Reviews of Haunted House Fiction

Review of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark – The Film

/ danielwalterc / Leave a comment

ScaryThingsHouseHappy Mid-August to you all!

Sorry I haven’t been posting much lately.  Let’s see now, my last post, my review and analysis of Anne Rivers Siddons’ The House Next Door was published…wow…on July 2nd!  Has it really been that long? I guess it has. I blame my lack of blogging on the summer.  In addition to being an autumn kind of guy, with my love of autumnal colors, Halloween and haunted houses, I’m also a summer guy as well and I try to get in as many outdoor activities as I can in a short period of time.

Some summer rituals do involve The Great Indoors, though.  Such a ritual includes seeing a movie on a weekday during the daylight hours. Blame this on those summers of my high school years when going to matinees was a regular, cherished activity. Oh that precious nostalgia! To relive those days of my youth is to reengage in such rituals, and reengage I did. I went to see a seasonally appropriate film if there ever was one, for the days are getting colder, the nights longer, and fall is just around the corner. But for me at 2:35pm on August 14, 2019, autumn was already here, on the big screen, with its wonderful oranges and auburns, with its comfy wool sweaters and letterman jackets, with its Halloween celebrations, and most importantly, with its nightmarish monsters that prey on high school kids. This sneak preview of autumn even featured the small-town haunted house that stands behind the woods!  And this house is why this movie gets a review on my page. The movie is Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Before getting into the guts of the story, let’s go back to that season shit again.  Aw come on, it’s appropriate and it helps establish the feel of the film.  The autumn theme whacks a bit of certainty into today’s Chicago season. Mid-August, soooo uncertain, the weather doesn’t know what to do – be hot? Be cold? At least with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, I’m not having the kind of anxiety that is similar to one waiting to depart on a trip – I’m already there! I’m in a small town on October 31st, and seasonal testaments abound! There is the field of fully-grown corn with its stalks turning a golden brown. There are fallen leaves and wind is tossing them around, there are Halloween decorations in the windows. Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed the insides of the houses were geared up in autumn colors as well. The wallpapers (this is a period piece, 1968 I believe, as a Nixon election victory was shown later in the film) conform to the hues of this magnificent season. Great job to the set designers.  The film Halloween (1978) is often cited as the epitomical autumn horror film, for it too took place in a small town with houses decorated for Halloween, with its streets filled with blowing leaves. But Christ, this is supposed to be a fictional town in Illinois (Haddonfield), and there are fucking palm trees everywhere. The leaves are so green, too green. Alas, Halloween was filmed in California, and this is the reason for all this out of place scenery.  In Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, everything is in the right place. School is in session; high school activities are taking place. So if for no other reason, I recommend seeing this film for its knack of instilling the spirit of autumn. Special effects aside, the landscape is beautiful.  Oh, and the film’s story isn’t too bad either.

The story? Oh yeah – that. Four teens decide to explore the haunted house at the edge of the woods on Halloween night. It once belonged to the very prominent Bellows family back in the 19th century – a family that built and ran a mill which in effect created the town with the jobs it brought to the area.  The family is long gone (later we will learn – most just disappeared from the face of the earth).  The daughter of the family, Sarah, is kept in lock and chain and hidden from the outside world, so the rumors go. The legends also have it that Sarah would tell scary stories to children who listened to her through the walls.  Upon hearing the stories, the children would vanish.  Ah those small-town folktales, pretty silly huh? Well poor Stella, Ramon, Auggie and Chuck get a large helping of this “silliness” and it ain’t too pretty.

While exploring, aspiring horror writer Stella finds a book of stories written by Sarah herself, penned in blood so it appears. She brings it home. Hey Stella!   That wasn’t such a good idea. Oh Stella!

By stealing the book, Stella has awakened the vengeful spirit of Sarah Bellows. And she is cranky, having been “dead asleep” for however many years. In both death and life, Sarah utilizes that unique skill she has – what she writes comes true. She writes about scary stories and legends. And, she will write about the teens that roamed about in her haunted house. Words appear on the pages in present time, and she casts the teens as the victims of such monstrous creatures. Could it be that Sarah had caused her family to disappear by writing them into these terrible tales of hers? Could be!

A team of creative individuals are at the helm of this film.  It is directed by André Øvredal, director of The Autopsy of Jane Doe. If you haven’t seen this film, treat yourself to it as soon as possible.  As for the film currently under review, it is based on a screenplay by none other then Guillermo del Toro (which is loosely based on the books by Alvin Schwartz, more on this later). G del T also helped to produced this film, so if you’re looking for his signature creepy monsters, you’re gonna get them! (although many are replicas of illustrations from the books. Replicated awesomely I might add!)

There are three collections of scary short stories books written by Alvin Schwartz. Published in 1981, 1984 and 1991, they are, respectively, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones.  These are children’s stories but apparently some didn’t think so. Too much graphic violence, the naysayers.  Here are some illustrations from the talented Stephen Gammell:

I consider myself blessed for not having read the books, for I am sure that I would have found the film unfavorable by comparison. But you see, the film is looooosely based on these stories. The books, from what I gather, have no ghostly author that pens stories that come true. That underlying arc from the film was a device used to reenact these stories on the big screen. See, some of the stories of the first book will be the stories that Sarah will bring to life in the film, such as The Big Toe, where a corpse comes looking for her missing toe, which is inside a pot of stew. Ewww! (“Stew and Ewwww”, they rhyme.) But from what I gather, even the details of these stories within are not exactly the same as they are in Schwartz’s books.

I have to wind down this review with my favorite subject – haunted houses. What is found inside the haunted house (Sarah’s book) serves as the catalyst for the scares in the movie, most of which occur outside the house – in a cornfield (that scarecrow is creepy, and yes, it will come to life and do some killing), in a bedroom (hiding under the bed won’t save you from the corpse woman that is looking for her toe!), in a high school bathroom (where every high school student has faced the horrors of self-insecurity by looking in the mirror. Hey Ruth, there’s something popping out of your pimple!), in the halls of a restricted area in a psychiatric facility (That big bloated “huggy monster” with that curving smile, man she looked weird), inside the jailhouse (through the fireplace comes the Jangly Man, piece by piece, down the chimney and into the fireplace).  But it is to the house our heroine and hero must return by the movie’s end in order to restore order. And the house does what a good haunted house always does: it recreates the tragic events that occurred over a hundred years ago and unveils a treachery kept secret up until now.

Is this a great horror movie? I don’t know about “great”.  Is it good? Most definitely. It’s entertaining, scary and looks damn good, and I’m not just writing about the stylized monsters. Guillermo del Toro is skilled at making things look good, and though he might not have been the one to make it all happen, his influence was definitely there.  The whole atmosphere shines of a storybook autumn and its small-town nostalgia.  It pleases the senses of sight. There are some jump scares but thankfully they are used sparingly.  It’s more effectively frightening to watch the monsters lumber along, taking their time, giving the audience a fair chance to embed them into their nightmares.  Yes, some of the monster travel at CGI speed, but I like the ones that didn’t better. Who needs speed when a confident monster knows that s/he will get you in the end!

The House Next Door – Anne Rivers Siddons – Review and Analysis

/ danielwalterc / Leave a comment

HOuseNextDoorSiddons2I love a haunted house that does its own thing. Such a house births a kind of haunting that is unique from its predecessors and peers.  And yet, it’s  willing to learn from them. Within its walls the traditions and motifs established by the great literary haunted houses are respected. However, this house is determined  to creak and settle to its own moaning boos. Its foundation is secure in pre-established themes while its structure expands into new, terrifying space. Where, you might ask,  might I find such a haunted  house? Look no further  than the “house next  door!”

Hi there, welcome to my article about Anne Rivers Siddons’ critically  acclaimed  novel The House Next Door. All is fine with Walter and Colquitt  Kennedy, the two major characters of this novel. They live in a quiet suburb of Atlanta and admire the empty lot next door with all its greenery and naturesque habitation. But move over nature, for a new house will be built on this lot. With the new house will come new neighbors, a succession of them, for no one will stay in this house  for very long. After several mysterious  and unfortunate events involving the new house and its  different  occupants, Walter and Colquitt suspect that the place is haunted. They then will do whatever it takes to steer potential buyers away from this evil house.

This piece is more than a review; it’s an analysis of the various themes that help this novel to both earn it’s rightful place among  genre-specific greats while offering readers something unique.  Since I will be looking  at key plot points in order to achieve my analytical  goals, there will be spoilers throughout the article. They are simply unavoidable.

In past articles, I have declared  my love for “haunted houses that are more than the sum of their ghosts”. Stories with such houses don’t fit into a logic paradigm that states: there are ghosts in the house. Therefore the house in the story is haunted. These stories feature a house that is haunted in and of itself, with or without ghosts. The House Next Door  haunts without ghosts. Ghosts represent the intangible  yet powerful images and sentiments  from the past. Within Gothic literature, ghosts from a bygone era often return to haunt the contemporary generations. The House Next Door is classified as a Southern Gothic, a subgenre of Gothic Literature. Works within The Southern Gothic often explore contemporary social issues. This is true with Siddons’ novel and in doing so, it inverts the premise of the parent genre – the “haunting present” tears at the characters traditional and comfortable way of life.

Gothic in Brief

I have delved into some of the elements of Gothic Literature in various articles across this Blog but by no means am I an expert on all there is to know about this genre.  Gothic Literature, from its roots in the 18th century, brings together romance, fantasy, suspense and horror. Its influence on modern day storytelling is vast. It’s sort of like what The Beatles are to modern day music.   My “ghosts from the past” description in the preceding paragraph is but one of its many elements. Ah but what an interesting element it is!

Different time periods are often juxtaposed in Gothic literature.  Eras clash with one another. There is the failure of modern science to combat vampirism in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Modern science has finally achieved the ability to create life in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but the scientist is unable to control his own creation.  More apt to what I might call “the gothic haunted house tradition”,  characters are forced to atone for the sins of past generations. These characters have to deal with ghosts and other supernatural entities, or  even supernatural events, as a form of retribution. This happens in The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne and to some extent in The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe.  Think about it, another word for “haunt” might be “linger”.  To linger is to stay. Whatever is lingering is old, meaning, it was there before. It may no longer be wanted. Yet it lingers, to the horrific detriment of the characters in a horror novel.

Southern Gothic and “Then Vs Now”

The Southern Gothic is a uniquely American expansion of the Gothic tradition. Like with its parent genre, I am by no means an expert on its character.  I know by its title that it pertains to settings in the American south. But what else is it?   Here are some quotes from Wikipedia to help answer that question:

The Southern Gothic style employs macabre, ironic events to examine the values of the American South .Thus unlike its parent genre, it uses the Gothic tools not solely for the sake of suspense, but to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South – Gothic elements often taking place in a magic realist context rather than a strictly fantastical one.

Warped rural communities replaced the sinister plantations of an earlier age; and in the works of leading figures such as William Faulkner, Carson McCullers and Flannery O’Connor, the representation of the South blossomed into an absurdist critique of modernity as a whole.

AND

The thematic material was largely a result of the culture existing in the South following the collapse of the Confederacy. It left a vacuum in both values and religion that became filled with poverty due to defeat in the Civil war and reconstruction, racism, excessive violence, and hundreds of different denominations resulting from the theological divide that separated the country over the issue of slavery.

