A solid short-story, scary and chilling, and a great introduction to the author’s writing.
It is a bit difficult to write this review without sharing any spoilers, as the story is very short indeed. Blink and you’ve missed it. Despite that, it is atmospheric, intriguing, and fairly dark (although there’s no gore involved at all, so don’t worry if you’re squeamish).
The author uses many of the tropes of horror novels and films (an old gothic-looking property, a ghost story, night, cold, a daring young girl who refuses to show others she is scared) and puts them to good use.
The story is not long enough for us to get a great insight into the characters, although we easily identify with Avlynn, as we see all that happens from her point of view, we hear the screams, we realise our roommate is not there, we wonder which way we should go and we face… (No, I’m not telling you what). The twist at the end is perhaps not totally unexpected but it works very well and makes the story all the more chilling. Yes, we should remember that we ignore some warnings at our peril.
A solid short-story, scary and chilling, and a great introduction to the author’s writing. Recommended to anybody who enjoys ghost stories, especially to those who like short reads and don’t want to get bogged down in too much backstory.
I was given an e-copy of the story as part of a blog tour organised by Lady Amber’s Reviews & PR and I freely chose to review it.
Thanks to Lady Amber and the author, thanks to all of you for reading and remember to like, share, comment, click and REVIEW!
