kricketa's review
3.0
**nota bene: i read an ARC of this book**
a fascinating premise: five short stories, all taking place in the same house- kerfol, of edith wharton's short story (which is called, well, 'kerfol'.) noyes starts with a retelling of wharton's story, told this time from the perspective of a handmaid. in 1613 a beautiful young frenchwoman is essentially kept prisoner in her home by her cruel older husband, who strangles her beloved dogs. eventually the husband is found dead in their home, kerfol, of injuries that appear to have come from the very dogs he killed.
then we jump forward to later guests of kerfol, each in different time periods until the present day, all haunted by ghosts. these stories were so brief that i couldn't get attached to the characters. noyes drops in juicy details only to move on to the next story before i could figure out why the details mattered. i was hoping that a common link, besides the house itself, would be revealed in the end, but when i finished the last page my lingering impression was "huh?"
a fascinating premise: five short stories, all taking place in the same house- kerfol, of edith wharton's short story (which is called, well, 'kerfol'.) noyes starts with a retelling of wharton's story, told this time from the perspective of a handmaid. in 1613 a beautiful young frenchwoman is essentially kept prisoner in her home by her cruel older husband, who strangles her beloved dogs. eventually the husband is found dead in their home, kerfol, of injuries that appear to have come from the very dogs he killed.
then we jump forward to later guests of kerfol, each in different time periods until the present day, all haunted by ghosts. these stories were so brief that i couldn't get attached to the characters. noyes drops in juicy details only to move on to the next story before i could figure out why the details mattered. i was hoping that a common link, besides the house itself, would be revealed in the end, but when i finished the last page my lingering impression was "huh?"
ifthebook's review against another edition
3.0
A series of short stories through time all set at the same haunted château. While I enjoyed the atmosphere quite a bit, I was hoping that the stories would have something more in common than they actually did. The only real connection they seemed to have was the château itself. Even the finaly story didn't bring about a revelation as to why the people these stories, in particular, were important.
cmdaniels7's review against another edition
4.0
I liked that take off from the original book. Some confusion around the stories of the "future" ghosts of Kerfol.
bibli0rach's review against another edition
3.0
Short story ghost stories centered around a French estate called Kerfol. I still need to read the Edith Wharton story that these are based on...
mmz's review against another edition
3.0
Noyes bases her stories on Edith Wharton's Kerfol. The first story is just a retelling of Kerfol, fleshed out, and from the point of a serving girl newly arrived at the house. From there, Noyes each story moves the the house closer to the present time, with various manifestations of the hauntings.
Her descriptions are uneven though. In one story, the house is haunted only by the dogs, as in Wharton's story. In other stories, there are various other ghosts, and it's not always clear who they're supposed to be. In one story, a girl dies. In another, a couple is only hurt. I would have felt better if all the stories were building to a grand exorcism of some kind, or if the hauntings all got worse until some drastic action were taken. In other words, I wish the stories had all built on each other in some way. But this isn't really how Noyes chose to write her stories. Except she did, in some ways. I wish she'd chosen either to write completely individual stories, or chosen to write stories that all built up into something. As it is, the tension of the hauntings builds for a couple of stories, and then just kind of fizzles.
Her descriptions are uneven though. In one story, the house is haunted only by the dogs, as in Wharton's story. In other stories, there are various other ghosts, and it's not always clear who they're supposed to be. In one story, a girl dies. In another, a couple is only hurt. I would have felt better if all the stories were building to a grand exorcism of some kind, or if the hauntings all got worse until some drastic action were taken. In other words, I wish the stories had all built on each other in some way. But this isn't really how Noyes chose to write her stories. Except she did, in some ways. I wish she'd chosen either to write completely individual stories, or chosen to write stories that all built up into something. As it is, the tension of the hauntings builds for a couple of stories, and then just kind of fizzles.
ermartinez's review against another edition
2.0
2.75
Based on Edith Wharton’s short story, Kerfol, a Gothic tale is told of Lady Ann de Barrigan, who is accused of murdering her husband, Lord Yves de Cornault. Lady Ann found him dead, mauled by a pack of dogs. But there were no live dogs to be found. Lady Ann’s innocence is told through the eyes of her servant, Perrette, who witnessed her Lady’s lost and lonely life whilst being married to the abusive de Cornault. The tale, spanning centuries, crosses four more lives, all who feel haunted by the dead dogs and bitter relationships that have marred this house forever.
