and Gothic to read. It's my comfort food. It's my jam. Ironically jam isn't my comfort food but that is a story for another time. Therefore when I was recommended the Lockwood and Co. series by someone whose opinion I trust I didn't really read anything about the series other than to get their elevator pitch of British teens dealing with paranormal phenomena. That right there was enough for me, Ghostbusters with a YA bent. But perhaps I wouldn't have had such a disconnect with the book for a long while if I had read a tad more about the series. Because everything I'd read made it sound very Dickensian. And the thing is that it is. It is very Dickensian. But set in modern day. Or a decade ago now because it was current day or near enough when it was written. I could not wrap my head around this for the longest time. They have swords and gas lights and then there was a television set, I was so confused. It almost took literally the whole book for me to make sense of this society that was trapped in a different time because all technological advances went to figuring out and fighting the Problem. But still, the start of the Problem was about the middle of the previous century, so shouldn't the tech have been more mid-century than this mishmash of what it is? Maybe what I'm trying to inarticulately say is that instead of jumping so headlong into the action I needed a little more explanation than the stumbling around in the dark until it clicked. In fact just a date would have been helpful. But on the bright side, when it clicked, it clicked. So what did it take? It took taking our three leads and dropping them in the middle of a classic haunted house story. They were just dropped in it at Combe Carey Hall. I mean, just that name sends a chill down my spine! It was just riddled with tropes from rooms filled with blood to ghostly monks to secret passageways, and of course a sinister staircase! Yet through it all Lucy, Lockwood, and George made it their own special story. It might have resembled everything from The Haunting of Hill House to The Legend of Hell House, which are personal favorites I might add, but it was it's own thing, which is a major feat given the preponderance of stories out there in the haunted house genre. More haunted houses less televisions please!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anthony Lockwood, Combe Carey Hall, George Cubbins, Ghosts, Haunted House, Jonathan Stroud, Lockwood & Co., London Calling, Lucy Carlyle, Psychic Investigations Agencies, The Problem, The Screaming Staircase

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: June 21st, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Casey Fletcher started drinking the day her husband drowned in Lake Greene. But her grief has become so all encompassing that it's destroying her life. For awhile she had her drinking under control and then she didn't. Passing out cold in the play she was staring in on Broadway and having to be dragged offstage while unconscious by her costars was literally her career vanishing down the bottle. Her mother swooped in and banished Casey to the Lake House in Vermont. The house where Casey spent the last happy moments of her life before it all went to hell. Now her mother and her cousin call daily to check in. Her acting skills are put to the test by declaring she's not drinking because of course she is. Her neighbor Eli is supplying her with the booze her mother had hoped to deny her. The lake is as deserted as it always is this late in the year. There are only five houses on Lake Greene. The Fitzgeralds have already left for the season, Eli is always there, and handyman Boone is working on the A-Frame next door. Which leaves the glass house directly across from Casey. And the inhabitants of that house are about to throw a wrench in Casey's plan to drink herself into oblivion. Casey sees someone drowning out on the lake and rushes into action and saves her new neighbor Katherine Royce. Like Katherine knows who Casey is, Casey knows who Katherine is, the supermodel turned philanthropist who's married to tech guru Tom Royce. The girl who had the billboard in Time Square that captivated the world and Casey. They are the owners of the glass house. That night Tom and Katherine come across the lake to thank Casey and since Eli is already over they take the party outside and Eli gets to telling ghost stories around a fire. The evening is cut short when Katherine passes out. She and her husband return home but Casey is worried about Katherine and gets out her husband's binoculars. Watching the Royces becomes her new obsession. One that might prove deadly when Katherine disappears.

The House Across the Lake marks a turning point for Riley Sager. In his previous books that have hauntings or other paranormal phenomenon he meticulously pulls back the curtain to prove that it was humans all along, just an old man under a mask solved thanks to Scooby and the gang. Here he does not. And I love it. I was a little sad when the Camp Nightingale disappearances was a revenge well plotted. As for the mysteries at the Bartholomew being at the feet of the elite, well, couldn't I have had just a hint of the real horrors of Rosemary's Baby? As for Baneberry Hall and House of Horrors, it was sadly human horrors. The genius in making the paranormal real in this specific book is that Riley Sager is doing a spot on pastiche to the Gillian Flynn genre that was so lovingly and accurately skewered by Kristen Bell's The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window. There's a predictability to this genre that relies on copious amounts of alcohol and unreliable narrators and Riley Sager does a good job leaning into these tropes with Carrie Fisher, I mean Casey Fletcher, as his protagonist. Husbands, neighbors, everyone is a suspect when her neighbor disappears. Yet what is really happening goes back to a ghost story that Eli told around Casey's fire pit. It's a moment that is almost a blink and you'll miss it moment. There are so many other elements at play in that scene that what Eli has to say gets lost in the kerfuffle. In fact, I was so busy putting together the other parts of the jigsaw I lost sight of the bigger picture so that it was a nice surprise to realize the kind of book I thought I was reading wasn't what I was reading at all. As a reader it's really wonderful when your expectations are proved wrong. When a book turns out not to be what you expected, but better. While Riley Sager is a must buy author for me after this twist I can't wait to see what he writes next.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alcoholic, Carrie Fisher, Disappearance, Ghosts, Gillian Flynn, Kristen Bell, Lake Greene, Riley Sager, The House Across the Lake, The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window

