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A review by rosekk
The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert
3.0
I read this book while recovering from being ill, so that might have influenced my view of the book.
The last few James Herbert books I've read have been his older work, and I was bothered by the patriarchal (arguably misogynist) leanings in those books (the women were characterless damsels offered to the male protagonists like a reward, even when we were told they were leading scientists, while the male protagonists themselves were hardened heroes of the 80s-action-film stripe). I went into this book worried I'd find more of the same. While the gender dynamics of the characters are fairly traditional (the leading man is a rational, tough engineer, who supports his family financially while his superstitious but generally pure, religious wife has given up her job in fashion journalism...) they all feel more like real, layered people.
In the end I enjoyed the book, and was tempted to rate it a bit higher. It held my attention over the tiredness and nausea, and managed to get me invested in the characters and their story when the rest of my attention has been focussed on drinking enough water and timing paracetamol doses. So the book definitely got a lot right.
On the other hand, the ghost story was fairly predictable (I figured out nearly all the details of the 'secret' before they were revealed), and the writing, while generally decent, got clumsy at times and broke immersion. Although the book built tension well at the beginning of the book, the climax didn't feel all that scary because of the way a non-supernatural element was introduced. It meant there was a buffer of exposition between the build-up and the ending, which detracted from the story's conclusion.
The last few James Herbert books I've read have been his older work, and I was bothered by the patriarchal (arguably misogynist) leanings in those books (the women were characterless damsels offered to the male protagonists like a reward, even when we were told they were leading scientists, while the male protagonists themselves were hardened heroes of the 80s-action-film stripe). I went into this book worried I'd find more of the same. While the gender dynamics of the characters are fairly traditional (the leading man is a rational, tough engineer, who supports his family financially while his superstitious but generally pure, religious wife has given up her job in fashion journalism...) they all feel more like real, layered people.
In the end I enjoyed the book, and was tempted to rate it a bit higher. It held my attention over the tiredness and nausea, and managed to get me invested in the characters and their story when the rest of my attention has been focussed on drinking enough water and timing paracetamol doses. So the book definitely got a lot right.
On the other hand, the ghost story was fairly predictable (I figured out nearly all the details of the 'secret' before they were revealed), and the writing, while generally decent, got clumsy at times and broke immersion. Although the book built tension well at the beginning of the book, the climax didn't feel all that scary because of the way a non-supernatural element was introduced. It meant there was a buffer of exposition between the build-up and the ending, which detracted from the story's conclusion.