A key takeaway from these quotes points to the subject of time and change. That was the past, this is the now. In some cases, The Southern Gothic conforms to the “ghosts of the past” scenario. Toni Morrison’s Beloved provides such an example as the horrors of slavery return many years later in the form of a young, undead woman. But, according to Wikipedia, stories of  the Southern Gothic tradition deal with situations where characters are unable to adjust to modern times. These folks might just prefer some “ghosts of better times”. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not making a case for the descendants of aristocratic plantation owners to return to the “glory days” of “the good life” on the backs of slaves. I’m just pointing out that anytime there is social upheaval, there will be serious adjustment problems, for both the oppressed and the oppressors. .

Not having read much in the way of classic Southern Gothic, I am guessing that what I have described in the above paragraph applies significantly to period pieces immediately post antebellum. But there is contemporary Southern Gothic; stories that take place in the modern day South, where characters are historically far removed from the days of slavery and the “Old South”  Still, one element is the same – the theme of larger, outside cultural forces threatening the pre-established ways of insulated communities. Newness “haunts” the old.

Case in point, The House Next Door.  From Simon and Schuster, here is an observation on the novel:

An unparalleled picture of that vibrant but dark intersection where the Old and the New South collide.

The characters in The House Next Door are content and cozy in their private suburb of Atlanta. They are all neighbors. They are well-to-do and they enjoy each other’s company at holiday house parties and country clubs.  It’s a leisurely life until…a new house is constructed on an empty lot on the block. New house, new neighbors. There goes the neighborhood, brought down by the supernatural elements that come with the new house.

Since this isn’t a story about the past coming back to haunt the present day characters, this house has no need to outsource its terror to a bunch of spectral phantoms. It does the job all by itself, and brilliantly so, thanks to the mind of one Anne Rivers Siddons. This house creates horrific situations that no other house has been able to do, at least not in the haunted house books that I have read. In the next section I detail these situations while examining exactly how outside and modern cultural forces threaten the pre- established ways.

 Analyzing The House Next Door – Checking Out the New Neighbors

To begin, the official story of the house is that it preys upon the weaknesses of its  HOuseNextDoorSiddons3occupants. Or, it knows what its  occupants cherish the most, and it rips and tears at the seams all that they hold dear. The malicious  intentions of the house are rooted in either the architect, the architectural  design or both. The Kennedys guess that the architect is cursed, and this is why the house  behaves the way it does. At the book’s end, the architectural plans end up in the hands of a couple that want a newly built home. Readers then know that the “haunting” is embedded in the design. Very creative, Siddons!

There is not a whole lot of description regarding the overall appearance of the house. The key takeaway is that is new, not just “new” to the block, but “new” as in “of modern design”, contemporary, state of the art. The architect himself, Kim, is a young man, fresh out of school, and somewhat of the bohemian type. It’s his first architectural design. Once built, the Kennedys, who weren’t too happy about its construction,  had to admit that it was beautiful. The couple that hired Kim to design the house and then have it built for them, The Pie and Buddy Harralson, are young and inexperienced. Pie Harralson is somewhat  flighty but as a whole they are nice enough  and the Kennedys welcome them warmly. The Harralsons  are expecting  a baby.

Problems began during the construction process. The dead remains of wild animals and household pets turn up on or around the construction  site. They have been brutally mauled, but there are no predatory animals in the area strong and fierce enough to cause such damage.

(Analysis: Suburbanization  and modernity are the predators. Land for wildlife destroyed  by a modern domicile)

Then there was the accident. Pie falls at the site and loses the baby to miscarriage.Off to a bad start but determined to carry on, the Harralsons settle in once the house is finished. They have a party and invite the neighbors. They are determined  to fit into this community and things will work out all right – they hope. Buddy is an up and coming  lawyer and Lucas Abbott from the firm is showing him the ropes. Lucas is at the party. So is Pie’s crotchety father  and all of the neighbors, including  Walter and Colquitt, their brand new best friends.

Then it happened. In a bedroom. Behind closed  doors. When  the doors opened  and the guests peered inside, they saw a disturbing  scene. The body of Pie’s ‘s father lay  dead  on the floor. He was a victim of a stroke. In the bed lay Buddy and Lucas, not dead, very much alive. They are naked. Two men sneak off to have sex, presumably  in front of a shocked  father-in-law, who died as a result of shock.

(Analysis: in these days, 1978, while the gay rights movement  was making strides, the culture at large frowned upon Homosexuality. At best  it was scene as an alternative lifestyle, an “alternative” that I’m sure the characters of this story, secluded characters in Southern suburbia, would find very uncomfortable After this Harralsons move away in grief and shame The book suggests  that the two men in bed were never gay. The house, perhaps, took control of their wills and forced  them into that socially mortifying  situation. It allowed the social ills of modern life (from their perspective, Homosexuality  = an ill) to spill into  its walls and wash its filth upon the occupants, even killing the father in law in the process. The old have no place in this new world.)

A new couple buys the house. The Sheehans are older than the Harralsons. Like the Harralsons, Anita and Buck Sheehan are eager to fit into the community. But for some reason, they are worried about the teenagers that live in the community. The neighbors  reassure them, “They are good kids”, they say, referring  to the only two teens in the neighborhood.  But it’s not the propensity of youthful shenanigans that worries them. Anyone of youthful appearance  upsets the mentally unstable Anita. Not too long ago, the Sheehans lost their son in The Vietnam  War. The sight of a young male teen triggers within her a crippling grief. But she is trying to get better. The couple as a whole are trying to move on, start over, find happiness. The house will not let them succeed.

The house takes over the television programming. It shows Anita war movies when none are being aired by any network. It also manufacturers  long distance phone calls from her son. She hears  the sounds of war in the background. This is too much for her. She withdrawals and the marriage is strained. Virgina, another neighbor, married to Charles,  assists the couple and looks after Anita while Buck is at work. Virgina sometimes stays behind to help even after Buck gets home. It is Colquitt who walks in on the scene  that does the Sheehans  in. She observes Anita in her  living room sitting and staring blankly into space. Next to her, on the sofa, Virgina and Buck are having sex.. Again it is suggested that the house took over the wills of Buck and Virginia in order to destroy  two families. In the wake of this, Virginia and Charles  disappear on a long trip. The Sheehans move away.

(Analysis: The plight of the Sheehans represents the then present day crisis that was the aftermath  of The Vietnam  War. Families grieved for their lost children killed at war. Veterans had a difficult time readjusting to society. The aftermath of this war in particular was dealt with behind  closed doors.  People grieved privately. Veterans suffered in silence. A community  such as the one depicted in this book, of mostly well to do families that didn’t have to send their sons off to war, was Ill -prepared  for this kind of brutal reality. But the house magnifies the tragic grief of the Sheehans so that the misfortune  would spread  to another family on the block, tangling Virginia into an adulterous affair.)

Finally  there is the Greenes, the third family to move into the house. Norman Greene is always publicly shaming his wife Susan. He also treats Melissa, the twelve(?)- year-old daughter  with utter contempt. As a host at neighborhood party, he wants everything perfect and he blames his wife for any mishap. When the house itself shuts off all the electricity at the height of the party, he blames her. It is Anita who comes from money. Norman thinks he’s entitled to have and manage her money and she lets  him do this. Why? Because he did her the favor  of marrying her. For you see, she had brought shame  on herself and family by having a child  out of wedlock. That child would be Melissa, who is not Norman’s biological daughter.  In the end, the house will kill them all by manipulating their wills to commit murder/suicide.

(Analysis: Dysfunctional  families on a block of “normal” families. Back in 1978, among some populations I’m guessing, having a child out of wedlock was still somewhat of a taboo. The term “baby Daddy” was just not popular  parlance. Then on top of this is the abusive husband, his words and actions so caddish as to rub the neighbors the wrong way. Although the house did not create this situation, it certainly brought it to light by humiliating Norman, causing him to lash out, causing, eventually, for their  backstory to be made known.)

The House Next Door – Standing Among the Great Haunted Houses in Literature

Inside “the house next door” we the readers encounter a series of families and couples that fall victim to the enigmatic will of the house. It manipulates their mind and forces  them to behave in ways they wouldn’t  otherwise. They cause scandals with adultery,  gay sex, murder and suicide. All this and yet these families aren’t the victims that are at the forefront of the story. It is from the perspective of Walter and Colquitt by which the story unfolds. It’s not the horror of personal experience  with the supernatural (with one exception, but I won’t spoil everything) , but the horror of the aftermath  of sadness on behalf of the others. Never again will they have normal, happy neighborhood because the world is no longer normal. Abnormality has put its roots down on their block, and their lives will never again be the same. For a modern house has brought the ills of contemporary  life into their secluded community. The Old  and New South have collided, just as Simon and Schuster said it would, making Siddons’  novel a staple of contemporary Southern Gothic

The House Next Door  is no ordinary haunted house. Yet it is very much influenced by the legendary haunted houses from its  literary  predecessors; books such as The Haunting of Hill House, Burnt Offerings, The Shining come to mind. But it’s paid its debt to them with a style of its own.

How is The House Next Door similar to these epic haunted houses?

All of the houses in these books have their own will. They are much more than a place for ghosts to hang out, if there are any ghosts at all. The source behind the haunting is vague and mysterious. These houses are, in a way, alive and they prey on its occupants in one way or another.

How is The House Next Door different from these epic haunted  houses?

The aforementioned haunted houses are all unique in their own ways. The House Next Door stands apart from the rest in the way that it manipulates the will of its occupants and then creates these bizarre scenes for which the occupants become actors and then act out perverse, humiliating, and sometimes deadly scenes. This house is also unique in the  way that it is shown from the perspective  of not is current owners but the neighbors next door. These neighbors , The Kennedys , are forced into a situation where they become unwilling voyeurs of the scary strangeness that lurks next door.

SiddonsAnne Rivers  Siddons – she has many  books  under her belt. According  to wikipedia, Her genre is southern literature, not horror. Perhaps that’s what helps her novel The House  Next Door stand out. Horror doused within another genre allows for a wider and more enriching story than a tale with flat characters and things that go bump in the night.  Perhaps  I’ll read more of her works. I probably  won’t find another horror story, but maybe  I’ll find another  book of hers that touch on that good ol’ Southern Gothic. That would be interesting.

 

 

 

The House Next Door: A Ghost Story – Review of a Darcy Coates Novel

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HouseNextDoorCoates2The House Next Door: A Ghost Story – a novel by Darcy Coates. Of course I would have guessed that this was a ghost story even if the last phrase of the title was omitted. This house, the one next door, would it be haunted? Of course it would. For you see, Coates just happens to be the amazon.com queen of modern day haunted house fiction in my opinion. She understands this genre well,  knowing when the stairs should creak and the shadows will creep.

