Phyllis A. Whitney: The Ebony Swan

This novel is one of Whitney's later ones, published in 1992. Fun fact: the author died at the age of 104! She also thanks Dr. Robert Atkins-- I assume THE Robert Atkins in her introduction to this book. He must deserve some credit for her ripe old age.

This novel centers around Alex Montero, a seventy something grandmother/former ballet dancer. Her granddaughter, Susan Prentice, has come back to her family home in Virginia after twenty-five years away. She has not spoken to her grandmother, Alex Montero, since she went away at age six. Mystery surrounds her mother's death which led to Susan's being spirited away in silence from the family she loved.

The past is not dead, and someone does not want Susan and Alex to know what really happened to Delores, Susan's mother. Whom can Susan and Alex trust?

To be honest, I read all the way to page 150 and quit. The novel just seemed silly to me, and it was dragging terribly. Other than Alex, most of the characters were flat and uninteresting.

Perhaps the tipping point was when Whitney threw pages of health information in the middle of the novel-- all about supplements like fish oil and hawthorn root, etc. I really believe in fish oil, but that was a bit over the top! It was laughable and dampened the budding romance while being overtly preachy and bizarre. I should cut the author some slack; after all, she was around 90 when she wrote this novel, and she did live a long life, but it's still not what I want out of a Gothic Romance Novel. I know she has so many other great novels that I didn't want to waste anymore time on this one.

Rating: 2 stars    **

I don't recommend this one unless you are a hardcore love everything Whitney has ever written fan. 

Contest Reminder-- Sept. 30th

I know I have some new readers/commenters, so I wanted to remind you that the Autumn Contest will end October 1st at 12 am. The details of the contest are here:

http://gothicked.blogspot.com/2010/09/quickie-48-hour-contest-winner-new.html

If you want to win some Gothic Novels, just post a comment by the deadline, and your name will be entered in the drawing. Your chances are pretty good since I probably have a dozen entrants at most at this point.

Happy Sunday. :)

Richard Setlowe: The Haunting of Suzanna Blackwell

I found this image of the cover of the edition I read on Richard Setlowe's website:
www.richardsetlowe.com

There is a ghostly lover there in the image with the swooning woman.

I'm going off the beaten path to review this gem of a Gothic Ghost Story/Gothic Romance novel. I stumbled upon this in the paperback section of the library last fall, and I was not disappointed. Published in 1984, this novel is an example of a modern work in the genre done well.

When Suzanna Blackwell's mother dies, she goes to be with her father, a ranking Naval officer, for his retirement ceremony on Mare Island. She begins to be haunted by a spirit soon after in her father's house-- a spirit who was obviously a soldier in life and had some connection with her mother. Some interesting things occur between her and the spirit, but real life is still going on.

Suzanna meets Michael, a photographer/reporter and ex-Vietnam vet with some major war trauma. Together, they must solve the mystery of the ghost who haunts Suzanna before they are both destroyed.

Characterization: 5/5 [The characters are real, and they have real problems. I pictured Ralph Fiennes (when younger) as Michael since he does tortured soul well and Suzanna portrayed by a young Grace Kelly. Suzanna's father and other characters were well drawn as was the ghost; I imagined her father as Charlton Heston.]

Plot: 5/5 [This novel is suspenseful and gripping; I propelled through it quickly. Setlowe's history as a Naval officer (not to mention a reporter) and his insights about that life and life aboard ships is what makes this novel so real and engrossing. He also shows sympathy for veterans and all points of view on the military; I found that to be refreshing.]

Atmosphere/spooky elements: 5/5 [There are so many-- ghostly sex, ghosts in photographs, mysterious deaths, haunted ships, spooky owls and so much more. The ships truly act as characters in this novel, and Setlowe manages to weave past and present together seamlessly. I remember becoming interested in haunted Naval ships, and we even took a tour of a ship a a few months ago. I was and still am fascinated by ghost stories associated with ships.]

Literary elements: 4/5 [This one is pure entertainment with a good bit of history and other things thrown in.]

Romance? Yes, and it is messy and complicated-- much like romance can be in real life.

Rating: 4+ stars   ****+

** This one is not to be missed. It might be a good Halloween read pick if you are into Naval history or old decommissioned ships, especially. I didn't think I was into either, and I loved this novel.

Haunting of Suzanna Blackwell

Jill Tattersall: Lady Ingram's Room

 From Sebastian Quinn's wonderful flickr page

I love the cover of this one, published in 1972; it is spooky and creative with the cobwebs and brightly colored dresses.

