Review: Atmospheric Perfection
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 8, 2013
Sandy DeLuca is one of the best horror writers currently writing for establishing a somber, disturbing mood.  Everything I've read by her puts me in a very particular state of mind, one that is more open to considering the possibility of ghosts and worse.  The only other author to alter my mood to such an extent has been Thomas Ligotti.  Her latest novella, Messages From the Dead, is no exception.Donna's life has always been close to the supernatural.  When she was a child, her grandmother would perform seances for people at their home.  Now, as an adult, she's attending art school in a building that was previously used as a children's hospital with a particularly nasty reputation.  I don't think it's spoiling anything to say the school is haunted, and Casper these ghosts are not.This novella isn't without its faults, though.  As mentioned, a great deal of attention is given to the atmosphere, but to some extent that's done at the expense of the backstory.  We're given a brief history lesson about the school and some of it's supernatural occupants, but it's very brief.  I feel the story would have benefited from exploring that history in a bit more detail.  Further, the ending felt somewhat rushed and a tad out of left field.  It wasn't bad by any means, it just wasn't what I was expecting based on everything that came before.All in all, though, Sandy DeLuca delivers a chilling ghost story, one that deserves to become a staple of the genre.