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hollowspine 's review for:
The Turning
by Francine Prose
Review contains spoilers of both this book and Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
This story is (heavily) inspired by the Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Prose switches the gender on the main character, instead of a young woman pining after the affections of her absent employer this time we've got young Jack headed to an isolated island with no WiFi or even landline, cut off from the modern world. His job is to take care of two young children for the summer.
The children are strange, they act stiff and formal, like relics from another century. They seem to be keeping secrets, but Jack is determined to teach the two dour children how to have fun over the summer.
He doesn't get very far in that endeavor, though, because soon he's wrapped up in the mysterious goings on in the house. He sees apparitions everywhere he turns, a beautiful young woman and a older frightening man who has some sort of hold over the lovely ghost.
Finally Jack figures out that the two ghosts are Lucy and Norris, two former employees who had a big influence on the kids, and not a good one. In fact Norris liked to play strip poker for souls! Um...yeah.
The story is told in epistolary format, Jack writing letters to his girlfriend Sophie and his Dad and receiving letters from them. Sadly, this format did not work in this story at all. The letters were extremely clunky and unrealistic. Jack would transcribe conversations he'd had and letters often included phrases like, "You already know this..." but I'm going to tell you again for the sake of narrative.
Then Jack goes the way of Jack Nicholson in the Shining. He continues to write letters, though they become more and more incoherent, which again doesn't work very well in this format.
It's never really explained why the two kids act like they're straight out of Victorian Times. Norris and Lucy don't seem like they were influencing them to do that. It was just to make them creepier?
Oh well. Read the Henry James and forget about this one. Too bad.
This story is (heavily) inspired by the Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Prose switches the gender on the main character, instead of a young woman pining after the affections of her absent employer this time we've got young Jack headed to an isolated island with no WiFi or even landline, cut off from the modern world. His job is to take care of two young children for the summer.
The children are strange, they act stiff and formal, like relics from another century. They seem to be keeping secrets, but Jack is determined to teach the two dour children how to have fun over the summer.
He doesn't get very far in that endeavor, though, because soon he's wrapped up in the mysterious goings on in the house. He sees apparitions everywhere he turns, a beautiful young woman and a older frightening man who has some sort of hold over the lovely ghost.
Finally Jack figures out that the two ghosts are Lucy and Norris, two former employees who had a big influence on the kids, and not a good one. In fact Norris liked to play strip poker for souls! Um...yeah.
The story is told in epistolary format, Jack writing letters to his girlfriend Sophie and his Dad and receiving letters from them. Sadly, this format did not work in this story at all. The letters were extremely clunky and unrealistic. Jack would transcribe conversations he'd had and letters often included phrases like, "You already know this..." but I'm going to tell you again for the sake of narrative.
Then Jack goes the way of Jack Nicholson in the Shining. He continues to write letters, though they become more and more incoherent, which again doesn't work very well in this format.
It's never really explained why the two kids act like they're straight out of Victorian Times. Norris and Lucy don't seem like they were influencing them to do that. It was just to make them creepier?
Oh well. Read the Henry James and forget about this one. Too bad.