Reviews and Comments

I did my yearly ritual of doing marathon reading of spooky books around Halloween, starting August or September and continues until I finish Carmilla. This year, I got two haunted house books in, first Matheson's Hell House, then this. I found Eleanor partly relatable - intrusive thoughts, persecution complex (and actual persecution), social awkwardness. There was some nice, unexplained creepiness that I love. Whatever force is here isn't killing everyone who goes in. It's not creating endless pandemonium. It gives the residents plenty of time and space to reenter a sense of ease. It's finding the vulnerable person and fucking with them, creating the illusion to everyone else that there's nothing supernatural going on, just one person who's solely responsible for everything weird. But the reader knows better when Eleanor comes to the same demise that others who entered have, being puzzled as to why she's doing it. But again, we're not explained what's really going on.

What I love is when I get into a book not knowing famously known things about it. I didn't realize the homoromantic undertones that it had (Hell House had gayness too, see my comments about that - bookwyrm.social/user/thomasjwebb/comment/8706939#anchor-8706939). It became apparent pretty early on that Eleanor had a thing for Theodora though I think the latter was just teasing and probably just wanted to get back with her ex-girlfriend (her roommate). Instead of an evil monster exploiting a hapless character's internalized homophobia as Belasco did in Hell House, it felt more like Theo's gayness (in both senses of the word) represented a polar opposite of the repression Eleanor felt both as a caretaker for her mom, and then as a third wheel with her sister and brother-in-law. There isn't the indication that Eleanor feared her own queerness so much as common fears about heartbreak and unease about what the two even are, given Theo's often aloof behavior.

I've only read one other Matheson book before this but it's one of my favorite books ever (I Am Legend) and I've also been craving a haunted house story. I was not disappointed! Lots of interesting foreshadowing. Some aspects of the story you could see from a mile away, especially if you know how Matheson thinks (of course the truth was going to be a hybrid between what the woo Christian spiritualist believed and what the scientist believed). There is a bit of subtle homophobia in there (most troublesome was where it briefly implied an association with pedophilia) but I think elsewhere it's actually, whether meaning to or not, making the case that homophobia provided a means by which people can be tormented. Belasco recognized perfectly benign things about Edith - her being both sex starved and bisexual - and used it to absolutely fuck with her. The book tries to imply that those things were put in her, but it's kinda clear with how ghosts work here that it had to be in her in the first place. So possible unintentional commentary about homophobia. I also think if Lionel survived, he would have been chill with working something out where she can sleep with other men and women, taking the pressure off him.

Anyway, lots of absolutely creepy shit. Especially if like me you are intrigued by ruins and fallen opulence and find rich, manipulative people inherently scary. Matheson really tapped into actually fucked up things about society, perhaps more than he even realized at the time he wrote it.

Pretty good. They couldn't have covered everything because it's a graphic novel. Some of the stories are downright entertaining. It ends on a touching, but sad note. A tragic story of a multi-talented trans woman who ended her own life, reminding me of my late friend Rani. Overall it's a good read and helps remind us where we came from. And should be a good way to introduce cis people to trans history without jargon or typical internet crackpot history.