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evavroslin's review against another edition
5.0
Haverhill House has been making some excellent strides by putting itself on the map as a premier small press focusing on horror novels. My first foray was with Michelle R. Lane’s astounding novel, Invisible Chains so I was excited to have the opportunity to review another title from a female horror author, Sheri Sebastian-Gabriel, whose novel is called Spirits.
The protagonist, Tori, is down on her luck after getting fired for being drunk. She seeks refuge in alcohol, but it has bled into her personal life. She’s haunted by an accident it is implied she caused. The author does a great job evoking the mental state–the confusion and blurring together of everything someone like Tori has gone through–while maintaining clarity of action. She’s trying to outrun herself, and it leads to things getting even worse for her as the novel continues.
Spirits explores the classic horror scenario that deals with how far some people are willing to go to get revenge on a person who wronged them in the worst way. I’m a sucker for ghost stories and hauntings done well, and this novel definitely fit the bill for me on many counts. Another good point is that it’s not your average, typical ‘haunting’ and the alcoholism as well as all the demons it carries for its sufferers becomes a terrifying entity, which I thought the author did a great job pulling off.
Tori finds herself at an inn run by a kind woman whose partner passed away years ago. She knows that Tori is in a dangerous state. What she doesn’t realize at first is that there are spirits, as the title suggests, that have come for Tori. She encounters a man, Chris, who saved her from a pack of threatening teenage boys years ago when she was visiting the resort with her parents, and he’s the local comic book shop owner. Their paths cross again as Tori tries to figure out what each new day will bring, although it turns out that his white knight armour has some unexpected clinks in it. He is trying to fill a gap in his life through tragedy, but is a well-intentioned individual.
Although it was clear why Tori came to this smaller town to escape, I would have liked to have seen a more distinctive establishment of her goals as a character. Of course, with her alcohol addiction and not being in a clear mental headstate for most of the time, it wasn’t a surprise that she didn’t seem to have distinctive plans apart from “don’t let the nasties get me.” One of the author’s strengths was the portions in which she played with reality and hallucinations/altered perceptions as Tori’s tale lumbered forward, ominous and determined to make her downfall happen.
Another quick point of interest I found was the design elements incorporated into the chapters, such as the use of a colour image of a wine cork as a scene divider.
Things start out badly, and build to a crescendo of progressively worse as the chapters go on, with the reader wondering the whole time what will become of Tori. Even though she has alcohol addiction, she generally exudes the character of someone who wants to do better, though they may not know how. The twists as Tori’s mind unravelled further were fascinating to move through. Secrets are revealed, not everything is at it seems, and things end with an impact. A minor gripe I found was that there were a lot of unanswered questions, and some loose strands that I would have liked to see more fleshed out, but this did not impact my overall enjoyment of reading what is a great supernatural horror tale. Although a bit rough around the edges, Spirits is an enjoyable, immersive ghost horror novel with modern sensibilities that will appeal to fans of the category and keep them racing through the pages to find out what fate will befall Tori.
The protagonist, Tori, is down on her luck after getting fired for being drunk. She seeks refuge in alcohol, but it has bled into her personal life. She’s haunted by an accident it is implied she caused. The author does a great job evoking the mental state–the confusion and blurring together of everything someone like Tori has gone through–while maintaining clarity of action. She’s trying to outrun herself, and it leads to things getting even worse for her as the novel continues.
Spirits explores the classic horror scenario that deals with how far some people are willing to go to get revenge on a person who wronged them in the worst way. I’m a sucker for ghost stories and hauntings done well, and this novel definitely fit the bill for me on many counts. Another good point is that it’s not your average, typical ‘haunting’ and the alcoholism as well as all the demons it carries for its sufferers becomes a terrifying entity, which I thought the author did a great job pulling off.
Tori finds herself at an inn run by a kind woman whose partner passed away years ago. She knows that Tori is in a dangerous state. What she doesn’t realize at first is that there are spirits, as the title suggests, that have come for Tori. She encounters a man, Chris, who saved her from a pack of threatening teenage boys years ago when she was visiting the resort with her parents, and he’s the local comic book shop owner. Their paths cross again as Tori tries to figure out what each new day will bring, although it turns out that his white knight armour has some unexpected clinks in it. He is trying to fill a gap in his life through tragedy, but is a well-intentioned individual.
Although it was clear why Tori came to this smaller town to escape, I would have liked to have seen a more distinctive establishment of her goals as a character. Of course, with her alcohol addiction and not being in a clear mental headstate for most of the time, it wasn’t a surprise that she didn’t seem to have distinctive plans apart from “don’t let the nasties get me.” One of the author’s strengths was the portions in which she played with reality and hallucinations/altered perceptions as Tori’s tale lumbered forward, ominous and determined to make her downfall happen.
Another quick point of interest I found was the design elements incorporated into the chapters, such as the use of a colour image of a wine cork as a scene divider.
Things start out badly, and build to a crescendo of progressively worse as the chapters go on, with the reader wondering the whole time what will become of Tori. Even though she has alcohol addiction, she generally exudes the character of someone who wants to do better, though they may not know how. The twists as Tori’s mind unravelled further were fascinating to move through. Secrets are revealed, not everything is at it seems, and things end with an impact. A minor gripe I found was that there were a lot of unanswered questions, and some loose strands that I would have liked to see more fleshed out, but this did not impact my overall enjoyment of reading what is a great supernatural horror tale. Although a bit rough around the edges, Spirits is an enjoyable, immersive ghost horror novel with modern sensibilities that will appeal to fans of the category and keep them racing through the pages to find out what fate will befall Tori.
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