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childofsalt 's review for:
House of Windows
by John Langan
John Langan is a study in patience. This was a slow burn that carefully revealed the horror in mundanity through the lives of Veronica and her husband Roger.
I can see where this horror wouldn't work for some, but I find Langan's work irresistible in his ability to achieve dread through a slow mounting tension with no precipice to how the horror will appear. Sometimes it lingers like a shadow trailing behind the narrative, continually menacing and present until it's not. Other times it's in the quiet moment that it suddenly makes its presence known and does so viscerally.
I do wish the climax had contained more horror as odd as that might sound. The peak, in my opinion, was the scene in the diner and it was so sudden and so disarming that the climax didn't quite hold up in comparison.
That said the thrill of the horror is there if one has the patience to be enveloped in the narrative.
I can see where this horror wouldn't work for some, but I find Langan's work irresistible in his ability to achieve dread through a slow mounting tension with no precipice to how the horror will appear. Sometimes it lingers like a shadow trailing behind the narrative, continually menacing and present until it's not. Other times it's in the quiet moment that it suddenly makes its presence known and does so viscerally.
I do wish the climax had contained more horror as odd as that might sound. The peak, in my opinion, was the scene in the diner and it was so sudden and so disarming that the climax didn't quite hold up in comparison.
That said the thrill of the horror is there if one has the patience to be enveloped in the narrative.