Beautifully written, and great sense of time and place, but ultimately disappointing in the one way that matters -- as a ghost story.
It's not that it "isn't scary" -- it isn't, but that's because there's nothing to give the haunting of Sir James Monmouth substance and meaning. "The Turn of the Screw" is terrifying, and resonates long after you have finished it because there is so much to it, layer upon layer of possibilities, and horrors that fit together flawlessly, like a puzzle box: is the Governess mad, or is she the only one to see and understand what's really going on? Every word, every detail, every ghostly manifestation fits, and is there only to serve that bigger picture
"The Mist in the Mirror," on the other hand, feels like a slender short story that has been spun out to novella or novelette length (by the beautiful writing and the great details of time and place ...). Multiple items from the Scary Story Playlist are trooped out (phantom child; plaintive woman's voice, singing, in a house where you know you're alone; a sobbing child behind a locked door which, in the cold light of day, doesn't exist) but they feel arbitrary, and they don't really add up to the "big pay off" at the end. They don't add up to much of anything, really.
In the extensive glossaries, critical and educational material at the end of my edition, Hill is quoted as saying that " ...one thing I have never been very good at as a writer is plotting ... preferring to concentrate on atmosphere ..." I think "The Mist in the Mirror" is a prime demonstration that a ghost story can't succeed on atmosphere alone.
It's not that it "isn't scary" -- it isn't, but that's because there's nothing to give the haunting of Sir James Monmouth substance and meaning. "The Turn of the Screw" is terrifying, and resonates long after you have finished it because there is so much to it, layer upon layer of possibilities, and horrors that fit together flawlessly, like a puzzle box: is the Governess mad, or is she the only one to see and understand what's really going on? Every word, every detail, every ghostly manifestation fits, and is there only to serve that bigger picture
"The Mist in the Mirror," on the other hand, feels like a slender short story that has been spun out to novella or novelette length (by the beautiful writing and the great details of time and place ...). Multiple items from the Scary Story Playlist are trooped out (phantom child; plaintive woman's voice, singing, in a house where you know you're alone; a sobbing child behind a locked door which, in the cold light of day, doesn't exist) but they feel arbitrary, and they don't really add up to the "big pay off" at the end. They don't add up to much of anything, really.
In the extensive glossaries, critical and educational material at the end of my edition, Hill is quoted as saying that " ...one thing I have never been very good at as a writer is plotting ... preferring to concentrate on atmosphere ..." I think "The Mist in the Mirror" is a prime demonstration that a ghost story can't succeed on atmosphere alone.
