Synopsis
PART OF THE NORTHERN WEIRD PROJECT
Simon and Priya’s young daughter has died in a tragic accident. Determined to heal their fracturing marriage, the couple move to the North Yorkshire Moors to renovate a dilapidated rural cottage. However, they just can’t process their grief as increasingly eerie events unfold. A child’s ghostly figure appears on the moors, doors lock themselves, and a mysterious stain grows from the loft. Is it their daughter haunting them or something else?
Starve Acre meets Linghun in this story of grief, marriage and haunting.
Review
Huge thanks to Wild Hunt Books for the review copy! I really like the simplicity of the cover design and absolutely love the color choice.
This is a fresh and unique take on the haunted house story. Right off the bat the reader is put in the know that the house isn’t just an ordinary house…but that doesn’t make it haunted. We get these really interesting chapters from the perspective of the house that serve almost as interludes, and I found them to be really decisive storytelling. The whole story speaks to our ability to inhabit and infect a place with our entirety.
In moves Simon and Priya, a recently bereaved married couple. Not only are they carrying their grief as if it’s literal baggage, they are slowly drifting apart like flotsam at sea. They are indeed the ones who are haunted. Can they come to realize what the other needs? Or will the house do it for them?
This was a quick little novella that packed a hell of a punch. The dialogue and introspection both share an incredible emotional depth, and I was really impressed by the polar opposites in Simon and Priya. This author definitely did a deep dive into his characters’ psyche. They grieve and experience like two entirely different people, and even as a married couple, they stretch and grow as separate people. I don’t know how else to explain how reading them felt other than…real.
The house and ending kind of gave me Nestlings by Nat Cassidy vibes, except like in a benevolent, more caring way. Unless you count the conniving aunt and cousin…
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