Helpful Score: 1
This is a good, solid haunting tale. It flows nicely throughout, and keeps you guessing right up to the end. Straub is masterful at building suspense, and keeps ratcheting the tension all the way through.
It did drag a bit in the middle, but to a succinct and much-needed end: I always worry when a major character appears who is an author, and starts discussing literature, poetry, how hard it is being a writer, etc. It slowed during that bit of the bridge, but once the pieces of the story fell into place, I realized that it was a necessary refrain, and that Straub didn't overdo the self-indulgence like many of his peers are known to do when introducing literature into literature. Not too much, anyway.
Great visualizations throughout--full of the elements of classic spooky stories: graveyards, smoky studies full of leather and wood and brandy, spooky old houses, dark woods, and soulless creatures masquerading as friends.
A bit dated, but it still holds up well as a modern read.
It did drag a bit in the middle, but to a succinct and much-needed end: I always worry when a major character appears who is an author, and starts discussing literature, poetry, how hard it is being a writer, etc. It slowed during that bit of the bridge, but once the pieces of the story fell into place, I realized that it was a necessary refrain, and that Straub didn't overdo the self-indulgence like many of his peers are known to do when introducing literature into literature. Not too much, anyway.
Great visualizations throughout--full of the elements of classic spooky stories: graveyards, smoky studies full of leather and wood and brandy, spooky old houses, dark woods, and soulless creatures masquerading as friends.
A bit dated, but it still holds up well as a modern read.
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