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About the Book
After surviving a near-death experience, David finds himself haunted by ghosts in the old Victorian house he is renovating. These tortured souls beg for his help and offer him protection from a demonic presence that wants David dead for a crime he doesn’t remember committing. Even more surprising, he soon learns these are spirits of people who are not yet dead. Is this real, is he hallucinating, or is someone trying to drive him insane? As his paranoia ramps up, he discovers the truth is even more bizarre. The haunting won’t stop until he kills a man named “Fitz.”
My Review
What a fabulous story this was! Hopstaken is definitely on my list of people to watch after this one… He has crafted an incredible universe and populated it with fantastic characters, alive and dead, and used them to present a story that is engaging, creepy, and wholly entertaining. As each chapter unfolds more weirdness is revealed, but it all comes together beautifully through the author’s wonderful use of language.
I love a good haunted house tale, and this is that in spades – as well as a complex story about coming to terms with your own life, warts and all. There is tragedy pouring out of every page, yet the story never devolves into self-pity or sympathy. Rather, it’s a tale about survival – on many fronts, in many contexts – and that unusual emphasis (for a ghost story) is part of what made it so dynamic and unusual (in the best possible way).
This was a super-fast read for me. I finished it in a day – literally. It held me in thrall from the first pages. Hopstaken has a magnificent ability to craft a deliciously dark and twisty world that draws you in and refuses to let you go. And that ending! I wonder if we might see more of the delightful David – and I truly hope we do!
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