The Skeleton House, Katherine Allum

The Skeleton House

by Katherine Allum

horror

Copyright 2024

Part-read in October 2024

Rated 7/10: well worth reading

but for me: 4/10: bad but could be read. Except that I choose... to not read it.

An excellent choice for, book club discussion :-)

It's funny. I've barely started reading and... I don't like it.

Not the book itself, but ... the story. It is such an unpleasant story. I may stop reading.

This says a lot about me. About my mood. About, why do I read?

I'm reading the book in chunks, stopping and starting (I have other things to do)

This also means that I am building my appreciation of, my understanding of the book in chunks.

As I read more... I may change my mind.

But now...

Okay. I really would like to read it all. But... 

The plot, the theme, depress me.

Time to bite the bullet. I read for enjoyment. For escapism. This book offers neither.

So, from one third read: my review.

The book is nicely written. Is this literary fiction? Lots of references to Good Lit, some used to build an understanding, by comparison, to this book.

Well drawn characters. I am quickly drawn to sympathise with the main character. Though I disagree with her ... too sweet and caring... approach to child-rearing.

Except, of course, that her approach offers a contrast to the brutality, largely mental, of others.

There are characters who offer, just by their presence, support. All very well-written, well presented.  Nicely written. Cleverly written...

The style is clever. far too clever for a mainstream novel. Perhaps that is deliberate. A "literary" novel? Anyway...

It's almost stream of consciousness. Following the consciousness, the memories, of how the main character reached... wherever is the here and now.

It's easy to read but difficult to follow. Especially when new characters and situations appear in the heroine's memory.

Okay, I'll call her the heroine.

Main character? Protagonist, victim... heroine? we'll see (or not)

Whatever she is -- the book drives me to feel an awful lot of sympathy for her.

Because, yes, she suffers. She needs -- and she deserves -- sympathy. That, is an enormous power of the book.

And why I'm going to stop reading :-)

But:

One key character is, Neeley.

Absolutely central... to the heroine, if not to the plot.

Yet he feels tacked on.

Reading the author's own story, Neeley may well have been tacked on to the half-written work. Neeley needs to be firmly -- much earlier -- given a clear place in the community of the novel.

And speaking of the community:

What a load of absolute creeps. Narrow-minded, dogmatic, ignorant, controlling, creeps.

And that, I think, is the theme of this novel:

Coercive control. A very current theme.

Coercive control: control of the individual...

By the partner. The family. by the community, by the cult.

The book may be an attack on Mormons. Or an attack on the way in which an individual is coerced by individuals, by family, by friends, by community... by their own beliefs that they are trapped.

I'm not sure.

But... at whatever level... the coercion ... and control... is awful.

But horror?

Yes.

For a short time I hoped that the control would involve supernatural monsters. I have given up hope: The evil is entirely human.

Early on, a death is forecast.

Reading on, I have no idea who could die (or, more likely, be killed.

Thinking of the cast of characters... there are half-a-dozen that I would gladly see die. Any... or all of them. Unfortunately it does not seem likely.

And a string of deaths will still leave the heroine needing at least a chapter...

to escape the clutches of the evil community in which she is trapped.

A very well-written, very involving... book.

An excellent book for those who like to understand... to wallow in... the suffering of others.

I do not.

Early notes:

It's showing some good potential. Depending on where it goes.

It's the characters, their attitudes. I feel that I could very easily dislike the lot of them. Which will make for very difficult enjoyment of whatever does happen.

Really I only mention it because -- the dislike is so very strong. And personal.

The mother is so cutesy, so nice to the children. Like Hi-5 which talks down to the kids vs PlaySchool which talks and plays ... *with* the children.

Then we meet more of the family and social group.

I get the feeling of paternal control and... Stepford Wives.

All of this goes against my natural preferences for behaviour. Which makes me very uncomfortable.

But which also makes me hope for a nasty, enjoyable, horror story, with one sympathetic character and all sorts of awful threats against the far-too-cute children.

Which must make this a good start to the book: I am already viscerally involved :-)

=== now to read on:

at various reading times:

the OZ link just does not work

it feels tacked on.

if it is essential -- attach it firmly -- very early -- to allow it to be explained

Hours later...

I'm reading this book in chunks. So may as well document my opinions as they. develop. and, probably, re-develop.

Yes... "horror"? I suspect a slow build-up to horror. Whether physical or psychological... not yet known. But to me... already very horrid.

The author is MA.

This allows them to reference literary "giants" as a quick way to define some character traits, possibly even situations.

Unfortunately it is of little help to us non-MA readers.

Given time, practice and an already good (if negative) understanding of humanity, I suspect that this author will be writing good books which will appeal even more to mass readers... without forcing us to Wikipedia to understand, what on earth the author is on about :-)

half blind. half deaf. dying of cancer.
so what?
notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com :-)

Dr Nick Lethbridge
Consulting Dexitroboper