Review: Haunted House or Haunted Hero?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 17, 2014
There seem to be two general sorts of haunted house/ghost stories. The first sort is thrillers where you have an actual haunted house, ghosts and spectral threats, normal sane victims, and lots of mayhem before either the ghosts win or the surviving good guys win. Those books always seem to move through the stages of normalcy, vague threat, clear threat, conflict and then resolution, and they play out best when turned into drive-in movies starring Vincent Price or Boris Karloff.The other stories keep you guessing about whether the house is haunted or the protagonist is mad. They can be very subtle and merely suggestive or full bore insane. They can be gently written to the point that there is just a mildly unsettling wisp of uneasiness or they can be hyper gory hatchet fests.This novella is satisfying, effective and deservedly well regarded because it takes the road less travelled and focuses on our hero, who in a very real sense is so damaged and lost that it's almost as though he is haunting the house instead of the other way around.No more about the plot. The important point is that we feel deeply about this character, we identify with his deterioration, and we feel his terror and his loss. Well done.Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.