It’s been a while since I last visited the works of Coates. I was surprised  to see that her bibliography has doubled. I knew her as an author that wrote novellas with repetitive titles  such as “The Haunting  of (*Insert name of house here*) House” books. A short catalog of short stories. Her bibliography has since expanded and The House Next Door: A Ghost Story is the first full length novel that I have read from her. (It didn’t disappoint) Search engines yield a lot more info on her than when I last researched her and her DarcyCoatesworks. I have since found interviews (https://redadeptediting.com/darcy-coates/),many positive reviews, and finally, her picture is available!  As Virginia Slims once said- “You’ve come a long way, baby!

For those new to Coates, her stories are admittingly formulaic, but they are page-turning. They are modern gothics that feature a mansion-like house, often with an old-world  flavor. The atmosphere is what is expected and desired –  the layout of the house is creatively detailed and the rooms and corridors  have the descriptive power to ensnare readers within their walls.  Unsettled spirits roam about these corridors, interacting creepily with certain pieces of furniture or decorative objects.   But these are modern tales, so the house might be on the outskirts  of the suburbs or the edge of a cosmopolitan  town. They feature  a female protagonist that is fleeing a former life. It could be a bad marriage, a complicated relationship with her immediate  family  or any a number of things. Alone, she moves to a new location  and buys or rents  one of these large , haunted  abodes. After several brushes with supernatural  phenomena, she finds herself entwined in the mystery that caused the haunting in the first place and it becomes her task to solve such a mystery. In the end she will succeed and live happily  ever after with her cats. She will  always have cats. Coates  loves cats and so do her protagonists.

So, does House Next  Door follow this formula? Mostly. After years of living in a  strained relationship with her ailing mother, Jo is now on her own. With money she has inherited, she purchases a house in new neighborhood. But  guess what? It’s not haunted! However, the house next door is! (Hmm, maybe that’s why the book is called  “The House Next Door? Ya think?) Jo has watched residents of the house come and go. One family in particular fled the house in the middle of the night, leaving all their possessions behind. Never  had she gotten to know any of these  former residents. This changes when Anna moves in. Anna, a maker and seller of dolls, is hiding from her abusive ex, with whom she is keeping her new place of residence a secret. The two  women become friends, but – can two women with troubled  pasts be together without driving themselves  crazy? Scratch that last question, which belongs in the intro for the sitcom  The Odd Couple, albeit slightly  different wording. The real question is – can these two women  work together  to thwart the evil spirit that dwells in the house  without going crazy? Answer – negative. Both will experience bouts of insanity. But they will carry  on. They must.

There aren’t many twists in this book. If there is a slight air  of mystery about an unexplained phenomenon in the house that hints at the activity of a spirit, then the spirit  is probably to blame. If Jo becomes paranoid that her friend’s  ex is driving by her house  to stalk her, then he is probably  doing just that. There is an exception; the women will do something dark and serious. I didn’t see this coming.

I do not read Darcy  Coates’ books for twists. Of these, unfortunately she seems to be in short supply. I do read her books  for her writing style, for her flair  for immersing me in a haunted house where ghosts might be hiding in any corner; a corner that has already been brought  to life by means of descriptive  storytelling. In The House Next Door – A Ghost Story, I love the way the ghost makes its presence known, seen by characters who look up the stairwell, past the stairs, then down the upstairs  hallway. I love the forms that come into being inside the dancing curtains in the wind-deprived rooms. I love the way  she describes the sad  music that manifests mysteriously from the living room piano.

Darcy Coates knows how to haunt a house. This is why I  read her books.  There are so many I haven’t  read. And I’m willing to bet her list will only get longer.

Let it be known – There are several other books out their in reading land with the title “The House Next Door.” James Patterson has such a book. Is it about a haunted house? Probably not. I have only read one of his books, but as far as I can tell, he’s a crime thriller kind of author, not a teller of ghost stories. But – the most famous haunted house book with that title is perhaps Anne River Siddons’ 1978 novel.  And guess what? I am reading that now. Expect an upcoming review. But I will not compare these two stories, or do any kind of Coates Vs. Siddons. Apples and oranges my friends!  The house to my left is an apple, the house to my right is an orange, and I’m just a nut in the middle!

 

Waiting Spirits – From the Dark Forces Teen Horror Series of the Early ’80s

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Here’s to the kids of not too long ago yesterday. Growing up, they had all kinds of options when it came to reading young adult stories about the supernatural. They had books that featured ghosts, witches, vampires  and other cool and creepy things. I didn’t have Harry Potter when I was growing up, only Colonel  Potter on M*A*S*H reruns.. Being that the early 80s were the dawning of my young adult years, Twilight  had not yet set in (And from what I’ve heard about the series, that’s a good thing.), While adolescence  was a time of strong emotions, I never got the Goosebumps over the whole thing. In order for me to get my fix of the spookies , I had to turn to – The Dark Forces! Oh no! (Ohhh yes!)

What are the Dark Forces?

DarkForcesCollection

The Dark Forces is a series of teen horror novels that was published by Bantam Books in the early 1980s. The series consists of roughly fifteen book written by various authors. Each book is a stand-alone story and to the best of my knowledge there are no overlaps or crossovers between books. All of them consist of supernatural tales that feature teenage protagonists who go toe-to-toe with ghosts, demons and other magical entities. The series averages about 150 pages per book. These are not timeless classics; they are not on par with one Harry Potter. While The Harry Potter novels thrilled fans of all ages, I doubt that the Dark Forces series had any following from adult readers.  They just didn’t have the breadth of topics or the simple yet sophisticated kind of storytelling that went into creating the Hogwarts culture. Today these books are largely forgotten. In fact they are hard to come by,, at least when it comes to paperbacks. I’m sure some can be found on Amazon, Ebay, etc. As mediocre as they are in terms of popularity and content, I enjoyed reading them when I was thirteen. They certainly had cool looking covers. I didn’t read them all. Maybe half?

For a few years now, I had been wondering about these books. Alas, I couldn’t remember the title of the series nor any specific book title. But thanks to some references from Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ‘70s and ‘80s Horror Fiction, I was able to gather enough information to conduct a search for the right, proper, and fitting book from this series.  Of course, that would be a haunted house book. Did this series feature any such thing? Gosh, I didn’t know! But if it did, by golly, I was determined to find it, read it and review it.  The results of this determination are toward the end of this piece. But for now, read on to learn even more about The Dark Forces series.

Going Deeper into the Dark Forces

Were  things really that drastic in the early 80s that I had to succumb to “dark forces” to get my reading kicks? Was there no other reading outlet to save my precious soul? I suppose there was. There were The Hardy Boys and The Nancy Drew Mystery  series, but those were already on the way out and besides, from my understanding,  they were more mystery than fantasy. Maybe there was some other book series  that I simply neglected. No matter because The Dark Forces worked for me. Ha ha ha ha ha! (Go back and read the “ha ha’s” with a sinister sounding laugh).

Truth be told, this series was all about warning impressionable youngsters like  myself about the dangers of messing around with dark forces. If memory  serves me correctly, the books I read had lessons for us , the misdirected sheep that followed those  evil, soul-corrupting trends that struck like a plague  back there in the early  80s. Created by evil masterminds, targeted against us – the precious  children of America – such trends included role-playing  games such as Dungeons and Dragons, heavy metal music, and video  games. For you see, demons were liable  to take over  the games and music, and that’s bad and stuff.

I’m only half joking about the things I wrote in the previous paragraph. I never had to worry about demons infesting my pastimes. And there  ain’t nothing wrong with Dungeons  and Dragons, video games and heavy metal  music! Like anything  else, so long as they are used  and not misused, it’s all good. But back in them there  days (early 80s), adults were worried about  these sort of activities  and the ill-effects they might have on their sons and daughters.

There were stories , real or fabricated I never knew, about “that one boy” that lost all touch with reality on account of his addiction to Dungeons and Dragons.  I remember how freaked out a certain religious  fanatic relative became when I was gifted the game at Christmas. Since the game calls for spell casting, even though it’s all make-believe, this person had real concerns about treating magic playfully. In regards to heavy metal music and rock and roll in general, certain religious  leaders and politicians reacted quite  unfavorably to the explicit lyrics of certain songs. They insisted that albums with such songs have warning labels. Others  claimed that certain  songs had “backwards, Satanic messages.”  The leaders of my Sunday School youth group hauled us all off to a seminar on the  Satanic influences of rock and roll. The pastor leading  the seminar  explained to us that backward messages come though all to clear in our subconscious. Therefore, rock music is, in effect, hypnotizing youth into worshipping  Satan. He actually  believed this. As far as video games go, a common concern among parents is the graphic violence that is portrayed. But in the early  80s  video games were in their infancy and graphics were laughable by today’s standards. Still parents found reasons to get all in an uproar. Video games were stealing time away  from homework. They were seen as addictive  and, as with Dungeons  and  Dragons, parents worried that  their children would  lose touch with reality as they give themselves  up to the fantasy worlds portrayed  in the games.

Now, what does all this have to do with the Dark Forces series? To refresh, I had written “the books I read had lessons for us , the misdirected sheep that followed those  evil, soul-corrupting trends that struck like a plague  back there in the early  80s.” How so, you might  be asking?

The first book of the series is The Game by Les Logan. I don’t remember reading this one,DarkForcesTheGame but according to some Goodreads reviews , it seems to serve as a warning against the use of Ouija boards. So kids, even though such a game is sold on the same shelf as Monopoly and Scrabble, don’t buy it!  The Ashton Horror (#12 in the series)  by Laurie Bridges ,is another book that I missed. But according to the synopsis on Goodreads, young Dennis gets some attention from the prettiest girl in town. She invites him to join a “fantasy game club”. No, no Dennis, fantasizing is the Devil’s work, don’t do it…Dennis? And wouldn’t you DarkForcesTheAshtonHorrorknow it, the club members are trying to free an imprisoned demon. Bad club members!

 

I do remember owning Beat the Devil  (#10 in the series) by Scott Siegel. DarkForcesBeatTheDevilWho could forget that cover? Anyway, Doug is an expert at arcade video games. He becomes obsessed by a game called “Beat the Devil.” This game takes precedence over the important things in his life; his school work, his girlfriend, even his own sanity. And guess who it is that is sucking away at Doug’s life? Why, it’s the Devil himself! So you see kids, even though it may be far-fetched to think that the Devil is controlling  you via Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, video games can make your life “Hell” if you become addicted to them.

DarkForcesTheBargainThe book I remember the most is The Bargain (#5 in the series) by Rex Sparger. I remember the story featured a teenaged (or maybe they were in their early  20s, I don’t know) rock band called The Coastals, or something  like that. Anyway, a shady promoter approaches them, m promises them fame and riches, and soon thereafter  he is their manager. He convinces them to change their  name to Sabbat and change to a heavy metal sound and image. I guess they had a more pop-oriented style before (I hate pop!) If you haven’t  already guessed, this manager is secretly an agent of Satan. The band as, in effect, signed a contact  with the Devil, but somehow they get out of it and defeat the evil forces. By the book’s end, a pastor helps the band and as it turns out, the pastor can play a mean guitar. Isn’t that precious?

So in sum, with current synopses to backup my memory, I describe these books as simple stories (easy to read) that are warning manuals in disguise. They are saturated with warnings against games and trends that are marketed as harmless pastimes when if fact they are gateways to the dangerous world of “dark forces”.  Even as a teen, as I enjoyed reading these books, I became annoyed with the not-too-subtle warnings.

