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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Well that was pants - did not need to be that long!!!!
Loved this! Couldn't put it down and was dead disappointed it ended! Would highly recommend if you like haunted house stories! :) x
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Bit of a stinker but I listened on Audible and it was saved by the narrator. Too much reliance on purposeful ghosts who explain everything via visions and telepathy, and the actual secret was just physically impossible imo!
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The thing about James Herbert books is that they aren’t original, groundbreaking, or genre bending in any way. If you imagine a stereotypical scary story, Herbert will put in every scene you expect in pretty much the way you expect it. Red Panda says it’s as if he starts his stories with a check list and goes down the boxes one at a time and ticks them all off. That’s accurate. He’s a formula writer. That may sounds bad. Usually it is. But not with Herbert. The fact of the matter is he’s a master of formulas. He reminds you of why the formula exists in the first place and why they keep being used and reused. He shows you - after a long spell of reading formula scary stories written by far lesser talents - just how good the formula can be. If you are like me, you will enjoy seeing it done so masterfully that you never once get irritated that you see it all coming long before it arrives.
So, in a way, it’s hard to give him a five star review for any of his books. (I don’t think I have yet.) But it’s also hard to give him less than a four.
The Secret of Crickley Hall is classic Herbert. A family with emotionally crippling back story decides to “get away from it all for a while”. They rent a cost effective house that turns out to have a tragic backstory of its own. The house has strange occurrences that get stranger. Then - oh my gosh - the haunted looking house turns out to be haunted house! Who knew?! Oh wait, half the town actually knew but they never talk about it. They just gave knowing looks to one another every time the family was in town and make obscure references in front of them. No worries, though, because there’s an old crust caretaker who also knows and tells them in confidence. What a nice bloke to let them in on the secret. Of course, he knows more than he says and is more involved then he lets on. But that will all come out later. Ultimately, crisis crescendos when the mom and kids are trapped alone in the house and the dad is struggling to get back, the ghosts get uppity, and someone turns out to not be who we thought.
Like I said- if you’ve read 5+ haunted house tales or seen movies, then you could write this book yourself. You won’t be shocked by any plot twists. That said, you will enjoy the writing, the characters, the use of old standbys doing what archetypal pattern characters are supposed to do.
It is a very ably executed book, as all Herbert’s books have been so far.
So, in a way, it’s hard to give him a five star review for any of his books. (I don’t think I have yet.) But it’s also hard to give him less than a four.
The Secret of Crickley Hall is classic Herbert. A family with emotionally crippling back story decides to “get away from it all for a while”. They rent a cost effective house that turns out to have a tragic backstory of its own. The house has strange occurrences that get stranger. Then - oh my gosh - the haunted looking house turns out to be haunted house! Who knew?! Oh wait, half the town actually knew but they never talk about it. They just gave knowing looks to one another every time the family was in town and make obscure references in front of them. No worries, though, because there’s an old crust caretaker who also knows and tells them in confidence. What a nice bloke to let them in on the secret. Of course, he knows more than he says and is more involved then he lets on. But that will all come out later. Ultimately, crisis crescendos when the mom and kids are trapped alone in the house and the dad is struggling to get back, the ghosts get uppity, and someone turns out to not be who we thought.
Like I said- if you’ve read 5+ haunted house tales or seen movies, then you could write this book yourself. You won’t be shocked by any plot twists. That said, you will enjoy the writing, the characters, the use of old standbys doing what archetypal pattern characters are supposed to do.
It is a very ably executed book, as all Herbert’s books have been so far.
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book isnt unreadable, and I'd say I found the first third perfectly enjoyable, but slowly the things that I didn't like became harder and harder to ignore. In particular: didn't love the way the author wrote female characters, no one loved the dog enough which made me dislike them, overuse of exclamation marks, got very tell not show in places, was ableist in places, the character thought processes and reactions felt very manufactured, and it was just far far longer than it needed to be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Antisemitism