The two main characters are Michael who is an unwilling participant in the brutal kidnap and murder of countless young women and his brother Reb who is his twisted manipulating older brother (the rest of the family aren't much better)From the bestselling horror author of Within These Walls and The Bird Eater comes a brand-new novel of terror that follows a teenager determined to break from his family’s unconventional—and deeply disturbing—traditions.
Deep in the heart of Appalachia stands a crooked farmhouse miles from any road. The Morrows keep to themselves, and it’s served them well so far. When girls go missing off the side of the highway, the cops don’t knock on their door. Which is a good thing, seeing as to what’s buried in the Morrows’ backyard.
But nineteen-year-old Michael Morrow isn’t like the rest of his family. He doesn’t take pleasure in the screams that echo through the trees. Michael pines for normalcy, and he’s sure that someday he’ll see the world beyond West Virginia. When he meets Alice, a pretty girl working at a record shop in the small nearby town of Dahlia, he’s immediately smitten. For a moment, he nearly forgets about the monster he’s become. But his brother, Rebel, is all too eager to remind Michael of his place…
When Michael meets Alice there is an instant attraction between them both, although Michael is cripplingly shy and constantly worries that he is going to reveal his families secret Alice takes a shine to him regardless, it is around this point that Reb's behaviour starts to change, he is becoming more and more unhinged and Michael knows that just by merely talking to Alice he is putting her life in danger because Reb is getting to be so unpredictable, the last thing Michael wants is for Reb to roll up to their home with Alice in the trunk but that is becoming a distinct possibility, Michael needs to escape before things go too far.
When I first started reading the first thought that came to mind was Texas Chainsaw Massacre but as the book progresses it loses that raw outback feel and almost morphs into something entirely different that I couldn't put my finger on, I still can't now.
The best character was Misty Day, she's Michael's younger sister and the only 'innocent' one in the family, she is the one that I really felt for whilst I was reading, she had a child like quality about her and she seemed to shut all of the evil around her out by living inside her head in her own little safe space.
The big plot twist was telegraphed though, it was obvious what was going on at an early stage, that isn't to say that it wasn't well done or that it was poor, I just think that there wasn't really any other route for the book to go down.
So this was apparently the first ever real mystery novel, I love books from this era (1859) and whilst old Wilkie loves his words they are put together fantastically well and when I was in the mood for it I couldn't help but find myself completely taken in by the book, when I wasn't in the mood for it I couldn't help but find myself looking for an excuse to look at my phone after every page or two.'In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop... There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth, stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white'
The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter becomes embroiled in the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons, and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism.
Matthew Sweet's introduction explores the phenomenon of Victorian 'sensation' fiction, and discusses Wilkie Collins's biographical and societal influences. Included in this edition are appendices on theatrical adaptations of the novel and its serialisation history.
All in all I really enjoyed it and I will most likely revisit it again at some point in the future.
Right now though I've gone for an old classic (seeing as its Halloween I thought I should dig one of my old favourites out)
I actually have the bus ticket still in there from when I first read it, 2nd December 2010The shocking true story of an American dream that turned into a nightmare beyond imagining...
In December 1975, the Lutz family moved into their new home on suburban Long Island. George and Kathleen Lutz knew that one year earlier, Ronald DeFeo had murdered his parents, brothers, and sisters in the house, but the property - complete with boathouse and swimming pool - and the price had been too good to pass up. Twenty-eight days later, the entire Lutz family fled in terror...
This is the spellbinding, bestselling true story that gripped the nation - the story of a house possessed by spirits, haunted by psychic phenomena too terrible to describe.
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