Helpful Score: 4
I'd give this book a B-. It's a fine horror read and I do love a haunted/evil house book. Nightmare House put me in the mind of Five Mile House by Karen Novak with a bit of Amityville Horror (for the inspired madness the house seems to embody) thrown in and stirred well.
I felt much more connected to the characters (particulary the main charater) in Nightmare House, but as with Five Mile House, I would have liked to see the supporting characters better developed, MUCH better developed. I enjoyed the couple of hours I spent with Nightmare House, but felt it was rather a shell of a story, not fully fleshed out yet.
Also, I personally thought the grandfathers tale would have been FAR more interesting. In the end, there is a great deal left to the readers imagination as far as what "really" happened and I feel this would make a fine read for a book club group because there Nightmare House allows for a lot of speculation about the human condition, faith, and madness in the human mind.
I was surprised to find that at a short 340 pages, only 218 of them were the story Nightmare House, the remaining hundred or so pages were a "bonus" copy of Clegg's novella Purity. Purity was quite Lovecraftian in it's own way (though I suppose that was rather the point) and is also one of those stories that makes one stop and think about nature of faith, personal beliefs and human nature. It was an interesting, if short read.
Overall, time well spent.
I felt much more connected to the characters (particulary the main charater) in Nightmare House, but as with Five Mile House, I would have liked to see the supporting characters better developed, MUCH better developed. I enjoyed the couple of hours I spent with Nightmare House, but felt it was rather a shell of a story, not fully fleshed out yet.
Also, I personally thought the grandfathers tale would have been FAR more interesting. In the end, there is a great deal left to the readers imagination as far as what "really" happened and I feel this would make a fine read for a book club group because there Nightmare House allows for a lot of speculation about the human condition, faith, and madness in the human mind.
I was surprised to find that at a short 340 pages, only 218 of them were the story Nightmare House, the remaining hundred or so pages were a "bonus" copy of Clegg's novella Purity. Purity was quite Lovecraftian in it's own way (though I suppose that was rather the point) and is also one of those stories that makes one stop and think about nature of faith, personal beliefs and human nature. It was an interesting, if short read.
Overall, time well spent.
Helpful Score: 1
An uncharacteristic period ghost story brings the Harrow haunted house trilogy to an apprehensive conclusion or beginning. In Mischief (2000) and The Infinite (2001), Clegg dropped portentous hints of past misdeeds and occult experiments that amplified the evil influence of Harrow, a sprawling Hudson River estate turned into a boys' prep school. The events of this novel, a prequel to the previous two books, don't so much explain as anticipate Harrow's later ghostly manifestations. In 1926, Ethan Gravesend inherits the estate from his eccentric paternal grandfather, who built the mansion on supposedly cursed land. Almost immediately, he witnesses eerie apparitions that emanate from Harrow's shadowy halls and gloomy grounds. In the company of housekeeper and love interest Maggie Barrow, Ethan stumbles upon a boarded-up room and a proverbial skeleton in the family closet that serves as lodestone for the formidable supernatural forces that pulse through the dwelling. Clegg milks each of the gothic set pieces premature burial, mesmerism, exorcism, as well as the inevitable specters for maximum spooky effect, but ultimately depends on a lengthy digression by the well-informed local constable to put them all together for Ethan's benefit.
Helpful Score: 1
Douglas Clegg rules! This book is great could not put it down.
From Publishers Weekly
An uncharacteristic period ghost story brings the Harrow haunted house trilogy to an apprehensive conclusion or beginning. In Mischief (2000) and The Infinite (2001), Clegg dropped portentous hints of past misdeeds and occult experiments that amplified the evil influence of Harrow, a sprawling Hudson River estate turned into a boys' prep school. The events of this novel, a prequel to the previous two books, don't so much explain as anticipate Harrow's later ghostly manifestations. In 1926, Ethan Gravesend inherits the estate from his eccentric paternal grandfather, who built the mansion on supposedly cursed land. Almost immediately, he witnesses eerie apparitions that emanate from Harrow's shadowy halls and gloomy grounds. In the company of housekeeper and love interest Maggie Barrow, Ethan stumbles upon a boarded-up room and a proverbial skeleton in the family closet that serves as lodestone for the formidable supernatural forces that pulse through the dwelling. Clegg milks each of the gothic set pieces premature burial, mesmerism, exorcism, as well as the inevitable specters for maximum spooky effect, but ultimately depends on a lengthy digression by the well-informed local constable to put them all together for Ethan's benefit. While he offers no ideas here that haven't already been explored by the weird fiction masters cited in his acknowledgments, Clegg's modern sensibility brings out the luster in some of the genre's well-used furniture and shows that tales in the classic horror tradition can still entertain.
An uncharacteristic period ghost story brings the Harrow haunted house trilogy to an apprehensive conclusion or beginning. In Mischief (2000) and The Infinite (2001), Clegg dropped portentous hints of past misdeeds and occult experiments that amplified the evil influence of Harrow, a sprawling Hudson River estate turned into a boys' prep school. The events of this novel, a prequel to the previous two books, don't so much explain as anticipate Harrow's later ghostly manifestations. In 1926, Ethan Gravesend inherits the estate from his eccentric paternal grandfather, who built the mansion on supposedly cursed land. Almost immediately, he witnesses eerie apparitions that emanate from Harrow's shadowy halls and gloomy grounds. In the company of housekeeper and love interest Maggie Barrow, Ethan stumbles upon a boarded-up room and a proverbial skeleton in the family closet that serves as lodestone for the formidable supernatural forces that pulse through the dwelling. Clegg milks each of the gothic set pieces premature burial, mesmerism, exorcism, as well as the inevitable specters for maximum spooky effect, but ultimately depends on a lengthy digression by the well-informed local constable to put them all together for Ethan's benefit. While he offers no ideas here that haven't already been explored by the weird fiction masters cited in his acknowledgments, Clegg's modern sensibility brings out the luster in some of the genre's well-used furniture and shows that tales in the classic horror tradition can still entertain.
Helpful Score: 1
There are places that hold in the traces of evil, houses that become legendary for the mysteries and secrets within their walls. Harrow is one such house. Psychic manifestations, poltergeist activity, hallucinations, and other residue of terror have all been documented in Harrow. It has been called Nightmare House. It is a nest for the restless spirits of the dead.
Built by a madman, Harrow is an asylum for relics and rituals from every corner of the earth, and the taint of darkness lingers within the very stones of the house. When Ethan Gravesend arrives to inherit Nightmare House, he does not suspect the horror that awaits him--the nightmare of the woman trapped within the walls of the house, or the endless crying of an unseen child.
Also includes the bonus novella Purity!
Built by a madman, Harrow is an asylum for relics and rituals from every corner of the earth, and the taint of darkness lingers within the very stones of the house. When Ethan Gravesend arrives to inherit Nightmare House, he does not suspect the horror that awaits him--the nightmare of the woman trapped within the walls of the house, or the endless crying of an unseen child.
Also includes the bonus novella Purity!
