markedwithanm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
1.75
Graphic: Car accident, Death, and Child death
agnela's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, and Death
atalea's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Car accident and Child death
ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
“And then, standing among the trunks of the fruit trees, silver-grey in the moonlight, I recalled that the way to banish an old ghost that continues its haunting is to exorcise it. Well then, mine should be exorcised. I should tell my tale, not aloud, by the fireside, not as a diversion for idle listeners—it was too solemn, and too real, for that. But I should set it down on paper, with every care and in every detail. I would write my own ghost story. Then perhaps I should finally be free of it for whatever life remained for me to enjoy.”
“Whatever was about, whoever I had seen, and heard rocking, and who had passed me by just now, whoever had opened the locked door was not ‘real’. No. But what was ‘real’? At that moment I began to doubt my own reality.”
“The weather might change, the wind drop, the sun shine, Eel Marsh House might stand quiet and still. It would be no less dreadful. Whoever haunted it and whatever terrible emotions still possessed them would continue to disturb and distress anyone who came near here, that I knew.”
- other Gothic & Victorian English (& Irish) ghost stories
- Laura Purcell
- Edgar Allan Poe
- THE SEANCE, by John Harwood
- THIS HOUSE IS HAUNTED, by John Boyne
Graphic: Child death, Grief, Car accident, and Death
hannahelizza556's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Child death
nyssa_jo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Moderate: Child death and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Car accident and Grief
madarauchiha's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
I was prepared to dnf at sixteen percent but Yah Yah Scholfield, noted up and coming Black horror author, has this on their tbr and ok. I'll press on. Mx Scholfield has excellent taste, surely its not that bad for a book written in the 1980s. I do extremely dislike them being a british lawyer. Embarrassing! Why would you choose to be british and a lawyer??
Slow paced. It does build and maintain tension very well.... Glad i stuck with it. just an hour read, kinda short but thats not a bad thing. said what it needed to in the exact amiunt. fantastic tension, horror, and prose.
minor pregnancy, misogyny, child death, anti black racism, alcohol use, classism, animal hunting,
medium child death,
major car accidents, child death, injuries, dogs,
Graphic: Car accident, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Child death, Racism, and Alcohol
sweekune's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
- As I've already said, this is a scary story. A gothic ghost story that builds the tension, the fear and layers the story so that when you reach certain reveals and the end you are suitably terrified.
- Although originally published in the 1980s, the book reads like the Edwardian time period it appears to be set it. The prose is similar in feel to Victorian and early 20th century novels and it adds to the feel of the book.
- This book is short (my copy is under 200 pages long) but it packs so much into such little space.
A perfectly spooky read, great for October or anytime you wish to read a ghost story. I would caution any potential readers not to read this in the dark.
Moderate: Car accident, Child death, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Grief, Death of parent, Death, and Chronic illness