Slade House by David Mitchell
Published by: Random House
Publication Date: October 27th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 238 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

There is a door. It's small and unassuming. Most people never see it because most of the time it isn't there. But every nine years on the last Saturday of October it's there for the chosen one. Near The Fox and Hounds Pub, Slade Alley is easy to miss. If you don't look carefully you could end up going out the other side wondering how you could have missed the entrance. But through that small door is a beautiful garden leading up to a house. A house that is far too nice for the working class neighborhood the alley is a part of. But then again, you'd never find the house in that neighborhood. It's in a little bubble all it's own, an orison. In 1979 Nathan Bishop is the chosen one. His mother, a pianist, has been asked to perform at Slade House for Lady Norah Grayer. Lady Grayer asked that Nathan be brought along. He spends the day in the garden playing with a boy his age, Jonah. But as they chase each other around the house things begin to shift and change. Nathan is worried that the Valium he snuck from his mother was bad. But it's not the Valium, it's the house. It has lured him in and Norah and Jonah won't let go. Nathan Bishop and his mother are never seen again. Nine years later in 1988 Detective Inspector Gordon Edmonds is looking into the disappearance of Nathan Bishop and his mother because new evidence has surfaced. On the day they disappeared they asked directions from a Fred Pink. Immediately after stepping out of Slade Alley Fred Pink was hit by a car and has spent the intervening years in a coma. When he was catching up on the news that he missed he recognized the Bishops and immediately went to the police. Gordon Edmonds finds Slade House and the beautiful widow Chloe Chetwynd. She uses her feminine wiles to seduce Gordon Edmonds. He is never seen again. In 1997 a group of paranormal investigators made up of college students, one of whom is Fred Pink's nephew, goes missing never to be seen again. In 2006 the sister of one of the missing college student interviews Fred Pink. She to disappears. Like dominoes, each disappearance leads to another and another, stretching back and forward until someone is able to pop the bubble.

Years ago I bought Slade House giddy for a good haunted house story not knowing that it tied heavily into David Mitchell's other book, The Bone Clocks. But then again, all his books tie in. Yet I still thought I should probably do my homework and read The Bone Clocks first. So I put off reading Slade House, and I put off reading it. Then two things happened around the same time, a friend of mine said this book could easily be read as a standalone and I found a copy of The Bone Clocks on the sales table at Barnes and Noble. Thanks for sending me mixed messages universe! So I was basically back at square one. Looking for a good spooky read leading up to Halloween I said fuck it and picked up Slade House and I really wish that I had waited. Typical me would have read The Bone Clocks first. Typical me would have been right. This feels almost like it's the CliffsNotes version of the meticulous worldbuilding that Mitchell has done. There is a literal infodump in the forth chapter that while yes, it makes everything clear, feels too shoehorned in. This information about apertures and orisons and lacunas and psychovoltage feel like they belong to another story. And really, they do. And that is this book's fatal flaw. Yes, you may be given everything you need to know, but it feels shallow. The ending is a literal Deus ex machina where a character from his other books who is from the other feuding immortal faction shows up and puts an end to Norah and Jonah. How is that fair to the readers of this book? It feels not just like Mitchell is cheating the readers of a satisfying ending but is also admonishing them for not doing their homework. I should have known this wasn't likely a book for me because of the comparisons the The Turn of the Screw. My main problem with that story is there is no jeopardy. You know the governess survives. The same could be said here. There is no driving force because every narrator dies so your investment in the characters will never pay off so you quickly learn to disassociate from all of them. And this isn't even going into my issues about how Mitchell handles each decade and the derogatory language he uses. Sure, it's era appropriate, but much like everything to do with this book I could have done without.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: CliffsNotes, David Mitchell, Deus Ex Machina, Disappearances, Ghosts, Going Gothic, Haunted House, Immortality, Infodump, Orison, Slade House, Souls, The Bone Clocks, The Turn of the Screw, Worldbuilding

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Beatriz lost everything with the death of her father. Branded a traitor he was executed and she and her mother moved in with relatives who treated them worse than slaves. When Beatriz catches the eye of Don Rodolfo Solórzano she jumps at the chance of a new beginning and a home of her own. He's well off and has a position of power in the new Provisional Government and is wealthy enough to support two residences, a house in the city and his family pulque plantation in the county. Her mother's dislike of him can be overcome in time, and as for the rumors of what happened to his first wife? She thinks little of it, which might be just what her new husband wants, someone desperate enough to not ask questions. His job keeps him in town while Beatriz will primarily reside at the Hacienda San Isidro, an arrangement that suits him perfectly. Of course Beatriz had pictured San Isidro as her husband romanticized it in stories of his childhood. She did not expect the rundown house with the verdant growth gone to rot. She also didn't expect to be dumped there. Surely a newly wedded man would want to spend time with his wife? But she is soon left alone in a hostile environment. Her sister-in-law Juana wants nothing to do with her or the house and the staff keep themselves apart. Beatriz got what she thought she wanted and is more alone than she's ever been. If she can restore San Isidro, bring the house and the gardens back to life, she can lure her mother to live with her and perhaps then she will feel less alone. But the house doesn't want this. She hears voices and sees things that cannot possibly be real. She looks to Juana for confirmation but gets none. Yet why does Juana only enter the house when she has to and only during daylight? Beatriz has nowhere to turn but the church. Padre Andrés is a newly ordained priest and he is the only one who will listen to Beatriz. He grew up at San Isidro and as soon as he returns he can tell that something is horribly wrong. This isn't the home he knew and Beatriz is right, there's danger here. Thankfully Andrés is willing to help the young bride, but as they battle San Isidro they have to battle their growing attraction and victory is not assured. Not in the least.

