Challenge Tuesday – 19

It’s my first of two posts this evening – this week was my third Australian writer in a row, and it was third time lucky for me!

Book 19 – The Seance, by John Harwood.  I can’t easily precis this book in a way that feels true; it is the story of Wraxford Hall, and those people doomed by its existence.  It starts with the story of Constance Langton – bereaved sister with a grief-maddened mother and absent father, and quickly becomes a story of horror, superstition, spiritualism and murder.  I can’t say much more without spoiling it to be honest!

I enjoyed this book, for what it was – an atmospheric, gothic-inspired tale of false friends and secret histories. There was a lot I could guess would happen but the ending was satisfying enough to leave me feeling good about the book.  Without spoiling, I liked that the ending wasn’t what you might have expected.

I liked the structure too, although some of the transitions were a little abrupt – there are five sections and they neatly interact, building up the dubious recent history of Wraxford Hall as it unfolds for Constance, through memoirs and journals.  Interestingly, despite Constance being the key character initially, she didn’t leave much of an impression on me.  Again, for me that worked because I wasn’t waiting to get back to her story as we left her behind to pursue the history of the Hall.

The downside was the predictability of many of the events and situations; they were often clearly signposted and repeated mention of certain things made it easy to imagine what would happen next.  Again, trying not to spoil the story, certain things were unnecessarily mentioned to such an extent that they were like flashing signs in the book!

I didn’t find the whole story convincing, and being able to guess so much was a little disappointing, but as modern gothic styling goes I thought this did very well.  Some of the descriptions reminded me of Victorian writers and that was a fun touch.  It was an easy read without being mindless and it wasn’t to clever for its own good like last week’s story.

So this is on my positive pile, which is a relief – I was beginning to think I was just off reading!

Happy reading,

EJ

🙂