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A review by ojtheviking
Holt House by L. G. Vey
4.0
This was my first time reading one of the Eden Book Society releases. Since the six titles I found were all from 1972 (albeit not released until 2018), I couldn't ascertain if they were intended to be in a specific order, so I just went by the order in which they were listed on the homepage.
With that said, I honestly think Holt House was a solid first impression of this book series. As I understand it, all the authors in this series wrote their books under pseudonyms, so it's difficult to tell if either one of them is otherwise a known author. Regardless, I feel the person behind the pseudonym L. G. Vey proved themselves to be a very competent writer. The writing style is detailed enough to paint a vivid picture in your mind, and there is a lovely British politeness in its approach, yet it never gets too grandiose, so it's easy to follow along.
Despite this being a fairly short story, it's still a slow burn, but never in a way that seems tedious or drawn out. There are many novels where you could shave off large portions to get to the core story, and Holt House felt like it was all about the core story, and never digressed or went on tangents. And for a story like this, that honestly felt fitting. Straight to the point in many ways, but there was still a noticeable build-up to a greater mystery.
Being a fan of anthology shows like The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Darkside, and so on, Holt House gave me a similar vibe to shows like that, and both because of the compact length of the book, as well as because of the arc of the story, with things slowly being twisted into something different than they first appear, this could easily have been adapted into an episode of such a show. This leaves me with the hope that reading through all of the Eden Book Society releases will continue to give me that anthology feel.
With that said, I honestly think Holt House was a solid first impression of this book series. As I understand it, all the authors in this series wrote their books under pseudonyms, so it's difficult to tell if either one of them is otherwise a known author. Regardless, I feel the person behind the pseudonym L. G. Vey proved themselves to be a very competent writer. The writing style is detailed enough to paint a vivid picture in your mind, and there is a lovely British politeness in its approach, yet it never gets too grandiose, so it's easy to follow along.
Despite this being a fairly short story, it's still a slow burn, but never in a way that seems tedious or drawn out. There are many novels where you could shave off large portions to get to the core story, and Holt House felt like it was all about the core story, and never digressed or went on tangents. And for a story like this, that honestly felt fitting. Straight to the point in many ways, but there was still a noticeable build-up to a greater mystery.
Being a fan of anthology shows like The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Darkside, and so on, Holt House gave me a similar vibe to shows like that, and both because of the compact length of the book, as well as because of the arc of the story, with things slowly being twisted into something different than they first appear, this could easily have been adapted into an episode of such a show. This leaves me with the hope that reading through all of the Eden Book Society releases will continue to give me that anthology feel.