The Dollmaker

 The Dollmaker by Nina Allan    416 pages

 Now that it is full-on fall in Missouri, it’s the perfect time to luxuriate in a gothic novel. Nothing said creepy to me like the cover of Nina Allan’s “The Dollmaker.” It’s a story of a dwarf and a woman in a mental institution, both you are avid doll enthusiasts.

I noticed that Allan didn’t use the politically correct term “little person” for Andrew Garvie, which seemed to add to its creepy-factor. Since he was a child, Andrew has been fascinated by dolls. He collects them, he creates them, and he gives them life. He seems to be alone in the world, which adds a deeper element to his connection with the dolls.

One of the things Andrew looks forward to is the monthly arrival of a collector’s magazine. He pours over its pages the moment it arrives. He even reads the personal ads. They are mostly from other collectors wanting to buy or sell a certain type of doll. That is until he comes across the ad from Bramber Winters.

The two begin to correspond and grow closer and closer. It doesn’t even phase Andrew that Bramber has lived most of her life in an institution.

After much correspondence, Andrew decides that the they should meet.  He makes plans, without telling Bramber, to visit her.Andrew goes by train and makes many stops along the way at various musuems in small towns. He also carries with him a book of fairy tales by Ewa Chaplin, also a dollmaker.

Andrew’s travels and letters to Bramber are interspersed with Ewa’s stories. Turns out, Ewa is a real-life figure, but I couldn’t find much about her on the internet. A blurb about Ewa as an Author’s Note could have put it in perspective for me. I don’t understand why the author placed those stories within the novel. It seemed, to me, like a way to ease the eeriness that I felt reading Andrew and Bramber’s letters, but I felt they had no revelance on the story.

Andrew and Bramber’s meeting was not at all what I expected, which is a good thing. I won’t give my impression of the ending as I don’t want to cloud others’ opinions.   “The Dollmaker”  receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Witch of Pale Harbor

 

The Widow of Pale Harbor by Hester Fox     291 pages

Author Hester Fox had gained a new fan. Granted this is the only book of hers that I have read, but I loved it.  Part romance, part literary, part gothic, part ghost story and part thriller, “The Widow of pale Harbor” has a light creepy factor that makes it a perfect fall read.

Both of the main characters, Sophronia Crarver and Gabriel Stone, are haunted by the deaths of their spouses. Not literally, but the ghosts of their lives travel with Sophronia and Gabriel. Gabriel has left Concord, Massachuestts, for Pale Harbor, Maine, to become a transcendentalist minister. His late wife, Anna, has aspired to that for him, although he knows little about the movement. Sophronia is the widow of one of the town’s wealthiest and most influential residents. When he died, the town was sure he was murdered and convicted Sophronia without the benefit of a trial. Since then, she has not left the grounds of her large home, Castle Carver, that she shares with Helen, a woman she plucked out of the poorhouse. Helen has that creepy factor that reminded me of Mrs. Danvers from “Rebecca.”

I was hooked from the first sentence of the twisty novel: “This was the fourth dead raven to appear of Sophronia Carver’s front path in as many weeks, and there was no explaining it away as coincidence this time.” Isn’t that wonderful? Whenever I head about a raven, my thoughts immediately fly (no pun intended), to Edgar Allen Poe. His works play an important part of this novel.

Gabriel tries to settle into Pale Harbor, but it’s not as easy as he’d hoped. The people want to welcome him into their hamlet, but when he loses their trust when he befriends Sophronia. 

There are so many twists in the novel that I could barely put it down; It’s one of those that will keep y’all up all night. I loved it! “The Widow of Pale Harbor” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

And the Trees Crept In

And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich     341 pages

When Silla and Nori arrive at their aunt’s home, it’s immediately clear that the manor is cursed. The endless creaking of the house at night and the eerie stillness of the woods surrounding them would be enough of a sign, but there are secrets too—questions that Silla can’t ignore: Why does it seem that, ever since they arrived, the trees have been creeping closer? Who is the beautiful boy who’s appeared from the woods? And who is the tall man with no eyes who Nori plays with in the basement at night… a man no one else can see?

