Atomospheric ghost story, but missing some edge

The Dead House
von Billy O'Callaghan

Bewertet mit 3 Sternen

Nice almost gothic atmosphere, but the beginning was a bit lengthy and the scary part was too rushed to really get into it.

This story was told from an unusual POV. Instead of staying close to Maggie, the woman haunted in her new old cottage on an isolated Irish cliff side, we follow Mike, Maggie's art dealer and friend. He tells of her breakdown after being beaten almost to death by her boyfriend, afterwards fleeing to the secluded rough west coast were she immediately falls in love with an old cottage and stays there. After necessary renovations are finished, Mike and a couple friends visit Maggie and find her happy again. But after a night of too much drinking and fooling with an Ouija board, things take a downwards spiral, and fast. When Maggie stops calling, Mike decides to check on Maggie, only to find the cottage in total neglect and Maggie obsessed with her new-found painting style. But things get even worse...

At the base of this book lies a solid ghost story, but buried in endless layers of portraying the landscape, art and Mike's blooming relationship to Allison. While Maggie is the main character of the story, she takes a backseat to Mike, and mostly we witness events through Mike's eyes instead of first hand. Learning what happens to Maggie only through phone calls, or what happened to her by seeing the damage done only afterwards - it is frustrating, and that's exactly how Mike feels: clueless, helpless, being to late, and therefore feeling guilty as well.

A very atmospheric, unusually but cleverly constructed ghost story, but without the edge necessary to really challenge my goosebumps.

(Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of the book, all opinions are my own)