This book was lauded as Rebecca meets Mexican Gothic. Now I, for one, will admit that PR for a book has to always go for the biggest names, the one haunted house book with true name recognition to compare to the haunted house book they're trying to get you to pick up. It's all designed to grab our attention, and I totally fall for it. Every. Single. Time. You liked this? Well you'll love this, it's the same but better! No, it never is. Except once in a great while. Whenever I see a book compared to my beloved Rebecca I read the book and wonder if the author or the PR department had actually ever read Du Maurier's classic. And as for the Mexican Gothic comparison, after that book became a surprise hit every Gothic book coming out had to somehow be "like" it. Here's the thing though, Mexican Gothic wasn't that good, whereas this book is. Oh my, they really delivered on the "same but better." I should find those PR people and apologize for how I've always trashed them for their cunning deceptions. It's their job after all... I've even been known to do it! The reason The Hacienda beats Mexican Gothic hands down is Isabel Cañas didn't complicate this story with mushrooms and what have you. She went for the standard tropes of the Gothic genre, dead first wife, hostile family, lonely outsider newlywed, recalcitrant servants, haunted house, conflicted priest, forbidden romance, and wrote these tropes to the highest standard. There isn't much original here, but it is so well crafted, so well drawn out, that you will love it completely. The story of Beatriz is propulsive. How will she survive? I kept turning the pages late into the night. I could see it all before me and yet somehow it maintained my interest. The Hacienda has all the goodness of a true Gothic haunted house story paired with what it means to belong and want a home. And that's where it set itself above the tropes, that's where it was unique, in Beatriz's desire for a place of her own. Her family had been cast out and degraded and she took the first opportunity she had to break free. Yes, it was a dangerous decision in the end, but who wouldn't risk it all to find their place in the world? To finally feel safe? I know I would, wouldn't you?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Place to Call Home, Daphne Du Maurier, Family, Forbidden Romance, Ghosts, Going Gothic, Gothic, Haunted House, Isabel Cañas, Mexican Gothic, Mexico, PR, Priests, Pulque Plantation, Rebecca, The Hacienda, Tropes

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Published by: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: October 8th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 480 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Alex Stern has been given an opportunity she never thought she'd get. At the age of twenty she is the going to be a freshman at Yale with a full ride. But how did she even get to New Haven? She had thrown her life away, living among the dregs and the drug dealers. Then she miraculously survived a gruesome multiple homicide that claimed the life of her best friend and her boyfriend of which she was a prime suspect. While recuperating in the hospital she was approached by Dean Sandow. He wants her to tell him about the Grays. It turns out Alex has been able to see ghosts her entire life. Her "job" will be to join the Ninth House, Lethe, it is a regulatory house for the other eight secret societies at Yale, Skull and Bones being the only one that the general populace believes exists. She accepts Dean Sandow's offer and is eastward bound. To a girl christened Galaxy by her hippie mother just the prospect of Yale's cafeteria is a dream come true, but being thrust into the world of the elite could take some getting used to. Take Darlington for example. He is there to mentor her and shepherd her in her duties to the other houses because once he graduates she will take over his duties. Darlington is the epitome of a Yale student. Like the members of the other houses, he is a golden boy raised by the right family with expectations. While the two of them are exact opposites, when Darlington disappears Alex realizes that she might be in way over her head. Now Alex has two major mysteries in her life, Darlington, and whatever happened that day when Hellie and Len died. And then she lands in the middle of a third when she starts investigating a murder that happened near the outskirts of campus. Her investigation brings up no untoward evidence until a Gray attacks her. Only once before has a ghost been able to touch her, and that was when she was almost raped by one on a school field trip. Oddly enough another Gray saves her and she realizes that something far deeper is at play at Yale. She will get to the bottom of it and find Darlington, though it might just kill her.

