Yesterday I got another 4. This brings the total to a whopping 124.... at least it is an even number and I will not have to buy one with the excuse of evening out the numbers.
My relapse seems to be spreading to other areas as well. I bought two new albums on Saturday as well.Both are by an Irish singer songwriter called Foy Vance. One album is a bit more raw and blues-like where the other one is a bit more... well, gentle and floaty. I like both!
Now, I do remember that I have a few book reviews to do so lets get cracking... who knows when the back will give out again.
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The Secret of Crickley Hall - James Herbert
This was a good one!
A good bit ghost story. Lots of angry spirits floating around in a house, one family trying to come to terms with a loss, a bit of bad weather, some locals mistrusting of new folk, a psychic and a complete nutter. Actually make that two complete nutters. One alive, one dead..
The one thing that did put me off a little bit with this one at the start is that Herbert at one point seems to want to make this into a story that is told from many different people's perspectives; one chapter is told by one person, then he next by another and so the story builds up. He has a slight attempt at giving each chapter a different voice for each character but seems to drop the attempt at some point and stick to one, coherent narrative voice. Fortunately, in the end the story telling burden is not shared by too many people so it is okay.
There are some clever little twists and turns in the story and it made me want to keep reading as there is quite a bit going on. There are some different parts that mix to make up the book. There is the story of a family trying to come to terms with the loss of their son. At the start you do not know yet that he is dead but you kind of expect that to be the case irrespective of however much mum may not want it to be true. She seems to cling to some faint hope that after a year her boy Cam will still be found alive. I think that even at the start of the book, we as the reader know better than to hope. It is quite nice how Herbert shows you how each member of the family deals with the loss. Mum turns into herself and feels mainly guilt. Dad is trying to do the keeping a brave face thing. As for the kids, Loren tries to be a big girl about it and Ally is trying very hard to remember Cam at all. For the family the trip to the house is in part a means to relax and get away from the environment where the loss of their boy occurred. They have to try and move on and there is some hope that a trip away may help them all to heal. They really should have done their research! One of the parts of the story that got me is when Gabe gets the call that a body has been found and it may be Cam. That part is very well written and it is heartbreaking to think of what it would feel like to have to identify the body of our child... devastating.
The family decide that close to the one year anniversary of Cam's disappearance they need a break and dad's job has conveniently steered them towards a house with a bit of a history itself. This is where we start to get some details of the story of the children, orphan war evacuees. It is a gruesome and harsh story and if I was them I would haunt that house too! The guardians of the children were fine upstanding pillars of the community and, unfortunately for the kids also completely insane, cruel and impossible to escape from. Part of the story is found out from the villagers, art of it from some book that dad finds and the rest is filled in by one of the kids that actually survived the final ordeal, Maurice. This man has taken a big page out of the evil guardians book and has reasoned that as long as he can find another victim for the house to take the house and it's ghost will release it's hold on him. Sounds like a good enough plan.. but, how to find a child that is receptive to ghostly-ness and is tuned into spirits. Well, you turn yourself in to a psychic investigator.... of course you do. I cannot help but feel that it is a very nice coincidence for Mr Herbert that the family come to stay and that both mum and Loren seem receptive to the spirits that live in the house... as is Cally actually. Gabe seems to be the only "rational" one and an "unbeliever".
The other stories that we involved in are that of the Lili (the psychic) and of Maurice (the good pupil). We get to find out why Lili is not really a practising psychic any more and why Maurice became the lovable wacko we all know. There is one character who does not even speak and oozes evil without lifting a finger. This is the child carer extraordinaire, Magda. She never met a disciplinarian she did not like and her greatest crime is hiding behind her brother and not speaking up for those who needed a voice. I have met snakes with more of a backbone than she has. Oh... and let us not forget the handy man. He has been caretaker of the house and knows its history. He used to be quite fond of the teacher for the orphan kids. He never did find out what happened to her and hopes to see her again some time (he does...). You feel that he is somewhat torn between telling the family to get out while they can and hoping that all will be okay this time around.
There is a nice parallels in the story of the little Jewish boy and Cam. the boy is found in the well and turns out he did not get washed out to see. When Cam's body is found he turns up not to have strayed too far from the location of his original disappearance either.
At the end of the book there is closure for all the inhabitants of the house apart from one. Things end how they should.... in dramatic fashion. Gabe racing back in the dark to Crickley Hall through the worst storm of the century, Eve being stuck in the house with two live innocent kids and nine ghost ones, Maurice having finally snapped, Lily having sussed him out and having the visions of what went on in the fateful night all the kids died and the dog comes back! It does all end well and it leaves you with a good feeling for both the real and imagined visitors of the house.
Title: The Secret of Crickley Hall
Author: James Herbert
633 pages
Pan Books
ISNB nr 978-0-33041168-4
Books to be read: 123
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