Now here is a question: Was each and every book of the series like this? I don’t know. As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t read the series in its entirety. Alas, my impressions are largely based on memories  from thirty-five years ago. Being that it has been such  a long time since I  had read any of these books, is it possible that  my impressions are flawed, my memories imperfect? This is very possible. So I decided that I needed to read one of these books and review the material from a more current mindset.  Once again, I wanted to take a trip down memory  lane as I did  when I reread Ghost House Revenge, as I  did when I  took in the various book descriptions in Paperbacks  from  Hell. Were there any books in the Dark Forces series that featured  haunted houses? Yes, I found one. Waiting Spirits (#11 in the series) by Bruce Coville. This is not one of the books I had read as a youngster. This would be my first reading.

Would this book serve as yet another lesson about avoiding the lure of “dark forces”?

Would I feel differently reading one of these books as an adult? Are there story elements that anyone, both young and old, could enjoy? I  would find out. And I did find out. You can read all about it in the following  paragraphs.

Wait No Longer, The Waiting Spirits are Here

A family spends a summer at a house by the beach. It’s a nice summer home, although  Lisa doesn’t  want to be there. She has her life back home, which includes a chance at dating a guy she likes. Before the summer’s  end, she’ll find a boyfriend  right there by the beach. See Lisa , now that it’s all over, wasn’t it good for you to spend the summer at that house? You found a boyfriend, You learned a lot of family history. You got possessed and tried to kill your younger sister. Good times!

Who is all in the household? Well there’s Lisa’s ten year old sister Carrie. They get along quite well. There’s mom and dad. Dad is trying to write a book, so everyone  just please leave him alone. Mom just does mom stuff . Grandma  is there. She is a retired professor and it is her house. She grew up in it. She’ll behave a little mysteriously now and then, so readers should watch out for her. And of course, there are some ghosts inside the house. They always help to make a summer eventful.

For a novel directed  at young teens, his book is surprisingly dark. Yes I know, this is from the Dark  Forces series, so wouldn’t  that be a no-brainer? I guess what I mean is, yeah of course any subject  matter concerning  ghosts or demons  is by definition  “dark.”  But the story doesn’t just leave the darkness to the  mere presence  of supernatural  entities but this book. Instead it  clinches  it with a darkness that lurks in the backstory and manifests in the behavior of the spirits and the havoc they cause. In various places in the book, there is the death of a child, the terror of an insane ghost, and the startling repercussions of a teen possessed.

I had serious reservations at the beginning. After the prologue, Author Coville  wastes no time “RUSHering” in the story. This rush is was most likely  geared at teen readers that are in no mood for prolonged  setups. It is raining everyday during the family’s first week at the summer home. The girls  are bored out of their minds. The grandma comes to the rescue with an idea to pass the time: they should “play a game” where they can try to communicate with spirits. Grandma is referring  to “automatic  writing”, the process where the one with the paper and a pencil becomes a medium while the spirit  will take control of the pencil and write out a message. So haphazardly  Grandma  suggests this and with a mere shrug, the girls  and their mother agree. One their very first attempt, with Lisa acting as the medium, they make contact  with a spirit. All that was needed was some kind of mundane utterance, something like, “Are there any spirits here, please respond”. This did the trick because right away, Lisa becomes temporarily  possessed and the spirit  uses her hand to  write a message. After this, all the “game” participants  had an attitude like “huh. That was  weird. Oh well, what should we do next?”

Despite that weak beginning, the story does mature a bit. There is some pretty scary ghost stuff going on and the story  slows down so that it can take it all in. Mind you, I’m not saying his piece is a candidate  for The Pulitzer  Prize of haunted house  novels. It’s rather  juvenile, but it’s better than I  thought  it would be. And guess what?? It didn’t smack me over the head with lessons and warnings. Coville, thank you for not doing that. Ironically  it’s an adult that starts the trouble  by initiating the automatic  writing game.

Bruce Coville is a prolific children’s author with an extensive bibliography. His books are divided into several series of his own, including Magic Shop Books (five books), My Teacher is an Alien (four books), I Was a Sixth Grade Alien (twelve books), and many more (From Wikipedia). His series Bruce Coville’s Chamber of Horrors (four books) includes Waiting Spirits. Will I  read any of these? Probably  not. I read Waiting Spirits to experience  a quick dive into the sea of Dark Forces nostalgia while  adding to my collection of Haunted house book reviews. I have done this.  Waiting Spirits is not a bad book, so these other Coville books probably won’t be bad either. But I’m not it’s intended  audience. I was once, back when these books were published. I am not anymore. Time to move on. And besides, I’m a haunted house guy and just because these are “horror” books, it doesn’t mean that any of the remaining three feature haunted houses and….oh wait…..I now see that the second book of his “Chamber of Horrors” series Spirits and Spells does feature a haunted house. Ohhh and it seems interesting:

Trying out their new haunted house game, Spirits and Spells, in the creaky old Gulbrandsen place seemed like a cool idea to Travis, Tansy and their friends.

That was before they found out what was in the attic…and the basement…and everywhere in between.

 

Am I going to be sucked into yet another book meant for a young reader? We’ll see. We shall see

 

 

 

 

Review of Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ‘70s and ‘80s Horror Fiction – With Special Attention to Its Chapter on Haunted Houses

/ danielwalterc / Leave a comment

In 1936, Bing Crosby introduced Pennies from Heaven to the world. Such an invaluable gift this holy coinage was! Is there anyone else that could gift the world similar treasures? If so, what might these treasures be! How about Paperbacks from Hell, with a gifter by the name of Grady Hendrix (Is he a relative of Jimi?)  Okay, so he didn’t write any of these infernal paperbacks, buy hey, Crosby didn’t mint the coins, so there! What Hendrix did do was compile a collection of book titles, authors, and cover artists in a book dedicated to horror novels of the 70s and 80s, which features bios, pictures and a whole lot of fun analysis. The complete title of his work is Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ‘70s and ‘80s Horror Fiction.

So just what “in the hell” is this book about? Read on and find out. (But first, admire “Pennies from Heaven” please!)

 

Hi there! I’ve been on a short hiatus. I was vacationing in The Philippines, and then I was sick, and blah blah blah. Well let me pick up where I left off. The last time I wrote was back in mid-March. Let’s see, I was writing about something….something about ghosts…and haunted houses…(Me write about those things? No way!)….hmmmm…Ah ha! The subject/s was Ghost House! And Ghost House Revenge, two books by Clare McNally. I must refer back to this review, because it was these two books that led me to Paperbacks from Hell.. I had remembered these two books from my childhood and I searched the Internet to see if they still existed in some format today. But I couldn’t remember the titles or the name of the author, so I had to comb through the various search results that came from my search words “Haunted house and horror books of the 70s and 80s.”  I eventually found what I was looking for, and so much more. Among the search items, I found Hendrix’s book, which had in its title the keywords “70s/80s/horror/” I discovered that these two decades were the heydays for  horror paperback novels, that never before had there been so many fictional works on such horrific subjects: Satan, Creepy Kids, When Animals Attack, Real Estate Nightmares, Weird Science, Gothic and Romantic, Inhumanoids, Splatterpunks, Serial Killers And Super Creeps! These are the chapters and category names for Hendrix’s Paperbacks from Hell. The book sounded interesting so I downloaded it and read much of it on the plane to and from the Philippines.. A fitting book for such turbulent times (turbulence shook the plane as I read).

I am including this review in my anthology of haunted house novel reviews on account of one chapter only: Real Estate Nightmares. Yes, this is the section of the book devoted to haunted house paperback novels. Likewise I will be devoting a section of this review to this one chapter. But first, an summary of the book as a whole.

In my review of Ghost House/Ghost House Revenge, I speculate that perhaps it was the works of Stephen King that ignited this horror paperback boom of the 70s and 80s. While his contribution to phenomenon is most certainly great, he did not begin it. How stupid of me, because I knew that works such as Rosemary’s Baby (Ira Levin) and The Exorcist (William Peter Blatty) predate King’s novels. These two, along with The Other (Thomas Tryton), revived the horror literature tradition that had been dormant for a while, Hendrix says.  Even in the days or yore, horror mostly came in short stories, novellas, and then later in graphic pulp books and magazines. There were very few novel length books devoted to horror until the three aforementioned books came on the scene. “Satan Sells”, publishers realized, and soon there were hundreds of satan-spawned paperbacks.

After Satan, along came killer animals and insects, demonic toys, possessed robots, medical nightmares.  So many books, and so we had The Good, The Bad and The Delightfully Cheesy.

I equate many of these books referenced by Hendrix to “B horror” films. So these are B-books?  Some are. Sure, why not?  Often they were goofy, but as Hendrix mentions “never boring.”  Many of these “gems” are out-of-print. I’m guessing that the advent of digital media have revived some of these books, but unfortunately not all.  Hendrix devotes significant attention to the book covers. Resting on the shelves of supermarkets, it was the cover that lured customers to reach for the item. The more vivid the better, much like the days of the video store, with box covers showing an awesome depiction of what just had to be a good, creepy movie – and…often the films failed to live up to the promising pictures on the box. As for the covers of paperbacks, Hendrix shows readers many interesting examples. Colorful, artful, graphic and of course – horrific.

TheStuff TheStuff

 

 

 

 

 

     (First Picture – What “The Stuff” appeared to do to is victims, according to  the box.  Second Picture – How “The Stuff” actually preyed on people, according to the movie)

 

 

In Paperbacks From Hell, Hendrix follows the careers of several cover artists, noting the publishing houses they worked for, mentioning that a certain artist went on to design album covers, etc. Interesting stuff.(Better than “The Stuff” of the film).

 

PaperBacks.jpg2

 

Hendrix writes humorously about his subject. He is often satirical. In the chapter Creepy Kids, on describing a reoccurring theme, he writes “As long as they belong to someone else, homicidal children can be a joy.” That’s funny! But sometimes his writing style is overbearing. But like his book, and like the books he is writing about, it’s/they’re not boring. At the same time, he possesses keen insight. He ties trends within the horror market to topical events that were occurring in the culture at large. The surge of attacking animal books he attributes to environmental disasters of the early 70s. For the rise in popularity of vampire books, he notes the AIDS scare of the early 80s and the fear of being infected. All in all, a reflective guy that Hendrix is. And what an interesting book!

Haunted Houses – or as Hendrix calls them – “Real Estate Nightmares”

 

Ahhh! This is MY area! Yeah, Boy!!  Here we are! “This” section.

Truthfully I was somewhat disappointed. To be clear, my disappointment is not the fault of Hendrix. He did his job covering this subgenre of horror. It’s just that I was hoping to be introduced to a slew of obscure works. Sadly I  already knew about the novels to which he devotes the most attention. He briefly covers  The Sentinel,  and I have read and reviewed that book. Burnt Offerings and The Amityville Horror both of which I have read/reviewed. I did, however, find his insights on Burnt Offerings rather intriguing and his rants about The Amityville Horror humorous.