I find the worst thing in the world is when a book you've been waiting for with baited breath turns out not to even be worth the breath to discuss it. I mean, just thinking about writing this review is making me tired. I slogged my way to the bitter end of this dreck, I guess given how many people love this book I can rise to the occasion to explain why they are so so wrong. So, secret magical societies at Yale right? Should be magical yeah? Nope, it's just horrid. And what's interesting is that people who've liked it kind of agree with me once I start to innumerate my issues. So let's start! My problems, and they are nearly innumerable, can be summed up with the dismissive way rape culture is handled in this book. Leigh Bardugo seemed to want to include issues that are topical to colleges within her fantastical framework, IE rape culture, but instead she just pays it lip service. Magic is literally used to rape Alex's roommate Mercy and instead of handling this in a mature and helpful manner, Alex thinks up something so immature that I can barely even discuss it. I mean, ugh, seriously, this is a viable solution? Because her roommate's rape goes viral Alex decides to make the rapist Blake the star of his own viral shit eating video. She literally uses magic to make Blake eat shit and records it. And then her roommate is just fine because, well, no one remembers the girl who was raped when there's someone eating shit! Um no. This isn't how trauma and survival work. I am literally so mad thinking about this that I have to stop writing this for awhile. I'm back but still mad. I have literally been trying months to finish this review and every time I get angry so I try to pretend I'm just not bothered to exert any effort. But the truth is I'm just so bothered I just can't. How did the creator of the Grishaverse write this!?! Since I started this review and since now when I'm typing this I re-read the Grishaverse in it's entirety, and it handles abuse so thoughtfully and yet here!?! And don't get me started on the fact that the best character is just not there. Or that the ending is lame. Or that this series is taking away valuable time when Leigh could be writing another series! Ugh!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alex Stern, Darlington, Ghosts, Going Gothic, Going Viral, Grays, Grishaverse, Leigh Bardugo, Lethe, Murder, New Haven, Ninth House, Rape, Rape Culture, Secret Societies, Sexual Assault, Skull and Bone, Survivor, Yale

After seeing the amazing interpretation of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House that Mike Flanagan pulled off I was beyond excited for The Haunting of Bly Manor. And this was only approximately 79% to do with Rahul Kohli being cast. OK, it was probably closer to 100% because I am not a fan of The Turn of the Screw like I am with The Haunting of Hill House, but that's why this adaptation is so perfect, it made me like The Turn of the Screw and the other stories by Henry James that were incorporated. This miniseries turned a bleak tale of possible madness into a love story. And not just a single love story either! There are many couples to ship here. In fact this show might have healed and broken my heart simultaneously. If someone were to say to me "it's you, it's me, it's us" I would probably break down sobbing right this second. Yet this phrase which comes to mean so much about the power of love started out menacing. That's what's amazing here. The way the story unfolds. What was one thing becomes another and another and everything you think you knew keeps changing. This is a miniseries that could easily be rewatched the second you finish it just to fill in the gaps you might have missed. The one thing I found odd when reading reviews of what people have dubbed the second season of Mike Flanagan's "Haunting" series is that so many people took exception to the penultimate episode shot in black and white, "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes." This episode set centuries earlier explains how Bly Manor came to be the haunted place it is with Mike Flanagan's wife, Kate Siegel, Theo from The Haunting of Hill House, taking center stage. This episode is lyrical and perfectly paced. There are phrases that come back to me again and again while thinking about this show. "She would sleep, she would wake, she would walk." And while yes, this could be a way to explain all our lives during quarantine and it's repetitive nature, it also taps into the broken record aspect of a haunting. How ghosts are just reliving the same moments over and over again which is why the penultimate episode is crucial! This show is time loops and the supernatural and true love all mashed up together and all I have to say is more!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: And the Emmy Goes To, Ghosts, Henry James, Kate Siegel, Mike Flanagan, Rahul Kohli, Shirley Jackson, Short Stories, The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Haunting of Hill House, The Turn of the Screw

If last fall, after I'd watched a few episodes of the "dark reboot" of Nancy Drew, you'd tell me it would end up being my favorite adaptation of the year I would have laughed at you. Yes, I admit I'm all about the "dark reboot" having devoured the first season of Riverdale over a harsh weekend in 2017, but a dark Nancy Drew? Sure I was interested, but not sure I'd be hooked. I viewed it as a nice Wednesday night paring with Riverdale. But as Riverdale's quality continued to tank I looked more and more at Nancy Drew to be my Wednesday fix to get me through the rest of the week. Though I do applaud Riverdale for the nice twist of fate in that they were doing their own Hardy Boys tribute with this season's Baxter Brothers. A coincidence? Hell no. Do I care? Not as long as it entertained me. So what changed? What made me push aside an old favorite and choose a mildly diverting show about the residents of Horseshoe Bay, Maine, and the recent high school grads working at The Bayside Claw, a perennially failing restaurant? Much like Perry Mason, this isn't your parent's Nancy Drew, but I think that's why it works. And aside from the fact that it grows on you, I loved that the mysteries they tackled each week made all the characters personally involved. Their history, their backstory, their past relationships, everything tied into the narrative to make this bay side community rife with crime and more importantly the supernatural. The fact that the supernatural is real here still makes me giddy. It's not just hinted at or intimated, ghosts are REAL! And I love me some ghosts and ghouls. What's more, Nancy is being haunted by the ghost of Dead Lucy, the local urban legend which is very much based in truth and very much important to Nancy's backstory. Yet, my favorite character, hand's down, is George's mother, Victoria Fan, played by Liza Lapira. George was Nancy's former nemesis and now boss and George's mother knows everything there is to know about the supernatural. She's usually drunk and hostile because she's trying to shut herself off from the supernatural goings-on, but when she strolls into the Claw, you know it's going to be a kick ass episode. I would watch a show just about her! Until that day I at least have Nancy Drew.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: And the Emmy Goes To, Baxter Brothers, CW, Dark Reboot, Dead Lucy, Ghosts, Hardy Boys, Horseshoe Bay, Liza Lapira, Maine, Nancy Drew, Perry Mason, Riverdale, Supernatural, The Bayside Claw, Urban Legend, Victoria Fan

