Happy Halloween

The lovely Mrs F, from Fennell Books, who I’m lucky enough to call friend, posted a well timed blog entry this morning about a ghost story from Susan Hill, the writer of The Woman In Black.

The book, Printer’s Devil Court, sounds interesting, so I decided to order it on Kindle and read tonight, just because you should be a little bit scared on Halloween.  But when I went to Amazon to order it, I found a different one that I liked the sound of.

So tonight I will be scaring myself with The Man in the Picture by Susan Hill.  It’s set in Cambridge, and on the college walls of an old Professors' rooms hangs a picture.  On a cold winter’s night the Professor tells the tale of the picture, which you should never ever stare into.

I've got the chills already.

Review: The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson

Publisher: Hammer

ISBN: 0099561832

I don’t think I’ve ever been so productive on the blog as I have with this Challenge…

I recently read this as a book club selected read for October.  Helen from Fennell Books liked it as did I think everyone else to some degree.  I didn’t hate it, but I’m not a fan either.

Short Synopsis:  Based on the first set of well documented court records of the Pendle/Lancaster Witch Trials of 1612 it follows Alice Nutter through the recorded events up to, and a little beyond, the end of the court hearings.  There is some artistic licence is used to add detail and backstory etc…

As I mentioned earlier I didn’t hate it, but I can’t say that I enjoyed it either.  You know how sometimes there’s nothing really wrong with a book, but it just doesn’t gel well for you?  No particular reason, it just doesn’t suit?  I’m afraid this was the case for me with The Daylight Gate.

Maybe it was because it was based on true events.  I did spend most of the book thinking about what was real and what was not.  Some of it was clear, other parts were not, so I was rather distracted by that throughout.  Maybe it depends on whether you think witchcraft is real. I don’t, so much of the book dealing with the supernatural aspects I found totally unbelievable.  I personally didn't care for any of the characters.  I thought that the treatment of women in general, and Jennet Device in particular while utterly believable, was also utterly sickening.  This is probably the best part of the story, in terms of getting me invested in what was happening.  The ending was brilliant!

There were some excellent moments, and if you like historical fiction you might well enjoy this.

According to members of the book club this will be made into a film by Hammer as well.

Dark Matter: A Ghost Story by Michelle Paver

Publisher: Orion
Price/Format: £7.99, paperback.

Bought from: Mr B's Emporium

ISBN 1409121186

This was one of the first books I read from Mr B's Reading Spa recommendations.  I am well known in my circle of friends and family to be a downright scaredy cat, and have nightmares for weeks after watching or reading something particularly scary, so I was a little aprehensive about reading this.

I had decided that having read it back in July/August it was too late to post a review about it now, but what do you know?  Apparently sometime after reading it I posted about it on our facebook book club page and it's now assigned as one of our upcoming books.  I may give it another go, knowing what happens may add a certain something to re-reading it.  Kind of like re-watching a film and seeing all the clues you missed the first time.

Set in the 1930's Jack is a poor man with a bit of a chip on his shoulder, who gets given a great opportunity to do something incredible and take part in a scientific expedition to overwinter in the arctic circle.  His team members bit by bit leave him for various reasons and he finds himself left to carry the expedition on his own, accompanied only by the sled dogs and the feeling of not being really alone in the permanent darkness.

For much of the novel you aren't sure if Jack is actually being haunted or just mentally crumbling under the strain of being alone in the constant darkness of such a stark environment.  It is essentially up to you to decide which you want to believe, and neither are comfortable options.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, up to about half way through I was quite happy to read at night, but as the story progresses the tension mounts and I had to finish the book while only reading during the day.  It was well written I thought, easy to read, well paced with events escalating throughout the story.  The descriptions of the place, Jack, etc are all wonderful and really bring the story to life.

If you're braver than me (lets face it - who isn't?) then I highly recommend reading it at night.  If we have another cold snowy winter it would really be an excellent atmospheric read.  I am particularly looking forward to re-reading it while I'm cosy and warm on a wintry night in deepest darkest December.

Collected Ghost Stories by M.R. James

Edited by Darryl Jones
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Price/Format: £10.49, hardback.
Bought from: Amazon
ISBN 0199568847

In a previous review I discussed my feelings of the short story format, and my feelings have not changed, though for this collection it is a good thing.  I was quite happy for the stories to be short and to be able to take a break between them.

For our October book club book we decided to read something spooky for Halloween, and after much deliberation I suggested MR James, as one of the earliest writers of the genre, and because as a teenager he'd scared me silly.

I'm *ahem* older now, and a little desensitised to the genre, but there is still something spine tingling about this collection.  The writing is naturally dated, and overly concerned with class and British stiff-upper-lip and it's also rather formulaic.  It's obviously a case of MR James writing what he knew (libraries, old books and documents, abbeys etc etc) and much is laughable in this day and age.  But there's a creepiness that plays on the mind... things that move in the corner of your eye, strange voices, shadows... all those edge-of-consciousness things that unsettle you, and it actually works very well.

This edition is particularly packed full, not only of (I think) every short story he published, but also various writings from James on the nature of ghost stories.  Reading these he explains he only wanted to write the type of stories I have described above, the ones that linger in the subconscious and make the reader feel unsettled.  For him these were never meant to be gorefests or to frighten you half to death, they were only meant to generate that shivers-down-your-spine feeling.  And in my opinion he succeeds brilliantly.

I read a couple at night, and then resigned myself to only reading during the day.  I won't say which I have read as yet, and which I have not, or try to tell you what is good or not so good.  That's not for me to decide for you.  My advice for this collection is to smile and accept the settings and plot decisions for what they are, and just enjoy each story as it comes. 

If you like to be a little more creeped out try reading at night, or even by candlelight for the uber-spooky effect, as one of our book club members did.