While Hendrix correctly acknowledges The Haunting of Hill House and Hell House as its predecessors, he singles our Burnt Offerings as being a first when it comes to the economics of home purchases and the whole buyer beware motif.  I…had never thought about this. “Hell” and “Hill” House were  gargantuan gothic mansions that had visiting  characters investigating the spooky happenings within. The characters of Burnt Offerings leased and lived in the deadly place. They invested their money in it. Therefore, they were trapped.

In true form, Hendrix ties the haunted house paperback phenomenon to the economic issues of the 1970s. High interest rates, inflation, the dawning of the suburbs, the cash-strapped and their search for the best home that they could afford. According to him, these are the reasons “the haunted-house novel reached critical mass.”   As a student of haunted houses of fictional literature, I am constantly hungry for information like this. Thank you Hendrix, you feed me well.

Hendrix doesn’t think much of The Amityville Horror book series. I only read the one, and for me it was alright, not the greatest, but enjoyable. But I see his point. “Amityville” became the definitive haunted house book of the 70s, while Burnt Offerings, a much better read, is largely forgotten.  He goes on to criticize the series as “crass, commercial-minded, grandiose, ridiculous, this carnival-barker’s idea of a haunted house is a shame-train of stupid.”  The carnival barker I guess would be George Lutz, the real life protagonist of what is supposed to be a true story. Suffice it to say, Hendrix doesn’t believe that this is a true story (and neither do !!)

A couple of times, Hendrix mentions The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons and refers to it as a classic. I am well aware of this book but I have yet to read it. I am relishing in this virginity and I’m looking forward to my “wedding night” when I take this book to bed with me. But like a good virgin, I am saving it for the right time. Then there are those book he footnotes here and there, books with creepy covers, that I do not know. Some are The Intruders (Pat Montandon), The Architecture of Fear (Various Authors) and Walls of Fear (various authors again). But for these he has only little tidbits of information.

 

The rest of the chapter is devoted to horrific towns as a whole, cities as a whole, and strange cultish communities. While this is some interesting stuff, it goes beyond the haunted house, so I am not mentioning these books in this review.

Following the trail of “Haunted Paperbacks” to – What Comes Next?

 

If you are a fan of old horror novels, this book is for you. If you have ever owned or read an old obscure horror paperback, definitely check out this work by Grady Hendrix. You won’t be disappointed.

I’m glad my search for Ghost House/Ghost House Revenge led me to this book. Too bad he doesn’t mention these books in his Real Estate Nightmares chapter. Oh well. But I continue on – Ghost Houses begot Paperbacks from Hell and Paperbacks from Hell begets….a Dark Forces book. What the heck is a Dark Forces book?  I couldn’t remember what the series was called, and this Paperbacks from Hell book had the answer (hint: the series was called Dark Forces). This is yet another nostalgic reading memory from my pre-teen years. Horror books directed at young teens. I read several. Were there any Dark Forces books about haunted houses? Yes!  Well at least one. This will be my next review. Stay tuned for more details!

 

 

Ghost House/Ghost House Revenge – Two Books from that Horror Fiction Paperback Boom of the ’80s.

/ danielwalterc / Leave a comment

GhostHouse2One dark and not so stormy night (most nights it doesn’t storm), I found two books on the Internet for which I had been searching for some time.  I owned this two-part series when I was a kid.  Two paperbacks; both were about haunted houses (what a surprise!). The problem was – I couldn’t remember the titles of these novels nor the name of the author who wrote them .  It took many searches before I finally hit the jackpot. Not only did I find the books I was looking for, but I uncovered a phenomenon I didn’t know about. It might be called “the horror paperback boom of the 70s/80s.”

I participated in the later days of this horror paperback boom, and I didn’t even know  it!  Back then, I only knew it as “reading”. At the age of fourteen, in 1985, I sat at my school desk and read one of the two of these paperbacks that I owned , unaware that I was making history.

Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating a wee bit here with my “making history” comments. I  encourage you to blame the Internet for this. This “Internet” thing forced upon me such articles as Vintage Chillers: ‘80s Horror Novels You Need to Read  and ordered me to look into books such Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ‘70s and ‘80s Horror, all because I  innocently typed the words “80s horror novels” into a search engine. From the list of articles and book synopses that the search engine returned,    I learned of this horror paperback  phenomenon.

After skimming through some of these articles, I learned that there were many successful   horror paperback writers in the 70s and 80s. For some reason, horror novels flooded the bookstores, and mainstream  publishers were more than happy  to churn them out by the millions. The more the merrier. Perhaps  it had something to do with the success of the novels by Stephen  King, who rose  to fame in the early  70s? Were  publishers looking for the next King, hoping to find this needle in a haystack  by creating the pile of hay? I’d have to read the sources more thoroughly to get these answers. Another takeaway is that many of these books did not withstand the test of time. Best sellers one day, forgotten the next. Expired copyrights, not available  for print anymore, never converted  to digital format. Sadness.

Somehow, by combing through the various articles and lists, I was able to discover the identities of the two books I sought after.  They are, respectively, Ghost House (1980) and Ghost House Revenge (1981) by Clare McNally.  These two books seem to fall into the category of “books that history has forgotten”. Thankfully, they were both available in Kindle format on Amazon, both selling for $2.99. Needless to say, I bought and read them. Stripping away my nostalgia-based bias, these might not be the best haunted house books out there, but they are decent enough reads, especially  for that low price. I do believe that all print copies are used books

At this time, I would like to share what I remembered about the overall reading experience of these books. I will be going back thirty-four years or so.  Here I go!!

I don’t know how I acquired my paperback of Ghost House Revenge. But there it was GhostHouseRevenge2inside my lift-top desk, my one desk for the entire  school year (same teacher/classroom all year round too). In between lessons, there was free time, where a student could do homework ,  draw, or read. Do middle schools still offer this kind of free time? Well that’s besides the point. Anyway it was during this free time that I did most of my Ghost House Revenge reading.

I had remembered bits of the story. I mostly recalled a physical therapist guy named Derek and his socially awkward pre-teen daughter, who’s name had escaped me. (Her name is Alicen). Father and daughter lived temporarily  in the house of one of his clients who needed therapy on a daily basis. The client had fallen out of a window and needed help learning how to walk again. The client  had a family; a spouse and several children. I couldn’t remember whether  it was the father or mother that needed therapy  (It was the father  – Gary). I couldn’t  remember  his wife’s name (Melanie) or the names and number of children they had (Three – Gina , age 13, Kyle 9 or 10, Nancy 5?).

I remembered that the house was haunted but I didn’t remember the details (the spirit of a vengeful woman terrorizes them). I recalled that Derek wasn’t always nice to Alicen, and I remembered there was something  a bit off about her.  And then, I remember Steven U. No, he’s not a character from the book, he was my best friend in the 8th Grade. I had put the book aside for awhile and he borrowed it from me. He read faster than I did. In a matter of days,  he got further into the book than I did, and he had to go and tell me “So and So got ripped to shreds!”  This is what I remembered most! I remembered who it was that got “torn to shreds” (I’m not telling ya!) and I used these words in my searches (*name* torn to shreds). And….nothing came of these searches. Sadness! This is because, I learned, that the book never describes the fate of this character in those exact terms. These were Steven’s word’s, not McNally’s. But it’s obvious that is what had happened to the character.

The book was (and is) a relatively simple read. It served as a welcoming  pastime for such a young and blossoming mind, not to mention some blossoming hormones. For instance, the other night, when I got to a part in the book where the ghost woman grabs Derek’s crotch, I suddenly remembered stumbling upon this scene way back when. Another brick in the puberty Wall!  Um..let’s move on to another paragraph.

The thing about my initial reading of this book, either I didn’t realize that Ghost House Revenge was a sequel or I simply didn’t care. As an inexperienced reader, I guess it didn’t click that one is supposed to read the original novel first. Throughout the book, there is backstory that pertains to the first novel Ghost House. This happens when Gary tells Derek how he fell out the window (his fall occurs in the first novel), or when both Melanie and Gary explain to Derek about how the house had once been haunted, but isn’t anymore (They are wrong, it still is haunted, but by a different ghost). Once I got into the meat and guts of the story, I must have then known that this was the second of two books. I certainly knew after I acquired  Ghost House at a garage sale. This acquisition came months after reading its successor.

Excited, I opened the book and read how the family was moving into a big house. I remembered that Gary was giving Melanie the cold shoulder. She had recently been having an affair, but she broke off the fling. The couple was trying to reconcile. I remember how Gary kept imagining his wife’s legs wrapped around another man’s legs, and this thought bothered him. It didn’t bother the young me, though. This description excited me. That puberty thing again.

So what happens next? I didn’t find out. I put the book down. Summer vacation was at hand and what person brand new to his teenage years wants to spend the summer reading a book? I put it down after the first few pages and never went back….until a few weeks ago. It wasn’t until then that I learned that the ghost of some 1792 dude dwelled in the house and that he would go onto to develop a thing for Melanie. Very powerful this ghost. He had his way with Melanie many times both sexually and mentally.

After all these years bits and pieces of these books stuck with me. I wanted to finally read the first book and then revisit the second. But this task was difficult, since I couldn’t even remember the names of these books or the name of the author. “Torn to shreds” was not a viable query, oh what was I to do?  And so, after stumbling onto articles pertaining to the yesteryears phenomenon of  “all these horror paperbacks everywhere; good ones, bad ones, ugly ones,” I somehow found these two books once again. I read them and enjoyed them. They aren’t the greatest; there’s some very literal storytelling going on (no symbolism, etc.,). But the books are page turners.

So, this whole post turned out to be more of a piece on the history of my early days of reading and on the horror-themed paperback boom. Not much of a review, is this? Should I describe the “Ghost House” some more? It’s a colonial bay house in New England, built in the 18th century. Should I go into more detail about the ghostly encounters? Both books feature powerful, malicious ghosts. They wreak havoc on this peaceful family. Children are locked up on the roof, locked down in the cellar, tied to posts on the connecting beach.  Gary is injured multiple times when going toe-to-toe with these spirits. Certain characters become possessed. Some characters die.

Still not enough details for you? If this is the case, then you should just go ahead and read the books for yourselves. Below are the buy links. Enjoy!

Ghost House

Ghost House Revenge

 

 

Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era – Fourth Book Review for Black History Month Series

/ danielwalterc / 4 Comments

TAlesHauntedSouthWhen I tell people about this blog and my love for the haunted houses of  film and literature, quite often they say something like, “Cool. So I take it you’re a fan of  * Insert – the name of the trendiest cable show that boasts of “real” encounters with  the paranormal – here *.  When I tell them, “No I don’t find value in those kind of shows” and that for me, ghosts are fictional entities , I get blank stares. I might go on to explain that I view haunted house stories through the same analytical lens that a student might use when assessing feminist themes in classic and modern literature , or that I embark upon a similar path that a historian of cinema might follow when studying the evolution of a certain  film technique. And STILL they might reply, “You know, there are several houses here in the U.S. that are supposed to be haunted. Have you ever gone on a ghost tour?” Sigh! These folks just don’t get it.

To answer that last question, no, I’ve never been on a ghost tour, though I’ve been to places where they are offered (Galena, Illinois for instance). I’d like to go on one, just to see what they’re all about. Thankfully, someone has given me a glimpse into what has been coined as “dark tourism”. Her name is Tiya Miles. She has written a book about some of the most popular  ghost tours in The American  south. And wouldn’t  you know it, this book Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era  is the subject  of this review. Imagine that! And it is the fourth and final review of my Black History Month Series.