The End of Temperance Dare by Wendy Webb
Published by: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: June 6th, 2017
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Despite a looming sense of dread she's carried for months everything seems to be falling into place for Eleanor Harper but in the most unexpected of ways. She loses her job as a crime reporter at the same time the position for director of the prestigious Cliffside Manor artists retreat becomes available. Eleanor has been drawn to the old tuberculosis hospital ever since she went there twenty years earlier as a cub reporter covering the sudden deaths of the hospital's founder, Chester Dare, and one of his daughters, Milly, in a tragic car accident. His remaining daughter, Penelope, has run the retreat ever since and she feels it's time to hand the reigns to the next generation. While Eleanor isn't the most qualified Miss Penny felt a connection to her all those years ago because they both agreed that the accident was no accident. Miss Penny never blamed Eleanor, who as an inexperienced reporter was unable to shed light on the deaths, but admired her tenacity and has followed her journalistic career with interest. When Eleanor arrives at the Manor through the mists she feels like she's home. Miss Penny welcomes her with open arms and inducts her into the running of the retreat, which is mainly handled by an extensive staff. In a week they are to get the current group of artists for a month-long residency and Eleanor will shadow Miss Penny until she's confident enough that she can handle the responsibilities herself. At least that's what Eleanor thought the plan was to be, Miss Penny had other ideas, as that afternoon she commits suicide and leaves everything in Eleanor's inexperienced hands. Eleanor is baffled by the predicament she has landed in but she views it only right to mourn but continue on in Miss Penny's memory. Therefore a week later the five artists arrive. Things do not go to plan. Miss Penny brought everyone here with a purpose... is she acting from beyond the grave? But more importantly, is she acting alone or are other supernatural elements at work?

Here's the problem I have with Gothic stories that involve haunted houses, there needs to be enough wiggle room that the "haunting" could all be chalked up to psychological issues. You need that suspension of disbelief. You have to be convinced or dissuaded through the story, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is a masterclass in this conceit. A Tuberculosis hospital is a whole lot of heck no from me. The reason for this is that TB hospitals were, as it says in this book, a “waiting room for death.” All hauntings derive from a death, here we have a plurality of death, so in my mind there is no question as to whether or not Cliffside Manor is haunted. It is SO haunted. This is a place where ghost hunters go, not artistic types. I have NO DOUBT that ghosts exist. What exactly they are I'm not sure, but I have seen many ghosts in my life, some benign, some very much the opposite. I would NEVER go willingly to a place like Cliffside Manor, it would be too much. Add to that the fact this retreat is made for artists like me... I really don't get how places at the retreat are so sought after. Yes, there is a wide range of susceptibility when it comes to seeing the supernatural, but the truth is the more sensitive you are to the world around you, the more open you are, the more likely you are to have such an experience. Therefore people who are artistic are more likely to pick up on these vibes, much like how artists are the ones who can hear the call of Cthulhu in the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. So how are these artists not being like, don't go there, it's haunted. Word of mouth would spread like wildfire, but instead they have people clamoring for vacancies. This makes no sense to me, which makes me feel like the entire setup is unbelievable and therefore I don't buy into the story.

What's more it's hard to buy into a story where you're not quite certain if you're dealing with an unreliable narrator or not. My problem in this instance was that I couldn't tell if the red herrings I was following were meant to be red herrings or were just bad editing. To be clear, I reached the correct conclusion, I just don't know if I was meant to reach that conclusion in the first few chapters. What alerted my spider senses was Eleanor arriving at Cliffside Manor on a Thursday and the guests being scheduled to arrive the next Friday, but within minutes it was "arriving in one week." I don't know who taught Eleanor or Webb about the days of the week but that's longer than a week. Yes, you could brush it off as just common vernacular, it's about a week, but the way Webb writes I disagree. She is very precise, very matter of fact, you can tell she was a journalist herself in the very way everything is as it should be and nothing is out of place. If a book could be neat as a pin, this would be that book, and if I'm honest, I'd rather choose sloppy and lyrical than this. Which makes this first error glaring. IF this was a hint as to Eleanor's reliability as a narrator, I have to give Webb kudos. It was subtle and just enough to bait the reader. If, on the other hand, this was just a typo, in fact the most common of typos if I'm to be honest, because writers as a whole don't look at calendars despite the fact you can look up ANY calendar year online, well, then it's bad luck that a transcription or writing or editing error gave away something that's rather important. But then again, I feel like the whole unreliable narrator is played out. It's a way to delay the reveal while having the answer in front of you the whole time, and to me, that's kind of smug storytelling, though not nearly as bad as an author like Josephine Tey who purposefully left clues out so that the reader couldn't solve her riddles.

The truth is, The End of Temperance Dare relies too heavily on overplayed tropes. The obviously haunted local, the unreliable narrator, the love triangle (more on that in a minute), and the sexualization of children as a sign of evil. Think of all the movies and all the books over the years that have had innocent children possessed by evil spirits say licentious things and you know where I'm coming from. The Exorcist anyone? The problem I have with this trope is that instead of just being unsettling it verges on the edge of child exploitation, which is one of the MANY reasons I have never read Anne Rice again after Interview with the Vampire because of how she handles Claudia. Here it's taken further with the evil spirit of Temperance who is eleven in human years being obsessed with the Doctor as her future husband and later while controlling her sisters body not only is a loose woman, but stalks the photographer Richard, who is one of the members of the retreat we meet. It's hinted at that she was born a demon and she had impure thoughts and behaviors from the day she was born, yet Webb is never explicit enough with these revelations. Instead she leaves it all up to the reader's imagination, and I just don't like that because it's a cop out. She shows us these disturbing images and behaviors and then never fully goes to the root of the evil, therefore making the villain a sexually precocious child. That just freaks me out too much. And not in the good way. Instead I felt ill and the denouement and happily ever after left a bitter taste in my mouth because evil was left to be evil and the motives behind that evil were just to have her way with everyone especially these two men?

