Rating:
The recent rains made me wish for a good ghost story. Something following the standard formula: a person ends up somewhere and strange things happen there. And so I tried this self-published book by Astrid Addams and… ladies and gentlemen, this wasn’t a mistake! Do you hear the clocks ticking? Get used to that sound, it will haunt you even after finishing this book.
Some places don’t let go….Offered a lucrative job at the mysterious Hacket House, Jane agrees to travel across country to live at the mansion. After all, a fresh start is just what she needs. Besides, the remote house is a long way from the past she is still running from.Arriving at her new home, she finds a strange red house set in a wood of red, gnarled trees. The same trees used to build the house and the grandfather clocks that haunt every room and dark corridor.Jane quickly realises that there is something very wrong at Hacket House and the village of Bramley.Why is there a graveyard in the garden of Hacket House? Who are the people in hoods who haunt the house at night? What are they doing with the old man in the bed? Why is somebody moving the grandfather clocks? Who is the strange woman no one will admit exists? What are the shadows that scoot across the walls like cockroaches? Who is Erazmus Nark whose grave nothing will touch?As the sinister behaviour of the village escalates and her own past closes in around her, Jane learns that just because something is dead, doesn’t mean that it’s gone.
The blurb of The Haunting of Hacket House
Don’t you adore the cover? It promises a few well-spent evenings. This book was a pleasant surprise. The creepy and half-decaying place where the plot unravels is a wonderful setting for everything that has to come. It fits the beginning of the novel and the ending alike.
I have enjoyed the mysterious plot and I think this story is a good mix of haunting, body horror, and a fictional account of the horrors a crazed and brainwashed society can do. The reader is always slightly doubting… Is it just the people, is there truly something wrong with the house?
The creepy, haunting, and scary writing is well-seasoned with a bit of needed humor. While the reader feels glued to the page, expecting something strange to happen again, a short exchange or a description cause a smile or a short laugh, and reading this book becomes a much better experience.
The next thing that felt refreshing and pleasant to read was a mix of the old times and new technology. Jane ends up in an old house full of mechanical clocks. It all evokes a feeling of the past. This is further accentuated by the parts of the plot where the old history of the place unravels in front of the readers’ eyes. But Jane and the other characters use the internet, social media, phones… This created a mix of mystery and nostalgia anchored in our relatable reality by a chat on the phone and Google research.
I truly appreciated the short realistic parts about lack of sleep and fatigue. The main character’s job requires her to be awake and take care of an elderly patient several times during the night. This does not only provides opportunities for plot development. It also causes Jane natural tiredness and the consequent hallucinations and problems with perceiving reality. Are the moving things in the house truly signs of haunting? Or are they just products of a very tired brain? Or both?
Jane herself is a captivating character. I have appreciated the slow and even pace at which her past and its effects on her future got revealed. She starts as a rather ordinary character and quickly becomes more and more interesting. She is battling her own issues which, without a spoiler, are sadly realistic, well-crafted, and far from cheesy and plain. She is driven by something that does not feel like torn from a dumb empty romance book. Things like this happen also in the real life and Jane’s fate is not far-fetched. It could serve as an example to be cautious in… well, in the situations Jane found herself in before the events of the book.
Jane’s own problems before and during the story make her a wonderful unreliable narrator. She is also far from a pure innocent maiden. She is fierce and seasoned with life. And she is also scarred and flawed by her past which influences her character, actions, and decision. And I adored her competence when she worked and defended the interests of her client. Of course, the plot drives her to have a few weak points. That only further develops her originality and the realistic feel her character has.
What I see as a weakness of this book is that the author built up some issue or focused on a certain detail in the plot or world-building and then abandoned these in a favor of a rushed last third of the book.
The ending itself felt half-satisfying due to the upper-mentioned abandonment of story elements that could enrich the finale. And the ending not only lacked support of a richer plot, the final events would deserve more attention, details, and time to better sink in and make more impact. While the first half of the book feels much better handled, the second half and the ending feel like an unpolished draft. Still, I would not say the ending was bad. The events that did happen in the pages felt terrifying and held my full attention. I am just saying I would like to read more about it.
Another mildly disturbing thing was the writing itself. While there were parts full of witty and innovative sentence constructions, other parts of the text felt chaotic and unedited. There were also occasional typos. And some major info-dump could be much better incorporated into the story.
Except for these issues, I have really enjoyed this book and I am sure this was not my last book from this author.
Glenn's Nest 