In her book, Miles seeks  out ghosts. Despite  what I said above about my skepticism concerning translucent specters that go bump in the night, I believe in the ghosts Miles seeks. Please, read on.

Tiya Miles went on several ghost tours. She toured many “haunted houses” across the south, from former plantation mansions to carriage houses that once served as slaves quarters. But she is not writing as a “survivor” who lived to tell about her frightful experiences. She is not billing herself as an eyewitness to  floating specters or poltergeist activity (although one the photos she took at a cemetery picked up a mysterious orb!). But, as I mentioned in the last paragraph ,  she was indeed searching for “ghosts”. Alas, for the most part, they did not come – and I’m not referring to translucent figures that moan and groan. These kinds of ghosts she was not expecting (though they did “appear”, at the very least, inside the tales that were told by the tour guides, taking the form of “Right where you are standing now, the ghost of such-and-such appeared to one visitor). What kind of ghosts was she hoping to find?

Paraphrasing, Miles defines “ghosts” as a vehicle to the past. In order to come to terms with the past, in order to “see” the events that have transpired long ago, we must have an honest confrontation with the ghosts that history has conjured. Quite the figurative definition, huh?  But think – if there is any entity that is made up of figurative elements, it would be “the ghost.”

In particular, Miles took in these ghost tours to see if they would relay the authentic tragedies of real people that experienced the horrors of slavery. True, “dark tourists” want to hear the tales of spirits of former slaves or slave owners haunting the premise on ghost tours. They go in with the expectations of learning about the lives of the deceased, of the tragic circumstances that surrounded their deaths, tragedies that caused their souls to remain here on the earth, searching for some kind of peace before being able to pass on to the other side. Miles expected these kind of tales as well. And she got them. But before embarking upon these ghost tours, she wanted to see if the sponsors of these tours exploited the lives of the deceased in anyway, either with misinformation or exaggerated distortions. And exploit they did.  They presented slave ghosts to the customers as caricatures; ghostly voodoo priestesses, promiscuous phantoms, etc. etc. Only now and then did they allow for the true “ghosts” to take form: tales of the true cruelty and oppression that the black enslaved Americans experienced.

Tiya Miles toured several cities in the American South, where dark tourism flourishes.  Why does this industry flourish in the American South? Well, to quote from the book:

The US South, with its history  of Indian removal, slavery, and bloody Civil War battles, together with its regional particularity, and atmospheric  setting  of simmering heat and shroud like Spanish  moss, is a place easily  associated  with a dark past and haunted present.

She went on  ghost tours in Savannah, Georgia, a city that boasts of being the “ghost tour capital” of the United States, beating out both New Orleans, known for all its Voodoo and other paranormal attraction, and Salem, with its notorious history of burning innocent women on stakes to “eradicate witchcraft”.  But Miles also visited “haunted places” in New Orleans and at preserved plantations that stand on the southern end of the Mississippi River, which were known for their “even more horrid conditions” for the enslaved, giving rise to the term “sold down the river.”  The eerie tales surrounding these visited sites, Miles argues, sugarcoat the real tragedies and injustices of slavery with romantic stories filled with ghostly hyperbole.

The Sorrel-Weed House in Savannah, Georgia

Miles begins her quest at the  Sorrel-Weed House  in Savannah, Georgia. Francis Sorrel, original owner, was allegedly  having an affair with his slave “Molly”, who lived in the carriage  house that is adjoined to the main residence. This carriage  house is said to be haunted by Molly’s ghost. Allegedly, she was murdered in this house, probably  by Francis Sorrel  himself, who needed to terminate any evidence  of the affair. His wife, Matilda, does find out about the affair, so the story goes that she committed suicide, throwing herself out the window. It is said that her ghost  haunts the Sorrel-Weed  House as well.

SorrelWeedHouse

(Above photo: The Sorrel-Weed House)

Miles does some  checking. While she uncovers documents that state that Matilda died “in an accident,” there is no historical record of Molly, at least none pertaining  to the property  holdings of one Francis Sorrel. Neither are there any documents listing slave names similar to Molly.

Is Molly a “figment  of human imagination?” (quote from book as a possible  explanation  of Molly). If so, she exists as the fabricated ghost, the packaged legend,  indeed  a ghostly “figment” of some not-so-creative imaginations, (the lack of creativity attributed to her story’s reliance on the typical  tropes of found in “real” southern  slave ghost stories.) Whether real or not, Molly sets Miles off on a journey  to find “her ghost”. Her ghost will represent the untold stories of an enslaved  people, their perspectives  within the context  of an the inhumane institution of slavery.

There were several things wrong with the telling of Molly’s story, Miles believed. These wrongs, these fabrications would materialize again and again  throughout  her tours of haunted houses. Oh where are the ghosts? And what are these fabrications that stand in place of the ghost and its  hauntings?  Let’s move on.

The Myrtles Plantation – Louisiana – Ghosts of Chloe and Cleo

Tiya Miles visits the Myrtles Plantation, located off the River Road (this would be the Mississippi River, folks!) in  rural Louisiana. The plantation house is supposedly a legendary  haunted house.  It also serves as a bed and breakfast for your average “dark tourist”, or your simple Southern  history  enthusiast. Miles stays in a room that was formerly  a nursery. Her room, she is told, is the most haunted room in the place. It is haunted by the ghost of Cleo, a former slave that once turned  the nursery into a Voodoo  sanctuary. Cleo, a Voodoo priestess, tried her best to heal her master’s  sick child using her “skills of the craft”. Her master allowed this, so long as the child would heal. All night Cleo worked her magic. In the morning, she proclaimed the child to be healed. Sadly the child died soon after, and Cleo ’ s Master had her hanged for her lies regarding the health of the child.

MyrtlesPlantation

(Above Photo: The Myrtles Plantation House)

Myrtles is also supposedly haunted by Chloé, a young slave girl in her early teens who was involved in a sexual relationship  with her master. Although the master liked having Chloe around for sexual company , he didn’t like it when she listened  in on his private affairs. When he found her with her ear to his office door, he cut off  that ear. Still, Chloe was devoted to him and she cherished  their sexual relationship. But she was jealous of her master’s  family so one night she poisoned the kids, killing them. For this crime, her master  hanged her from a tree. Tourists who stay overnight are warned to lock up any earrings they might remove from their lobes before going to bed, although only one of the pair is in danger of being stolen. Stolen by whom? That would be the ghost of Chloé. She only needs one earring  because  she only has one ear.

So, what’s going on with these “phantoms?” A whole lot of stereotyping. Chloé  is portrayed  as a “Jezebel”, a biblical feminine persona that is  amoral, has an insatiable  sex drive, and is seen as an evil temptress toward men. Although some sympathy is granted to Chloe, as the story admits that she was treated cruelly (losing her ear, being a slave in general), she plays a key role in her own demise. She is the one in the story that bears the most evil (killing innocent  little children!)

The story of Cleo with its imagery of “ primitive  rituals” invokes another stereotype – the wild witch woman. Imagine – inside the wholesome confines of a white man’s nursery a black woman is performing ancient witchcraft from the jungle, only to result in the death of an innocent child. Such horrors!

It should be noted that Voodoo was a real religion among various  slaves. However as Miles notes, “Voodoo lends an exotic quality to these stories, calling to mind the notion of the African primitive. Voodoo also portends spiritual danger for non-adherents who see the religion as strange and dangerous, thereby enhancing the taboo-breaking, fear-inspiring elements of dark tourism”.

Within the tales of Chloe and Cleo arises what I again call the “figments” of treacherous, exotic, sex-starved, and witchy women that are responsible for deaths of white children. Then there is Chloe as a thief, a prankster that has nothing better to do with her afterlife  than to steal earrings. To the author’s  dismay, the “ghosts” of Chloé and Cleo do not appear in these tales. These would be the ghosts of two suffering women, suffering through no fault of their own. Victims of horrendous  abuse at the hands of controlling men. In all these tales of sexual  relationships between black slave women and their white masters, are we do believe that the women had an equal status in the relationship? There were no power dynamics  perpetuated  by the men? Could many if not all of these “relationships” really be cases of non-consensual sex and  perpetual  rape? If “ghosts” were conjured from these tales instead of “figments”, then perhaps we might see a clearer  image of the truth. Ghosts don’t lie.

Better Uses of the Supernatural in African American Experience

Returning now to Molly, the slave ghost from the Savannah Sorrel-Weed House, we see again a slave complicit in an adulterous act, not the victim of power play and subjugation. Figments abound in this tale. Ghosts do not. What Miles came to realize during her quest to find “Molly’s ghost” was, in her own words:

I also came away with an alarming sense that the representation of slaves as ghosts reproduces intersectional racial and gender norms from the antebellum era, often without context, caution, or critique. As a result, the narratives on these tours reinforce retrograde interpretations of power, race, gender, sexuality, and identity. These stories turn on the abuse of the socially weak, often African American women, but do nothing to contextualize the experiences of black women or hold accountable the perpetrators of violence against them. In short, ghost tours featuring spectral slaves often uphold the ideas of an antebellum social order by replaying antebellum plots that repopularize antiquated race and gender hierarchies.

The goal of Miles’s work is not to discredit the supernatural (She did see that orb on her photo). Rather, it is to allow for ghost stories to capture the true cruelty of slavery while providing dignity to the black slave ghosts. She says:

Black slaves do not fare well in the genre of the southern ghost tour. But we need not rely on ghost tours and haunted sites to gain historical understanding about the supernatural in African American experience.

As an example, Miles refers to a project conducted by the Georgia WPA. In the 1930s, The WPA conducted a series of interviews with former slaves and ancestors of slaves. One woman relayed a story her mother had told her. Her mother, a former slave, saw and heard a phantom machine made up of chains and wheels. It was as big as a house, very loud and extremely terrifying.  At this spot, back in history, a slave master would whip his slaves to death. Here in this tale, the evil of slavery is pronounced and takes form, representing the “ugly machinery” of slavery.

Also, Miles mentions Toni Morrison’s book Beloved, where a slave child returns from the dead. She, according to Miles, represents the history of slavery (I mention this in my review of Beloved. )

Beloved is a work of fiction. As for the story about the massive conglomeration of chains, well, supposedly the storyteller  believed it to be true. But this doesn’t matter. What matters is that the “ghosts” in both of these tales “speak of truth”. They do their job of communicating with the living as to the reality of our nation’s yesteryears. Often times this truth is ugly. But ghosts do not exist as contestants in a beauty contest. They exist as messengers of the past and don whatever appearance is necessary to relay the spirit of its time.

Madame  Lalaurie – Remember “Coven” in American Horror Story?

Are you a fan of the TV series American Horror Story? I can’t say that I have a love affair with this show, but I found some episodes enjoyable. Anyway, there was one season, the third season I believe, which was titled “Coven”. It was a story about modern day witches in New Orleans. However there were several flashback scenes set in the antebellum south, at the house of a cruel mistress named Madame  Lalaurie, played by Kathy Bates. She kept slaves in chains in the attic. She branded them, dissected them. Well did you know that Madame Lalaurie was a real person? Tiya Miles visits her “haunted house” in New Orleans (where she really did keep slaves locked in an attic), which is purportedly haunted by the cruel Madame herself.