These two men who then form the other two corners of a love triangle wit Eleanor/Temperance. Because instead of Eleanor being involved in a healthy relationship she finds herself drawn into flirtations with the retreat's doctor, Nat, and one of the guests, Richard. This triangle felt so forced. Here is a professional woman trying to make a good impression at her new job and instead she is behaving like a lovestruck teenager... or should I say sexually precocious child? So the reason I hated this element of the narrative isn't that I just hate love triangles, because I do, I really really do, it's because the relationships don't feel like they organically develop. Which, I guess you could say, they didn't. But in order to achieve that happily ever after we bafflingly reach there has to be a kernel of truth amongst all the supernatural manipulations for the ending to be at least mildly believable. But in the end, looking at the whole story of Temperance Dare, I can't help think that it was a looong setup for very little reward. Sure, all the pieces fit into place, but mechanically. You have no emotions invested in the characters. It's too by the book. A paint by numbers narrative which would just horrify Henry, who was the resident painter at the retreat who worked in oils yet had no proper venting in his room for painting oils indoors. And then a happy ending where everyone gets what they want? That's not believable, that's contrived. I haven't read any of Webb's other books, but I hope there's a little more spark and a lot less plodding out of plot points. I can't take another book like this one, it was too predictable and plebeian.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anne Rice, Artists' Retreat, Ghosts, Going Gothic, Interview with the Vampire, Josephine Tey, Possession, Shirley Jackson, The End of Temperance Dare, The Exorcist, The Haunting of Hill House, Trope, Wendy Webb

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Published by: Penguin
Publication Date: 1962
Format: Hardcover, 235 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
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None of the villagers go to Hill House. No one will hear you scream, in the dark, in the night. Dr. Montague views the house as the ideal location for his research of supernatural phenomena. The house's history coupled with the right participants should yield him the results he's looking for. Yet he only heard back from a few people selected as the perfect candidates for his summer long program, for sensitivity combined with previous supernatural encounters. In the end he gets the shy and awkward Eleanor who has spent much of her life caring for her recently deceased mother. She doesn't even remember the incident for which Dr. Montague recruited her she just views Hill House as her first real adventure and a way to get out from under the stifling life she's living on a cot at her sister's. Theo was chosen because of her apparent psychic abilities. Then there's Luke. Luke is the heir to Hill House. He doesn't have abilities or haunting experiences, he just needs to get out of his troubling patterns and his grandmother thinks locking him away at Hill House as a guarantee against Dr. Montague's lease is a lovely idea.

After each of the participants successfully battle their way past the suspicious caretaker, Mr. Dudley, and get explained the rigorous rules as regards the meals and cleaning up by his wife the group settles in. It does not take long for weird knocks to happen at doors in the night as well as severe temperature drops. The doors don't like to remain open, if this is Mrs. Dudley, or the house, they can't figure it out even with the aid of large doorstops. Very shortly they instigate a rule that no one is to wander alone, especially at night. Yet what is actually happening, if they where to write it down as per Dr. Montague's research guidelines, they wouldn't or couldn't be able to put it into words. Strange writings, noises, voices, drafts, and above all four very different personalities clashing, not counting the possible personalities of the house's former occupants. Is any of this real? Or are they hallucinating? Or should they all leave the house as fast as they can and never look back?

The Haunting of Hill House is the standard to which modern ghost stories are held. Even Stephen King has been known on more than one occasion to extol the virtues of this book. When I first read this book I couldn't help wondering why. But as more time passed I realized The Haunting of Hill House had left an impression on me and that I had perhaps judged it based on what I thought it should be versus what it was. Going back to the book I was once again drawn into Jackson's writing. She is able to depict places and characters so well that you feel you are inhabiting them. I also was able to pinpoint my dissatisfaction from my first reading. It's the ending. While I'm fine with open ended ambiguity it's that it was rushed. The book has a very languorous pace from Eleanor's daydreaming drive to Hill House through the daily routine the four occupants adapt, living like they are on holiday. And then Doctor Montague's wife arrives. This is when the story falls apart and just rushes headlong like Nell through the halls of the house until she goes straight into a tree. While this could have been Jackson's plan, having Mrs. Montague be the final push to Nell's death, instead it just feels like Jackson used Mrs. Montague to end the story in an abrupt if timely fashion.