There's a lot that happens in this novel, and that was part of my problem with it. I loved the concept of a Gothic horror story, but the characters are only in the novel for their brief time, so not a lot of development ends up happening. It never became clear if this was supposed to be because a major plot device in Gothic stories is the concept of an unreliable narrator (and there are a dime a dozen in this book) but it just got jumbled. The entire plot hinges on the tragedy of Lady Ann de Barrigan's horrible marriage to Lord Yves de Cornault, but again, we never really get a sense of the woman behind the horror because of the way the story is told. I will say however, since this is technically supposed to be a horror novel, all the dog killing in this book was really disturbing...
I did like that the house definitely has an evil effect on anyone who enters it or spends too much time around it. We do get to see that slow decay of peace and normalcy when certain characters enter the house; their relationships begin to slowly and disturbingly decay right before the reader's eyes and the desolate physical landscape acts as a perfect (although obvious) metaphor for loneliness and death.
I personally enjoyed aspects of this book, but honestly, I don’t see this book appealing to many readers. If you enjoyed reading books like The Turn of the Screw, Jane Eyre, or Wuthering Heights, you might find some things about this book that you'll like, but sadly, Deborah Noyes' storytelling isn't up to par with these classic Gothic tales. Additionally, there were so many occurrences that didn’t make sense or seem to bear any weight on the overall plot. Perhaps one must read the original short story, Kerfol, to have a full understanding. I loved the Gothic elements that practically swamp this novel, but overall I was left confused.
Based on Edith Wharton’s short story, Kerfol, a Gothic tale is told of Lady Ann de Barrigan, who is accused of murdering her husband, Lord Yves de Cornault. Lady Ann found him dead, mauled by a pack of dogs. But there were no live dogs to be found. Lady Ann’s innocence is told through the eyes of her servant, Perrette, who witnessed her Lady’s lost and lonely life whilst being married to the abusive de Cornault. The tale, spanning centuries, crosses four more lives, all who feel haunted by the dead dogs and bitter relationships that have marred this house forever.
There's a lot that happens in this novel, and that was part of my problem with it. I loved the concept of a Gothic horror story, but the characters are only in the novel for their brief time, so not a lot of development ends up happening. It never became clear if this was supposed to be because a major plot device in Gothic stories is the concept of an unreliable narrator (and there are a dime a dozen in this book) but it just got jumbled. The entire plot hinges on the tragedy of Lady Ann de Barrigan's horrible marriage to Lord Yves de Cornault, but again, we never really get a sense of the woman behind the horror because of the way the story is told. I will say however, since this is technically supposed to be a horror novel, all the dog killing in this book was really disturbing...
I did like that the house definitely has an evil effect on anyone who enters it or spends too much time around it. We do get to see that slow decay of peace and normalcy when certain characters enter the house; their relationships begin to slowly and disturbingly decay right before the reader's eyes and the desolate physical landscape acts as a perfect (although obvious) metaphor for loneliness and death.
I personally enjoyed aspects of this book, but honestly, I don’t see this book appealing to many readers. If you enjoyed reading books like The Turn of the Screw, Jane Eyre, or Wuthering Heights, you might find some things about this book that you'll like, but sadly, Deborah Noyes' storytelling isn't up to par with these classic Gothic tales. Additionally, there were so many occurrences that didn’t make sense or seem to bear any weight on the overall plot. Perhaps one must read the original short story, Kerfol, to have a full understanding. I loved the Gothic elements that practically swamp this novel, but overall I was left confused.
petk0616's review against another edition
1.0
I just couldn't get into the novel, the first story was interesting enough, but I had to force myself to finish the rest.
hezann73's review against another edition
1.0
This was not the book for me at all. Now, I don't generally care for short stories, so that may be part of it, but I could not get into this title.
lexie_w_'s review against another edition
1.0
This book was crap. Deborah did not make it clear when she switched to another person's story. I t wqas horrible