Miles places the story of Lalaurie within the context of her theories. The stories conveyed by tour guides once again contain figments rather than ghosts.  But I won’t get into all that here. For details, buy the book!

And so….

I thank Tiya Miles for writing this book. It taught  me a lot about slavery and black history, much of which I did not detail in this review. I believe that I now have the necessary mental tools to prepare myself for a ghost tour, if I should ever decide to go on one. Yes, the romantic in me will hope to see an actual specter (though I won’t expect such a thing). But the analytic side of my personality will now be looking for the “unseen” ghosts. Depending on the historical context, I might never come to now the true nature of the “once-was-a living-person” that is presented to me as a ghost in these tales, but I can step back, think independently, and ask myself questions such as, “Do these tales seem antiquated in nature? Does the business (i.e. the ones hosting the tour) have anything to gain by preserving some kind of preconceived notion of the past? Are these tales haunted by obvious clichés and caricatures? I must go back to Galena ,Illinois, a town where the once many antique shops have been converted to cafes and other trendy kinds of storefronts . Ah but the historical town, home of Ulysses Grant, still has “antiques” to sell, only now, they come in the form of ghosts. This small down boasts several ghost tours and a few haunted houses. I must return and see whether they are peddling figments or trying to tell true “ghost” stories.

Peace Out!

About the Author

TiyaMilesTiya Miles is a professor of history at Harvard University. She is the author of five books. One of her research specialties is African and Native American comparative histories.  She is the winner of several awards including the Frederick Douglass Prize.

 

 

 

*** information above was gathered from the following links:

https://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/tiya-miles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiya_Alicia_Miles

 

 

Beloved – Third Book Review for Black History Month Series

/ danielwalterc / Leave a comment

beloved-by-toni-morrisonIt is 1873. The Civil War is over. Slaves are freed. Sethe, a former slave, lives as a free woman in rural Ohio. She had been a runaway slave, fleeing the South and finding freedom back when such actions were illegal by law. But all that is over now, she is no longer a wanted woman. Nothing left but the best of times…right? No. Not true.

Sethe raises her daughter Denver (age = 11? 12?) in a haunted house. Ghostly handprints appear in a cake. Mirrors shatter, a kettle of chickpeas is tossed on the floor. Sethe has other children besides Denver, but they are gone. Howard and Buglar, in particular, ran away at the young age of thirteen. Two young boys off on their own, never heard from again. They fled the ghost that haunted their home.

Sethe and Denver live a reclusive, dreary life. They are lonely. Along comes Paul D, a former slave from Sweet Home, the plantation to which both he and Sethe were enslaved. He too notices the ghost at Sethe’s place. It shines as a pool of red light.

“Good God. What kind of evil you got here?” Paul D asks.

“It’s not evil, just sad. Come on, Just step through.”

 

And Paul D listens. He steps through.

Paul D takes up residence at the house. He and Sethe begin a romantic relationship.  Whereas Denver has her misgivings about Paul D, Sethe seems happier than she has been in a long time. For you see, Paul D has chased the ghost away.  According to Sethe, the ghost = sadness. Has Paul D eradicated sadness from her life? Maybe temporarily.

The past haunts us all. Mostly in stories about the supernatural, the haunting past makes its presence known in the form of a ghost, as it does here in Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer  prize winning novel Beloved. But a past such as Sethe’s is so troubling that its haunting demands a far more substantive expression than that of an ethereal phantom.  The ghost is gone but the past returns again, this time in flesh and bones.  It comes back in the form of a young girl/woman with the brain of a child. This woman appears to Sethe, Denver and Paul D on the road, looking and smelling as if she had just risen from the swamp.

Sethe takes pity on her and invites her into her home and welcomes her into her family. This mystery girl/woman is name is Beloved. Soon Sethe will realize  who she is and…what she is. She is both the precious past and the putrid.  She is love. She is guilt. She is beautiful. She is the ugliest  of realities. She is whole, not minced.

Who is Beloved? I will not answer that question directly. From a very simple and literal perspective, the answer to that question is unveiled very early on in the novel. This “literal” answer might even be found in the book’s synopsis on Amazon or on any other platform that sells the book. Even so, these answers will not explain the depths of Beloved’s identity. Perhaps there is no one true explanation.  I will be presenting some of my thoughts about this. But as for the surface explanation  concerning her identity and why she comes packaged with a tragedy that eats away at Sethe’s soul, you will have to read the book to understand these things.

Beloved is much more than a ghost story. There are several back stories that serve as case studies for some very interesting characters. Following these characters back in time, the novel  transports us to the harsh days before  the Civil War came to an end. Toni Morrison gives readers a glimpse into plantation life and it isn’t pretty to say the least. The book details the lives of these characters as slaves and shows us the great lengths to which they go in their quests for freedom. Considering  such hardships, it is understandable  that authors such as Tiya Miles  believe  that Beloved represents  the physical embodiment of “the history of slavery”. (From her book “Tales of the Haunted South – Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era” This is up next for review!) There is merit to this view. Certainly the inhumane past Sethe and her family  endured continues to haunt her and disrupt their daily  living. The damage inflicted by slavery does not simply fade upon its cessation. Its takes generations to fully  eradicate.

To me, Beloved represents an extension of Sethe.  Let me explain. Much of the novel explores the  building and destruction of self boundaries.  One of the book’s characters, an elderly black woman that goes by the name “Baby Suggs,” preaches to congregants, telling them to “Look at your hands. They are yours. They are beautiful”.  Former slaves needed reminders that their bodies no longer belonged to some master or mistress. They needed to know that even when they were in captivity, their thoughts, their feelings, their very “selves” had been theirs all along. This sense of self is not so easily  apparent when one is shackled like an animal, sold like livestock, and forcibly separated from family.

At one point in the story, Sethe is violated, held down and robbed of the milk in her breasts by the nephews of the plantation owner. With experiences such as this, it can be difficult to not only feel a sense of self worth but to have a healthy understanding of the concept of “the self” at all.  Without this understanding, one’s sense of self can be projected onto others.

In another part of the book, we learn that Sethe herself had committed an unspeakable act. Unable to come to terms with what she had done, her guilt manifests into another person, into Beloved.  To quote from Beloved herself , “I am not separate from her. There is no place where I stop…her face is my own.”

Who is Beloved? She is so many things. When all is said and done, she is the genius that is Toni Morrison. Morrison’s book is a patchwork of keen psychological insights, layers upon layers of them. She writes dialogue in the vernacular of her subjects and composes her concepts with thoughtful depth. She uncovers the abstract and makes it real, painfully real.

Beloved may not make my top ten list of  favorite haunted house novels. This does not matter, for you see, Beloved has earned its rightful place on my list of top ten novels overall, regardless of genre. The haunted house is but one concept in a sea of themes that Morrison touches upon. Nevertheless, her novel features a haunted house and therefore, Beloved is a most welcomed addition to my collection of reviews.   It is a brilliant piece of literature.

 

About the Author

 

BelovedToniMorrisonToni Morrison is a professor emeritus from Princeton University. She is the author of several novels and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for her novel Beloved.

*** The information above was taken from Wikipedia.com

White is for Witching – Second Book Review for Black History Month Series

/ danielwalterc / Leave a comment

 

WhiteisForWitching2

I don’t even know how to begin. This book, White is for Witching, stumps  me. For sure this will be one of  the more challenging  reviews because I really don’t know what to say about it. I’m not certain  what the book is getting at it. I still haven’t  made my mind up on whether I like  this novel or not. So, I guess this  is it then. Buy it here if you wish. Good luck  with it. Peace out my friends!

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Fine, I’ll try to do better than that! Maybe a list of the multiple themes would be a good start. If this book is about anything, it’s about several things. It’s about a college-aged young woman named Miranda Silver. The very first chapter leaves readers with the impression that “Miri” (Miranda  for short) is either dead and buried, off on her own  somewhere, a runaway without  any shoes, or just hiding underneath some strands of symbolism that the author has spun.  Three competing entities are trying to assess her whereabouts; three different  perspectives; perspectives for which we the readers will come to know the story. (I’ll  explain  why I am using the term  “entities” momentarily ) First there is Ore, Miri’s  friend from college. She says that Miri is “in the ground underneath  her mother’s  house”. Eliot , Miri’s  brother, states that she just ran off somewhere  one dark and windy night. Finally, an entity known as 29 Barton Road insists that Miri is a home, inside its  confines  someplace. “29 Barton Road” is the haunted house. It’s also the Bed and Breakfast that Miri’s  family operates. It too shares is perspective with us. Since it is not human, I refer to the four that share their perspectives as entities. Four? Who is the fourth? That would be Miri herself. She too shares her side of things. A rather skewed  perspective it is! Or is it? We learn early on that Miri is not entirely mentally  stable. Is this a case  of an unreliable  narrator? More than that, the whole book is an unreliable  narrative – no matter what you think this story is about, it’s probably about something  else.

More topics, more things  this book is about (or isn’t – you know, that whole “unreliable  narrative” thing.)  It’s about grieving. The family at center  of the story, The Silver  family,  lost its Matriarch, Lily. She was a journalist who was murdered  on assignment in Haiti. Eliot blames his sister  Miri for this, for she wouldn’t  stay awake over there in England  while the murder was happening  in Haiti. How does this make sense? I don’t know, some kind of symbolism that’s lost on me  I guess. But after  the fact, Miri wears her mother’s watch that is always  set at Haitian  time. Speaking  of Miri, she suffers from pica, a psychological  disease that causes one to consume non-edible  objects. Chalk is her favorite snack. Readers also learn that Miri was institutionalized  sometime after her mother’s  death. So the book is about battling mental illness  as well.

The book is also about the politics  of group identity, nativism, and immigration. A group  of Kosovan girls have it in for Miri on account of something she said or did to one of the girl’s  boyfriends. Miri insists  it’s a case of mistaken identity. She never did such a thing!  Or did she? Who is “she” anyway? Who are any of us?

Move over Miri, Ore is taking over the story!  The novel dedicates several chapters to her perspective. She is of African  descent, adopted by a white British family. She is the butt of “good natured (really?)” ridicule from her white, conservative male cousins. She attends Cambridge  with Miri. She and Miri will become lovers. She will visit Miri over the holidays, at her home, at the haunted house. Weird things will happen.

Apparently, this haunted house is objectively  haunted  and not depended on Miri’s warped mind. Early on in the story, the domestic  help quits on account of the haunting. The children of the help have a frightful experience on the lift. The replacement maid, an African  woman partial to Voodoo, notices the spiritual nature of this house, but she’s not all that freaked out by it. It’s a voodoo thing, you know. Then there’s  Miri and her meetings with her deceased mother, grandmother, great grandmother, etc. in a special room of the house. This same house  has claimed to have trapped  one of these female ancestors  within the walls and has kept her hidden for untold years. It’s a weird house. It’s a weird book. There are allusions  to vampirism  in this book as well. And witchcraft. The Silver family is white. Hey, what do ya know, white is for witching!