Another reason I was initially dissatisfied was that there really isn't a plot per se. The book goes for impressions over tangibility. Any time anything vaguely spooky happens it's just glossed over or made light of when day breaks. The big scene where Theo and Nell are running from something, that's it, they ran, cut to the next morning where it will never be mentioned again. Yet over time this lack of substance works it's way into you building suspense and paranoia. This book is a slow burn, you might not feel the effects for a long time. Jackson is literally playing with our minds and the more you're willing to go back to the text the more the story works. A cumulative horror that becomes a compulsion that gripes you every fall. Because of all the things that Jackson doesn't say and doesn't spell out this allows The Haunting of Hill House to be interpreted a thousand different ways. Even the ending can be debated. As Nell slams her car into the tree so that she can forever stay at Hill House we aren't even certain of her death. All that we know is she longed for death, either because she was already suicidal or because she was driven there by supernatural means. Nell is the key here, because it's through her we are told the story and this might just be the biggest corker of an unreliable narrator ever.

Nell is interesting, but you can't really get a read on her. You know what it's like to be inside her mind, but it quickly becomes clear that this won't help you figure out what's happening, you just have to give in and let go. Her mind jumps and contradicts and doesn't make any kind of sense. Yet she is a sympathetic character. You're not sure if she's crazy but you become complicit in Nell's actions during the drive to Hill House. As she travels to her destination she sees glimpses of houses in different towns and wonders, what would her life be like there? What would happen if she decided this town was her final destination and it was her new home? Who hasn't while out walking or driving looked at a house or through an illuminated window at night and wondered what would their life be like if that was their house. Who would they be in a different setting? And that's how we become one with Nell. Whatever happens from that moment forward, whatever fantasy she spins about her and Theodora, whatever she see or hears, we are fully invested. We give in and let go with her and love the ride aboard the crazy train.

In fact, this analysis of Nell leads into the idea that Nell is in fact the haunting... but as I've said before you can interpret this book so many different ways that I find saying Nell is the haunting is wrong. I don't think the encounters the four occupants of Hill House come up against are manifestations of Nell. I think the house is it's own entity. It isn't just a building, it's a home, with personality, and once you have personality it is one quick step to being a person, a character in your own right. Therefore I fully believe that the house is haunted and it's not Nell. Well, it's not Nell at first. Because I think Nell is sensitive and is tuned into the house and as time goes on they are becoming one, which would be why she'd kill herself to never leave it. This is very obvious once Mrs. Montague arrives. Before this time the banging on the doors and the noises were unnatural phenomena that the house was creating, but once the good doctor's wife arrives Nell is the one banging on the doors. I think this is because the house is now using her for what it had to do by itself before. Nell has become an extension of the house and therefore helps with the haunting. It's no wonder she doesn't want to leave when this is the only place she's ever felt welcome.

In fact going back to this book I've realized that there's only one real problem with the different interpretations, and that's the lesbianism. I'm not against this at all and think that Nell and Theodora would make a lovely couple and they balance each other so well, what I see as problematic is Jackson's vehement denials that The Haunting of Hill House has anything to do with sex and in particular lesbianism. She didn't see sex as entering into her story at all. But so much of her story goes against what she later stated. Theodora is obviously a woman of the world while Nell is the virginal character who just doesn't understand, an innocent nature that the house can corrupt. Yet there's a connection between them long before there's a connection between Nell and the house. Also the fact that Jackson never comes out and says that Theodora's partner whom she left behind is male or female, though female is strongly implied, then why write this? Why have this omission if you didn't want the book to be read this way? If she was so against this interpretation just a few clarifications could have solved it. But then she wanted to leave her readers mystified and perhaps, despite her denials, this was just another mystery she enjoyed dangling in front of her audience. She was a master manipulator after all.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Eleanor, Ghosts, Going Gothic, Haunting, Lesbian, Possession, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, Supernatural, The Haunting of Hill House

The Uninvited by Cat Winters
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: August 11th, 2015
Format: Kindle, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★
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Ivy Rowan has been abed with the flu for days. The last night she is to spend at home she awakes to see the ghost of her grandmother. She instantly knows something is wrong. She has only ever seen these uninvited guests, these ghosts, as harbingers of death; someone close to her will die. Her grandmother came to warn Ivy, her father and brother have killed a man. They have murdered the owner of the furniture store, who was a German immigrant. Ivy's brother Billy died the week previously in the Great War and there are rumors that the Germans are responsible for this plague that has descended on Ivy's small Midwestern town. Her brother and father committed this horrible act of vengeance on an innocent man. Though the papers will ascribed the death to patriotic vagrants, Ivy knows the truth. Ivy's mind and body rebels, she packs her belongings and flees into the night. Out in the world, Ivy, the virtual recluse, starts to live life and form friendships amongst all the death. She helps two red cross nurses ferry the ill, she lodges with the widow of a former classmate, but most importantly she tries to make amends to the grieving brother of the man her family killed, Daniel Schendel. She is drawn to Daniel as much as she is drawn to the jazz music playing every night across the road from his store. As their relationship grows more intense Ivy starts to realize that not everything is at it seems. There are secrets too horrific to face so one should just face the music and dance.

