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A review by ratgrrrl
Abbot's Keep: A Ghost Story by Benedict Ashforth
4.0
Genuinely Great Modern Gothic
CW: Alcoholism, Animal Harm (Dearth of a Dog), Torture (including reference to a child being abused), Pregnant Person Stabbed in Stomach
I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this as I tend to find modern horror, particularly gothic horror, and epistolaries are of wildly varying quality, and I can also find epistolaries too slow and unengaging. Abbot's Keep certainly kept me gripped and was an interesting and creepy.
I do think there are some issues with the pacing and arrangement of information and creepy action, which is partly due to the epistolary framing, but could have been managed better. I also found the hammering of the motif in the end, while interesting learning about how names for things can change over time in different languages, felt a bit odd and concentrated. Having more allusions to it throughout the book could have been more effective, which, with the country estate and the dog, could easily have been done. The idea was interesting though. I think my criticism could be distilled into the flow of the story not being as natural, fitting, and effective for the genre.
Regardless, this is still a solid 4+ and a genuinely well-written and interesting example of modern gothic horror and I will absolutely be seeking out more from this author. I would recommend it for horror fans and anyone interested in checking the genre out, especially as it is in the Audible Included library.
The performance is really rather good, particularly in the emotional and creepy moments. My only complaint was that there was so little to mark the different correspondents that I was actually a little confused as to who was who and who was writing at times.
I feel like I've been overly critical, but, honestly, that's just because I actually enjoyed and thought about it enough.
CW: Alcoholism, Animal Harm (Dearth of a Dog), Torture (including reference to a child being abused), Pregnant Person Stabbed in Stomach
I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this as I tend to find modern horror, particularly gothic horror, and epistolaries are of wildly varying quality, and I can also find epistolaries too slow and unengaging. Abbot's Keep certainly kept me gripped and was an interesting and creepy.
I do think there are some issues with the pacing and arrangement of information and creepy action, which is partly due to the epistolary framing, but could have been managed better. I also found the hammering of the motif in the end, while interesting learning about how names for things can change over time in different languages, felt a bit odd and concentrated. Having more allusions to it throughout the book could have been more effective, which, with the country estate and the dog, could easily have been done. The idea was interesting though. I think my criticism could be distilled into the flow of the story not being as natural, fitting, and effective for the genre.
Regardless, this is still a solid 4+ and a genuinely well-written and interesting example of modern gothic horror and I will absolutely be seeking out more from this author. I would recommend it for horror fans and anyone interested in checking the genre out, especially as it is in the Audible Included library.
The performance is really rather good, particularly in the emotional and creepy moments. My only complaint was that there was so little to mark the different correspondents that I was actually a little confused as to who was who and who was writing at times.
I feel like I've been overly critical, but, honestly, that's just because I actually enjoyed and thought about it enough.