White is for Witching is what I might label a postmodern haunted house novel. Others might be House of Leaves and The Grip of It,  both of which I have reviewed (click on them to read these reviews). I’ll assign some characteristics of what I perceive is postmodern: lacking  a center, non-linear, rich in symbolism, and experimental. Traits such as these can make for a highly intriguing book, but I  must say that White is for Witching  is too much of these things. Did I like the book? To a certain  extent. Helen Oyeyemi  is skilled  at prose and her sentences  flow artfully. In this way it is an interesting  read. But overall  this novel doesn’t  do a whole lot for me.

I include this book in the Black History  Month theme solely on account of the author being a black woman. While this book deals with issues that blacks as a race face  (social  prejudice), there’s not a whole lot of history  going on here. But include  it I did, and to that I say “Oh well.”

About the Author

 

HelenOyeyemiHelen Oyeyemi is a British novelist originally from Nigeria. She is the recipient of numerous literary awards. She has written several books, short stories, and plays.

(The above information is taken from the following sites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Oyeyemi

https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/helen-oyeyemi )

The Good House – First Book Review for Black History Month Series

/ danielwalterc / Leave a comment

GoodHouseTo the house that belongs to the Vodou priestess the locals brought  the possessed girl. Hopefully Marie Toussaint would cleanse her.

To the house that once belonged to her grandmother, Angela Toussaint returns. It’s hers now. Here she will jump start her life ,  take care of her  teenaged son and perhaps rekindle her love for her ex-husband . All this falls apart. Things go very wrong.

At this legendary house, Fifteen year old Corey Toussaint, curious by nature, finds magical relics that once belonged to his great grandmother. He uncovers secrets that the house hides, deadly secrets

This is a story of a terror plaguing multiple  generations, a story about a  stretch of land with strong connections to the spirit world. On this land the “The Good House” stands, home to four recipient  generations of horror.

Hi there!  In honor of Black History Month, I welcome you to the first review in this series of haunted house novels written by black women. I begin with Tananarive  Due’s acclaimed novel The Good House.  “Good House” is haunted, but it is not the epicenter of the haunting. The trigger for the haunting lies within the lineage of the Toussaint family and on the spirit-laden lands upon which the house rests. It is the combination of a family sensitive to the magic of Vodou positioned in an environment that is receptive to other-worldly forces that stirs up the ghosts, or more appropriately, the demons. Or most appropriately – the “baka”.

The story unfolds from multiple perspectives.  At the heart of the story is Angela Toussaint. I suppose she would be the central character. If this were made into a movie, whoever played Angela would be the actress in a leading role.  The year is 2001 (approximately) and Angela, a successful lawyer from California, is temporarily residing in her second home in Sacajawea, Washington for the summer. This is “Good House”  (also “Goode House”), her childhood home, where she was raised by her grandmother, Marie Toussaint, now deceased. Angela ’ s own mother was unfit to raise her due to mental health issues (or perhaps  her soul was “infected”.)

The townsfolk  of Sacajawea warmly welcome Angela’s return. Her family, her house, it’s all part of the town’s history, all woven into the fabric of the community, though the weaving process , from a historical perspective, was quote contentious. She is one of the few black members of the community. Mostly, race is not an issue, although the town  has pockets of redneck racists. (Her son Corey will learn this) She is highly respected. But when her grandmother  was young woman living in Good House.it was a different  story.

Angela  is seeking  to  refresh  her life.  Having only partial custody of her teenaged  son, her experiences with him have been limited  as of late and she wishes to change that. Corey  seems to favor his father, and so she tries to rebond  with him one fateful summer at Good House. At the same time, her relationship  with her ex-husband is not lost. He visits  the house, and there is a rekindling.

So far I am describing a rebuilding of family and community. But this will not happen. Instead everything falls apart. Neighbors go insane. Some kill their loved ones. Others kill themselves. Her friends suffer horrific calamities   Her own family meets tragedy  head on. Something unspeakable  has been unleashed.

As previously mentioned, Angela’s story is the central  narrative. And yet, it is my least favorite of the various perspectives. At times, it gets too bogged down in mundane things such as the tasks involving  her career and the details  of her exercise routine. Even the attention focused on her love life was too much for me. For my tastes. But then again, I’m a guy and romance dramas don’t do a whole lot for me. However, Angela’s story ties together the stories from the perspectives of other characters, so her tale is an important  one. And it is these other perspectives that I  will now focus on. For me, they capture the intrigue of the book. These would be the perspectives  of Corey the teenager  and Marie the grandmother. WARNING: there will be spoilers  ahead. I don’t know how else to discuss the themes I’m   about to delve into without them.

 

Spoilers  Section

Marie Toussaint

 

Why is the house at the center of the story a “good house”? Because once upon a time, people  came to the house to be healed. Because the former owner, Elijah Goode, a pharmacist in the early 1900s, dispensed medicines, specially brewed with natural  herbs and a little bit of magic. The herbs grew on blessed grounds, on land populated with spirits. These special medicines were concocted by his maid Marie Toussaint, later to be his wife, a voodoo priestess. Marie will inherit the house upon Elijah ’ s death, marry an Indian man, be the recipient of much hatred and racism. Still, she will exorcise a demon from one of the daughters of the townsfolk. It is “a good house”. It was a “good”  thing for her to do, especially since she was the one to summons the demon  in the first place.

What if you were a black woman of Creole  descent in the 1920s,  and your life was turned  upside-down by murderous racists, and you had the power to extract revenge on them with an act that was as simple as snapping your fingers? Would you go in for the  kill? Marie Toussaint showed restraint when her first husband was murdered by racists in New Orleans. When she moved across  the country to Washington with her young daughter and married a white pharmacist, Elijah Goode (His house = Goode/Good House), racism would rear its ugly head again, even after she helped the nearby communities by using magic to extract the healing power within the herbs that grew on this enchanted land.   When she, a black woman, inherited the house of her husband, a white man, people in the nearby town of Sacajawea sought out lawyers to get her out. To further piss-off this community of racists, she took Red John as a common law  husband. He was formerly viewed as “the good Indian who knew his place”. Red John had been “the white man’s pet”, but this new arrangement might cause him to step “out of his place”.  Both Marie and Red John were stepping out of their places, so the people of the town  shot bullets through her windows and front door.

It was all Marie could stand. She gave into anger. A kind of momentary  anger that all  of us fall victim  to now and again. An anger that might elicit a curse word or two from ordinary people. Marie is not an ordinary person. She utters a curse. But the thing is, her words are packed with much more power than your average “God damn you!” Chances are, God won’t sent a person to Hell based upon one person’s idle request. Marie remembered  a word that was stolen from the gods. A powerful  word. She spoke it, unleashing a powerful baka. Her words, so simple to say, so deadly the consequences. Mudslides ravage  the down. A demon is summoned  and it does what demons do – it possesses the living.

This is the backstory – the history.  But as all of us amateur historians know, history repeats itself. Some eighty years later, the baka will once again be summoned and ravage the community. Who is it that calls upon the baka? Her great grandson Corey.

 

Corey Toussaint

 

Corey, fifteen, an aspiring poet and rap artist, is having trouble adjusting to his new environment in the rural northwest.  For a whole summer, he must live with his mother Angela at Good House in  Sacajawea, Washington.  He is used to his urban environment in Los Angeles, where he has many friends and lives under the lax supervision of his father. He had no friends in Sacajawea. His mother is naggy and strict. He is the only black kid in the community.

Eventually, he forms a friendship with a white kid named Sean. They share a love for rap music. However, not all of the kids in this community are friendly to him. Some are downright hostile, such as the town bully Bo Cryer , proud of his confederate flag t-shirts, ready to beat “sense” into this new “gangster kid”.   And beat him he does.

Corey is a bright and curious kid. He finds items of his great grandmother  hidden away in the house. He finds her diaries, reads her  journals. He learns Vodou  spells. At first, he uses these spells for innocent things, such as reclaiming lost items. But even this kind of tampering  has its costs. And when he speaks the forbidden word to get back at the bully ,  all hell breaks loose.

Here Ends the Spoilers Sections

 

 

So, are there any, shall we say, “Haunted  House  happenings” in the story?  There are some. A piano plays by itself, a presence or two are felt at times, a mysterious ”friend” of Corey’s defies physics by the way she sits on a tree branch and talks to him through his upstairs  window. Sometimes the plumbing churns out foul black slush through the faucets. Then there is the night that every  room in the house is blanketed with leaves, turning the floors of Good House into a forest’s  bed. As previously mentioned, the house is not necessarily the “ epicenter of the haunting.”  But the house itself is important to the story, so much so that author Tananarive  Due devotes attention to describing the rooms, the attic and cellar, the furnishings and portraits on the wall.  The modern day characters that populate the Sacajawea community (Sacajawea is a fictional town, BTW) have great respect for the Goode House. For them it is not only an historical landmark, but it’s a history that continues on.  The townsfolk cling to the stories of the past that that focus on the generosity of Angela’s grandmother, Marie Toussaint. She is spoken of as a town healer. When Angela returns to her property and hosts a Fourth of July party at Goode House, many prominent people of the town show up. They have warm affections for Angela and the house and its history of “goodness”.

The people of Sacajawea have either forgotten the darker history of Goode House or have chosen not to confront it. Some still remember, or at least know of the cruel accounts of racism directed toward Marie Toussaint and her house (details of this are in the spoiler section above), but they either don’t speak of these things or do so in a “hush-hush” tone. But such a darkness cannot be extinguished by modern lights. Maybe this is one of the many messages of the book?

Is there anything to say about this book concerning the subject of black history? Well, this is a work of fiction, for sure. Even when it comes to the subject of Vodou, Due admits that while she utilized real concepts associated within that religion (i.e. “lwas”, spirits  of Haitian  Vodou or “baka”, evil spirits), she creatively improvised when it came to creating the spells, prayers, and magic that take place in story. But Vodou is a real  religion and it was practiced by many African slaves

From Britannica.com 

“Vodou is a creolized religion forged by descendants of Dahomean, Kongo, Yoruba, and other African ethnic groups who had been enslaved and brought to colonial Saint-Domingue (as Haiti was known then) and Christianized by Roman Catholic missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries.”

While fictional and fanciful, Good House does point to many historical circumstances on the subject of black history. It teaches the importance of family and the value of heritage, especially for a people that were so cruelly uprooted. It reminds us of the prevalence of racism toward African Americans in the early part of the twentieth century, and lets us not forget the ongoing prejudice and discrimination that still occurs today. On this last note, maybe I should repeat a phrase I used earlier that gets to the heart of this…and more. I will do that. Here I go:

“ But such a darkness cannot be extinguished by modern lights.”

In other words, our country’s racist past cannot be erased. The ghosts of history will not allow for this. Nor should they.

 

 

About the Author

 

GoodHouseTananariveDueTananarive Due is a an educator, former journalist and author. She is the daughter of civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due, who as a member of CORE, (Congress of Racial Equity) and participated in several marches and a jail-in. Tananarive is the author of several books on the subject of  black history/speculative fiction. Her novel “Black Rose” is based upon the research of Alex Haley.

***The above information was taken from Wikipedia.com