From Wikipedia: “Tom Wallace lived an ordinary life, until a chance event awakened psychic abilities he never knew he possessed. Now he’s hearing the private thoughts of the people around him and learning shocking secrets he never wanted to know. But as Tom’s existence becomes a waking nightmare, even greater jolts are in store as he becomes the unwilling recipient of a message from beyond the grave.” I’m almost certain I saw this movie at some point, but remember almost nothing about it. It’s somehow […]
The sun comes up, just your bones remain
Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day is a standalone novella by Seanan McGuire who is one of my favorite writers. I love her work and I recommend it every chance I get. But even with all that, this novella hit me in a very different way than most of her novels do. I can’t be objective about this novella, I just can’t. It completely and utterly wrecked me and left me a sobbing mess on my couch last night. Yesterday morning I got an email […]
Spooky story for a cold, winter night.
Mrs. Drablow has died so her estate must be settled. To that end, junior solicitor Arthur Kipps is dispatched from London to the far northern hamlet of Crythin Gifford to go through the deceased woman’s paper work. Mrs. Drablow resided at Eel Marsh House, a melancholy manor located in fog drenched seclusion inside a marsh that is only reachable during low tide. Shortly after arriving Arthur begins seeing a young woman dressed in black and he, rightly, soon ascertains she is a ghost. Numerous scary […]
Not Laura Lippman
A lot of my initial disappointment with this book was because I was reading under the assumption that McMahon was Laura Lippman, a murder mystery author I adore, and thought Lippman had taken temporary leave of her senses when she wrote this. Only she didn’t write it and I think this was McMahon’s first novel, so it’s a bit unfair that I was holding it to such a high bar, but there it is. McMahon can’t decide if she’s writing a ghost story or a […]
I Ain’t Afraid Of No Ghost
Sarah Waters wrote a Stephen King book, you guys! Don’t be facetious? Oh, okay. Once again, Waters sets her novel in 1947, just after World War II, but in Warwickshire instead of London. Time-honored social hierarchies are beginning to break down, much to the bemusement of the genteel Ayres family. Their home, Hundreds Hall, was once a grand mansion but is now falling apart due to a lack of money. The family has been forced to sell its more valuable belongings and acres of the […]
Boring & Boring
I really enjoyed Setterfield’s debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale. It was a book as much about the love of books as it was the dark tale it was telling, and telling it with an unreliable narrator to boot. It left a lasting impression and when I spotted her follow up, a ghost story no less, on the shelf in Foyles, I had to buy it. I bloody love ghost stories. I love being scared when I’m reading or watching something, it’s the best. I haven’t had […]