I only finished this book because a) I was reading it for a book club and b) I just wanted to know, ultimately, what the author was planning for the "big reveal" to see if it was worth it. It wasn't, for me. Were the characters interesting? No, utterly infuriating because none of them made any sense in their decisions or what they were doing. Was the story compelling? Yes but then it got boring and quickly devolved into what people think of when they think "this is what a CRAZY person sounds like!" Was the writing good? See the point about the story. I just don't think it paid to finish. It wasn't a cop-out necessarily, I just didn't care for it - and really the end-end is infuriating, too.

Rebecca

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier     441 pages

From Goodreads:

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives--presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.

My review:

This book is a roller coaster of emotions. It's dark, it's a bit creepy/insidious, it has an air of the mysterious and disturbing. I was thoroughly engrossed, especially because this book provides a slow build to a rather late climax, and the falling action is so full of tension that you can't put it down.

I didn't like any of the characters - so it's out of character for me to be rating this book so high. But the writing is well crafted, the story is so strong, it grips you. I absolutely hated the narrator and her weird infatuation with a man who is twice her age, her longing for him and her willingness to put up with basically anything so long as she can remain his wife. I hated Maxim, the worst kind of snobby, wealthy Man with a capital M. He babies his wife, he definitely doesn't love her, and he's so obsessed with image, he literally doesn't care about anybody. I also hated Rebecca, but only in the way that she's presented by everyone (who knows what she was really like because everyone who describes her has a different bias - she literally has no voice, she's just a symbol, throw any context on her you want because it can't be called wrong). Perhaps the only person I didn't hate was Frank.

In the end, read this book for its writing - the symbolism, the mirroring, the cyclical story-line. The characters feel very much like caricatures, but they are very intense and fascinating in their own way. I can see why this book is considered a classic. I very much respect du Maurier's writing and her book should definitely be considered more than just a "romance" story (if you can call it romance, it's one-sided, whatever, I hated the romance).

Nightbooks

Nightbooks by J. A. White     304 pages

A boy is imprisoned by a witch and must tell her a new scary story each night to stay alive. This thrilling contemporary fantasy from J. A. White, the acclaimed author of the Thickety series, brings to life the magic and craft of storytelling.

Alex’s original hair-raising tales are the only thing keeping the witch Natacha happy, but soon he’ll run out of pages to read from and be trapped forever. He’s loved scary stories his whole life, and he knows most don’t have a happily ever after. Now that Alex is trapped in a true terrifying tale, he’s desperate for a different ending—and a way out of this twisted place.

This was a really cool, dark re-telling of Hansel & Gretel/Scheherazade. Alex, a young boy stumbles across an apartment where he can hear his favorite movie being played and he's so drawn to it, he ends up captured by a witch and becomes her prisoner, having to tell her a scary story every night to keep her happy.

I liked the inclusion of Alex's stories - they provide an extra level of creepiness that young kids will love (a bit like reading "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark"). Plus, having those stories around gives further insight into Alex's character, what he means when he talks about being different from other people, because you can see how his mind conjures up scary things to turn into stories.

I think the character development in this story is really well done. Alex's character is revealed a bit at a time, but you get a lot from his stories. Yasmin, also, takes a while to open up, but you can see her and Alex's relationship developing and it's very natural and sweet. White does a good job of writing the characters to be the age they're supposed to be. Both think and speak like children, so it keeps the story realistic and more accessible to the age group it was written for.

As far as the scariness, I definitely think kids would find aspects of this book terrifying. As an adult, I didn't find it too creepy, but I'm also not the target audience. Having Alex's stories helps with the creepy factor, but I also like the way White developed this more modern Hansel & Gretel witch. The apartment itself is its own character, which is really cool. It gives another element to the story and makes it feel less like a re-telling and more like something new and different. In this way, White keeps the reader from seeing the end ahead of time. I could predict certain things, but there were a lot of red herrings to keep you from realizing the full story, which I enjoyed very much.

I would definitely recommend this book to kids looking for a creepy story. Plus, this would make a great Halloween read-aloud, especially since it features creepy stories being read aloud! Check it out!

Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories

Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories by Kelly Barnhill     288 pages

When Mrs. Sorensen's husband dies, she rekindles a long-dormant love with an unsuitable mate in "Mrs. Sorensen and the Sasquatch." In "Open the Door and the Light Pours Through," a young man wrestles with grief and his sexuality in an exchange of letters with his faraway beloved. "Dreadful Young Ladies" demonstrates the strength and power--known and unknown--of the imagination. "The Insect and the Astronomer" upends expectations about good and bad, knowledge and ignorance, love and longing. The World Fantasy Award-winning novella The Unlicensed Magician introduces the secret, magical life of an invisible girl once left for dead . 

