Halloween Bingo 2023
I don't know what to think about this novel. I waited on a long list at the library and was glad it arrived in time for Bingo. But I didn't find it dreadfully inspiring, rather predictable. By the 80% mark, I was also beginning to doubt that I would be able to use it as a ghost book. The London Séance Society was proving to consist of a bunch of men who are scam artists and their ceremonies were unlikely to produce real spirits, unless you count brandy or vermouth.
In the first chapters, I liked the main character, Lenna, quite a bit. She seemed intelligent and had her head screwed on straight. I could understand how the grief over her sister Evie's death would send her to the medium that Evie had been studying with. But there comes a point in the action where she lays hands on the crucial evidence and instead of picking it up and running, she chooses to go through it in the perpetrator's office. TSTL. Nevertheless, Lenna regains some of my regard and a spirit or two show up to justify my Bingo square choice. Crisis averted.
So, my advice to you? Your mileage may vary. The villains are sufficiently bad, but not evil geniuses. They are just entitled men taking advantage of widowed women and other grieving people. Asking for extra money here, sexual favours there, they take full advantage of their Society's prestige. How little things have changed.
If you have a yen to read nonfiction about Victorian spiritualism, may I recommend Mary Roach's book Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. There is an entertaining section about séances and a trip to an archive to view some of the trappings of a Victorian ceremony. And as Roach says at the end, the debunkers are probably right, but they’re no fun to visit the graveyard with.
I read this book to match Ghosts and Hauntings on my bingo card.
No comments:
Post a Comment