I was attracted to this book in my search for a ghost story and because it is mostly set in the suburb next to mine: Royal Oak. MI. Although there is technically a ghost in it I would classify it as a horror story more than a ghost story.
In order for the story to work, you must embrace the idea of a child born bad. I was never quite able to do this so that somewhat impeded my enjoyment of the book.
Twins are born to a family. From the beginning the girl is trouble although just how is never much discussed until the ending. Both almost die at birth and are brought back. At age sixteen, both die again in a fire and this time only the boy is saved. He has always been haunted by his sister in life and now in death, things don't change much. His ability to have a normal life is stopped at every turn.
This was a very well-written book and the setting was interesting to me. Pyper made good use of both Royal Oak and Detroit. But his sister never came to life for me-either alive or dead. There were lots of good plot twists in it, lots of great detail. But I guess I needed someone who didn't slip though my fingers every time I tried to understand her. Her name was Ash and that about sums up her presence
2 comments:
I don't usually go for ghosts in stories, Patti, but this one sounds as though its focus is more on the psychological than on the supernatural, and that can be absorbing. I'm glad you thought it was well written.
While ghost stories can be gentle fantasies, for me they always default to horror as they deal with what horror is all about: coming to grips with mortality, and the unknown factors of anything genuinely supernatural in ourselves...while this one seems more like a Bad Seed story as described...and one where the focus was on the survivor(s) of her Bad Seediness...I'd think of it as more a psychological suspense novel, from what you've shared, and probably not a fully successful one for me, either, as I've yet to actually meet any BSes who weren't taking after their upbringers in some notable ways. Perhaps I've been lucky (but not That lucky).
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