Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Horror/Ghost Story/Short Story
Approximate word count: 6-7,000 words
Availability
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Author:
In her day
job T.R. Sutherland is a computer programmer. She lives in Florida with her
husband and their dog.
Description:
“On this
street the house was number 13.
For two
adventurous cousins, the reputation this house has acquired is based on rumor,
and they're determined to find out if there is any truth in it. They decide to
explore the house to see for themselves what all the fuss is about. As soon as
they approach the house, they become aware of a menacing presence. Their plan
was to spend the entire night in the house, but with each passing moment the
house slowly comes alive as a cold terror creeps in.
Will they
make it through the night?”
Appraisal:
I thought
this short story started out well. A haunted house is a premise that’s been
done before, which means originality is harder to find, yet it is also so well
known that the setup is easy. This story started out feeling like one of those tall
tales you might relate while sitting around a campfire late at night only with
more detail and better descriptions.
The
narrator (who I don’t think was ever named) and his cousin, Jett, set off to
explore the haunted house. The foundation was set, the tension was building,
and then I started seeing holes in the story. A room was described as having
thirteen walls, which set my mind off on a tangent, trying to picture how that
could be and how plausible it was. One second it is so dark that Jett was
groping in the dark, trying to find a candle that had gone out, and the next
they’re able to see the detail of the candle well enough to see that it had
been “stuffed out” with someone or something pushing the wick into the melted wax
rather than blown out. Later they sense two “persons” (presumably ghosts) “with
the slightest possible distance between them” go by, yet in the next breath the
beings have changed directions with the follower “steadily getting closer.” (I
thought they were just as close together as possible.)
A ghost
story, like any story containing things most of us are certain don’t exist,
requires a reader to suspend disbelief. Usually I’m able. Here, with things I
couldn’t picture and what seemed like one sentence contradicting the next, I
wasn’t able.
The story
ends with the narrator making the statement that he wonders “what was reality
and what was nervous delusion.” Unfortunately I was wondering the same thing, only
way too early.
Format/Typo Issues:
No
significant issues
Rating: *** Three stars
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