Having only read one book by Barnhill previously (and a middle-grade book, at that), I can say I wasn't nearly prepared for the strangeness of her fiction. Each story is full of bizarre creatures that are not quite fully formed - you only get a hint of what it is you're actually reading. I guess that's just part of the whimsical/psychotic style she prefers, and by that I mean as you read each story, you feel the narrator is somehow a bit cracked, not to be trusted, but even more so, they seem like they're experiencing some sort of psychotic break with reality. Some of the stories are pure fantasy, others are more magical realism (more magical than real, though), and the point of each story is a bit hard to define, though with some stories it's more clear than others. I can't say I had a favorite amongst these stories, but I can say I had a least favorite. Most of the stories are pretty forgettable - their weird, creepy, or off in some way, but most don't really stick because they don't seem to have a particular point to them. I can see strong ties between "The Unlicensed Magician" and her book that I had read, "The Girl Who Drank the Moon." She seems to have a very particular vision of what magic is and how it manifests itself. In the end, though, I end each story wondering "What have I just read?" I don't regret reading this collection of short stories, but I don't think I'd recommend it very freely. I think this book is best reserved for those who really enjoy short stories, but particularly of the kind that are ethereal or of the bizarre. Barnhill does have a knack for descriptive prose and some of the visions she creates are quite lovely, but I will definitely proceed with caution the next time I consider reading one of her books.

Rags & Bones

Rags & Bones edited by Melissa Marr & Tim Pratt     356 pages

From Sir Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene to E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops," literature is filled with sexy, deadly, and downright twisted tales. In this collection, award-winning and bestselling authors reimagine their favorite classic stories, the ones that have inspired, awed, and enraged them, the ones that have become ingrained in modern culture, and the ones that have been too long overlooked. They take these stories and boil them down to their bones, and reassemble them for a new generation of readers.

Meh. That's the overall feeling I have for this particular collection of stories. There are some stories in this book that I really liked, but overall, this was just an okay compilation.

The premise was for authors to take a "timeless" story and retell it, either in a completely new way, or at least slightly changed. Some of these stories I would consider "timeless" but there were some odd choices in this bunch - some stories that I had never heard of, so I wouldn't consider them "timeless." For instance - Gene Wolfe chose a story that, in his own words, is "one of those wonderful stories we have utterly forgotten." I would like to call this book out on it's "New Twists on Timeless Tales" claim. If I hadn't read a story before, I tried to track it down and read it first, so I'd understand how the author re-imagined the story. 

For the most part, these stories were very old, a lot of them in the Public Domain, so it wasn't hard. For Gene Wolfe's story, the "White Werewolf of the Saraban" I couldn't even Google it and get it's origin. It is so obscure a story it's only been published in one book - a compilation by Boris Karloff of all people - and it's worth a pretty penny if you want to own it. So, I didn't much appreciate being led to believe these stories were recognizable in any way.

What I'd like to sum up is that this book has a few choice authors that I really like and made me interested in reading this story - Neil Gaiman, Garth Nix,
Rick Yancey - but the majority of the stories, other than theirs, were just so-so. I wouldn't pick this book up again, and I wouldn't suggest it to someone unless I really knew they liked short stories or a majority of these authors.

The Lovecraft Anthology, Volume 1

The Lovecraft Anthology, Volume 1, Edited by Dan Lockwood, 110 pages
I've been reading a collection of Lovecraft's stories (to be blogged about later) and I decided to grab this while I was at it. It contains graphic renditions of 7 of Lovecraft's works (Call of Cthulhu, Haunter of the Dark, Dunwich Horror, Colour out of Space, Shadow over Innsmouth, Rats in the Walls, and Dagon), each done by a different illustrator. The content is, of course, greatly condensed, but still as eerie as the full versions. Seeing Lovecraft's odd creations brought to life as each artist visualized them is a treat, and much of the artwork brought back memories of reading Tales from the Crypt back in the day. A fun addition to any fan of Lovecraft's reading list.