One of my friends said that I should have been forewarned that I wouldn't like this book because the blurb declaimed that it was "perfect for those who loved The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield." To say I loved The Thirteenth Tale would be grossly untrue, even saying I liked it would be a lie... so I should have had an inkling that The Uninvited wasn't for me. But it was the deal of the day on Kindle and that cover... well, that cover has more atmosphere than the whole book and I seriously need to stop being tricked by a pretty cover. The main problem I had was that I was looking for a good Gothic read and while this does have all the elements of Gothic literature it has all these elements without them ever coming together into a cohesive whole and being Gothic. Ghosts, check, virginal heroine, check, olden days, check, laws flouted, check, add to that a horrid plague and well, I am just baffled. I think the reason it failed is twofold. The ghosts aren't scary, they're just a part of the virginal heroine's life during the Great War. On top of that while a world destroying plague is terrifying and does have the Gothic element in spades, the problem is us modern readers aren't scared of this plague. We know what the cause is. You have to take this truth and spin it or distort it in order to keep the horror relevant to modern readers.

But everything about this book was like Gothic Literature turned upside down. You think it will work and it doesn't. I had this feeling from the first pages as Ivy raised herself from her sickbed that this felt like the conclusion of a story. That we missed Ivy's story, we missed her imprisonment and illness, we missed her journey and here we are at the end and she gets her happily ever after. She is no longer in seclusion but enjoying life and getting a chance at love. Oddly enough it turns out I was somewhat astute in this observation. Because the irony is, and this is a big spoiler folks, Ivy is dead. So this whole story happens after her death. Therefore her journey has happened, her day is done, what we read here is some imagined ghostly happily ever after that Christopher Reeve was so desperately searching and then dying for in Somewhere in Time. It's most likely Winters did this setup on purpose, but that doesn't satisfy me. It makes me feel like I was manipulated from page one. I went in expecting a certain kind of book and I basically got The Others, the disappointing Nicole Kidman movie. So if you're looking for a slightly otherworldly World War I book set in the Midwest that will give your tear ducts a workout, go for it.

Your tear ducts won't be the only thing getting a workout, because this book is determined to pull out your heartstrings and beat you to death with them. One of the reasons I like Gothic literature is that it preys on other emotions, fear being the primary one. I don't like chick flicks, I don't long for a good cry, I'm not pining for something new from Nicholas Sparks. I don't want my emotions manipulated. If in the telling of a good story my emotions suffer, well, that's fine, it's the sign of good storytelling. On the other hand, if a story is written just to play merry havoc on my emotions, well, it starts to piss me off. The repeated reveals of just how many of Ivy's friends are actually ghosts besides herself was unnecessarily cruel. Yes, Winters wanted to show that these people were more than just statistics, that each and every life claimed by the Spanish Flu was a life someone missed, a life that mattered, but there's a point when you just can't take anymore. This drain on my emotions was too much to handle. The first time Ivy returns home to talk to her mother, what with everything that's been going on in my own life at the moment I just couldn't deal with it. I wanted this book to be banished from my sight. I wanted it to stop hurting me. At one point I thought, I'll hurt it by giving it one star! But then I thought, no. While this book isn't for me, while it's not what I expected, Winters is still too competent a writer to punish, like she did to me.

What with everyone being dead you can't help to start drawing conclusions to the aforementioned The Others, or to The Sixth Sense, or more importantly to the television show Life on Mars and it's sequel Ashes to Ashes. In particular the television shows spent seasons building your rapport with these characters only to have the finale of Ashes to Ashes reveal that they are in a way station after their deaths awaiting the next phase of their journey, through a pub, The Railway Arms, which leads to heaven. Now let's look at The Uninvited Guests, ghosts, stuck continuing their lives until they go to the Jazz Club and ascend... so basically exactly what happens in Ashes to Ashes without the time slip... this similarity, even if the author has never seen or heard of these shows made me feel like there was nothing truly original in this book. It felt like it was never trying to be it's own thing, just a combination of other things that worked more successfully. With Ashes to Ashes when the reveal was made with the character of Shazzer I lost my shit. This wasn't a narrative that had ever made me cry, but I was so connected to the characters that this undid me. Whereas, as I've mentioned previously, here Winters just repeatedly pulls the rug out from under you. It's not a real connection, it's not real emotion, she never works to get you to feel, it's a false feeling. Whereas Shazzer's death will always stay with me, I don't think this book will stay with me after a few more weeks.

Though there is one thing that might stick. The jazz of it all. Once you realize the characters are dead and it's basically a siren song it makes a little more sense how much the music is driving Ivy. The thing is, while I love certain artists, play piano and even saxophone at one time, I'm not one of those people with music in my veins. If you cut me I will likely bleed ink from being such a word person. Therefore I have a hard time connecting to people like Ivy who hear music and just can't stop their toes tapping. Who can't stop the call of the music as it pumps through their veins. If music is pumping through my veins I'm usually the person wondering if we can turn the music down a bit cause it's loud. Also if there's one kind of music I detest it's jazz. Seriously. Can. Not. Stand. It. Therefore this jazz that runs through the book was annoying but also was antithesis to trying to get any Gothic vibe going. So it alienated me as it blithely made the book more and more the opposite of what I was hoping for. Can we also talk about how depressing it is that these ghosts are drawn to jazz? While it was popular at this time it wasn't until the roaring twenties when this genre took hold, a decade none of these characters are going to live to see. The music and the characters are full of false life. Their story is done, thankfully for me, and it was a bleak one.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ashes to Ashes, Cat Winters, Diane Setterfield, Ghosts, Going Gothic, Gothic, Jazz, Life on Mars, Somewhere in Time, Spanish Flu, The Others, The Sixth Sense, The Thirteenth Tale, The Uninvited, WWI