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A review by xabbeylongx
The Haunting of Blackwych Grange by Amy Cross
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Spoilers Ahead:
I had really low expectations of this book, but I was actually quite pleasantly surprised.
We follow Paula as she follows her team, consisting of Mac (the leader), Helen (the sceptic) and Kyle (the believer). As a university student, she is shocked when Mac invites her to join the team, to investigate a house that is supposedly haunted. His ex-partner, Josephine, went there to investigate, writing everything down in her diary, but when she returned, both of her assistants were dead, and she did not speak a word after that. She ended up in a psychiatric ward, and Mac wants to know what happened to her.
We have a flashback, in which we travel back in time to the beginning of Blackwych Grange. Elizabeth is living with her uncle and cousin, Matthew. She has been suffering with night terrors for years, and also gets whipped by her uncle for being disobedient. Daniel, a boy from the village, wants her to run away, but she won’t leave Matthew. He promises to return for her, but when he does, alas, it is too late! She is dead. Daniel goes looking for her, thinking that she can’t be dead. There is a massive scandal, but nobody says anything, only that she went mad.
He hears noises from under the ground, where Elizabeth’s grave is, and he digs it up. There she is, physically, but not mentally. The bones of her unborn child she pushes into her belly, and she is perceived as very unhinged. ]It comes out that her uncle tried to kill her. Every night for years, she’s get those night terrors from being sedated from her uncle, where he allows people in the village to use her as a punishment/reward for them/trade. When Elizabeth got pregnant from the priest, she was so scared, but she had to watch her son be fed to the wolves - obviously traumatising! So she went crazy, was eventually killed, and then lived in the house to haunt all of the Marringham descendants, so she can cause them as much pain as they did to her.
Kyle quits halfway along the trip, although he tries to convince Paula to leave too - she didn’t want to be seen as a coward, though. She stays, Helen ends up having a ‘heart attack’, and then dies, so it’s just her and Mac. So far, their visits have tried to replicate Josephine’s schedule to the letter, so they can try and figure out what is happening. Mac is happy to give Paula up to the ‘ghost’, as paranormal things start to happen. They eventually see the Black Eyed Lady who haunted Blackwych Grange, and she makes them act crazy.
Luckily, Paula is saved from the house, and a few weeks after she leaves, she goes to visit Josephine. Of course, she starts acting weird, and then we find out Elizabeth’s soul has actually been in her body this whole time, because she couldn’t leave Blackwych Grange without attaching herself to someone, and then she jumps into Paula’s body, to try and kill off the rest of the Marringham family.
So, to start with, the beginning was, for want of a better word, awful. There were a lot of mistakes which should not be present in a published, fully edited book, and the pacing was off, and it felt like everything that was happening was just one event after the other, no time to chill, no time to develop the relationships with the characters, etc etc. I won’t lie, I almost DNFed it, because I just couldn’t get into it. It got really exciting when the story shifted to Elizabeth’s POV, and then even the editing got a little better after that - but it still wasn’t perfect, unfortunately. The pacing got a lot better too, weirdly enough.
I thought the layout itself was absolutely perfect with the book. With the story starting with Paula, then switching to the different POVs, back to Paula, I thought that was done perfectly, and I can’t fault that. Honestly, I can’t lie I didn’t feel any emotional attachment to any of the characters, but to me, that makes it all the more mazing, because the plot kept me gripped! I really liked the ending, the ambiguity of it, although I would absolutely love it if another one was released, maybe still in the POV of Paula whilst she is possessed - I think that would be really cool. I loved the backstory, I thought it was so clever and well-thought out, and there were a lot of common horror tropes, but it also wasn’t too cliche, which I really like, as it’s hard to find a horror book that doesn’t overuse these tropes, in my opinion. I think it’s quite a tame horror novel, but I would definitely recommend it!
I had really low expectations of this book, but I was actually quite pleasantly surprised.
We follow Paula as she follows her team, consisting of Mac (the leader), Helen (the sceptic) and Kyle (the believer). As a university student, she is shocked when Mac invites her to join the team, to investigate a house that is supposedly haunted. His ex-partner, Josephine, went there to investigate, writing everything down in her diary, but when she returned, both of her assistants were dead, and she did not speak a word after that. She ended up in a psychiatric ward, and Mac wants to know what happened to her.
We have a flashback, in which we travel back in time to the beginning of Blackwych Grange. Elizabeth is living with her uncle and cousin, Matthew. She has been suffering with night terrors for years, and also gets whipped by her uncle for being disobedient. Daniel, a boy from the village, wants her to run away, but she won’t leave Matthew. He promises to return for her, but when he does, alas, it is too late! She is dead. Daniel goes looking for her, thinking that she can’t be dead. There is a massive scandal, but nobody says anything, only that she went mad.
He hears noises from under the ground, where Elizabeth’s grave is, and he digs it up. There she is, physically, but not mentally. The bones of her unborn child she pushes into her belly, and she is perceived as very unhinged. ]It comes out that her uncle tried to kill her. Every night for years, she’s get those night terrors from being sedated from her uncle, where he allows people in the village to use her as a punishment/reward for them/trade. When Elizabeth got pregnant from the priest, she was so scared, but she had to watch her son be fed to the wolves - obviously traumatising! So she went crazy, was eventually killed, and then lived in the house to haunt all of the Marringham descendants, so she can cause them as much pain as they did to her.
Kyle quits halfway along the trip, although he tries to convince Paula to leave too - she didn’t want to be seen as a coward, though. She stays, Helen ends up having a ‘heart attack’, and then dies, so it’s just her and Mac. So far, their visits have tried to replicate Josephine’s schedule to the letter, so they can try and figure out what is happening. Mac is happy to give Paula up to the ‘ghost’, as paranormal things start to happen. They eventually see the Black Eyed Lady who haunted Blackwych Grange, and she makes them act crazy.
Luckily, Paula is saved from the house, and a few weeks after she leaves, she goes to visit Josephine. Of course, she starts acting weird, and then we find out Elizabeth’s soul has actually been in her body this whole time, because she couldn’t leave Blackwych Grange without attaching herself to someone, and then she jumps into Paula’s body, to try and kill off the rest of the Marringham family.
So, to start with, the beginning was, for want of a better word, awful. There were a lot of mistakes which should not be present in a published, fully edited book, and the pacing was off, and it felt like everything that was happening was just one event after the other, no time to chill, no time to develop the relationships with the characters, etc etc. I won’t lie, I almost DNFed it, because I just couldn’t get into it. It got really exciting when the story shifted to Elizabeth’s POV, and then even the editing got a little better after that - but it still wasn’t perfect, unfortunately. The pacing got a lot better too, weirdly enough.
I thought the layout itself was absolutely perfect with the book. With the story starting with Paula, then switching to the different POVs, back to Paula, I thought that was done perfectly, and I can’t fault that. Honestly, I can’t lie I didn’t feel any emotional attachment to any of the characters, but to me, that makes it all the more mazing, because the plot kept me gripped! I really liked the ending, the ambiguity of it, although I would absolutely love it if another one was released, maybe still in the POV of Paula whilst she is possessed - I think that would be really cool. I loved the backstory, I thought it was so clever and well-thought out, and there were a lot of common horror tropes, but it also wasn’t too cliche, which I really like, as it’s hard to find a horror book that doesn’t overuse these tropes, in my opinion. I think it’s quite a tame horror novel, but I would definitely recommend it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Violence, and Blood