In the novel, Arabel Murray is an orphan with only Bridie, the housekeeper, for a friend. She must move out of the vicarage she was in with her mother, sister and grandfather (all of whom are now dead) and live with an uncle who is known to be tyrannical. In so doing, she leaves her childhood love, Giles, and her loved home.

The novel follows a few threads in a Dickensian style; for example, ne'er do wells Jason and Zelda make an appearance in chapter two and play a role in the novel.

Arabel is a likable heroine-- sprightly and spunky; she also has a stammer which is an interesting and unusual touch that makes her seem real. On her way to her uncle's house, her plans change, and she and Solomon, her cat, end up going to Ingledale Manor to be a governess temporarily for Sir Luke.  Mysterious things happen, and Arabel finds herself trying to solve the secret of Lady Ingram's room and of her death.

Characterization: 4/5 [The characters are clearly drawn. I picture Arabel portrayed by a young Diane Keaton, and Sir Luke as Javier Bardem. Scott Scott-Ingram (What a name!), another potential love interest, I pictured as Adrian Brody. Both the hero and heroine are likable, and I was quite taken with the hero which is always a good sign for a Gothic Novel in my book.]

Plot: 4/5 [The start is a bit slow, but I like the interesting narrative style and points of view in the novel.]

Atmosphere/spooky elements: 4/5 [Arabel herself looks like a witch with her black cat. Superstition is referred to in the novel, and the description of the windows at Ingledale Manor actually gave me the creeps. The secret room is inventive and different in its treatment in the novel, and that element along with tunnels and a ghoulish tapestry add to the spooky thrills.]

Literary elements: 4/5 [This one is written in a sophisticated way in terms of multiple narrators/points of view and stands out for that, much like the other The Wild Hunt that I reviewed a week or so ago, though Hunt is more sophisticated overall. I think that might be because of the two years between these novels; it is nice to see that this author honed her craft as she went. Another thing I like about her writing is that the dialogue is also believable.]


Rating: 4 stars ****

I recommend this one for its inventiveness and lovable heroine as well as the secret room aspect. I like it when authors in the genre do something new or inventive.

Lady Ingram's Room

Victoria Holt: The Spring of the Tiger

This novel was published in 1979; the above cover is the one I have in the hardback edition. I know I have read it before, but I can remember very little of Holt's novels since it has been about seventeen or eighteen years since I read most of them. I liked them very much then, but I'm not sure about now as I plan to reread some or most of them-- this being the first in that attempt.

This one concerns Sarah Ashington, the daughter of an actress, who has never known her father. After a scandal concerning her mother's lover, Sarah and her mother retire to Ashington Grange to live with two old aunts, Martha and Mabel. Sarah makes a friend in her mysterious governess, Celia, who leaves suddenly one day. Sarah's mother dies, and her father comes to visit. His companion, Clinton Shaw, becomes an object of fascination for Sarah almost immediately. Her trouble begins there. The setting moves from Ashington Grange to Ceylon; menacing events unfold and Toby, Sarah's beloved friend and old tutor, reappears in Sarah's life.

Characterization: 4/5 [Some of the characters seem a bit flat. I had a little trouble picturing Sarah Ashington for a while, but with her brown hair and indeterminate eye color, I thought of Jennifer Garner for her role in any possible movie. Toby I picture as a guy I once liked in my neighborhood growing up-- brown hair, blue eyes. :) I think Clinton Shaw could be played by a younger Brad Pitt.]

Plot: 3/5 [This one gets off to a slow start for me. I honestly feel the novel could be at least 75 pages shorter. I finally got into the novel around page 85, but it ebbed and flowed for me. I simply was never really captivated by it or by Holt's writing style. Also, there is a twist or two in the novel, but I had figured out the villain early in or suspected the villain. I wonder how my re-readings of the other Holt works are going to go.]

Atmosphere/spooky elements: 3/5 [There is very little of this type of thing until a good ways in when a threatening woman shows up on the doorstep outside, and Sarah sees her. Then, ghosts at Ashington Grange become an issue along with the ever present Ashington Pearls which are said to have some sort of power and have been passed down through generations. Overall, this one takes a while to get to the spooky/menacing stuff, and when the scary stuff did happen, it sort of fell flat for me. The novel feels more melodramatic than Gothic.]

Literary: 3/5 [Poets are mentioned and quoted and the title of the book is a variation of a line from a poem; I always like that. For some reason, though, this novel feels very fluffy to me.]

Romance: Yes... and rape and other stuff. I liked one male love interest in the novel and not the other. I don't want to add a spoiler here.


Rating: 3+ stars    ***+

I am torn with this one, and that 3+ rating feels high to me, honestly. I am sure many of you would like the novel, so I recommend it on that basis. With that said, it is definitely not one of my favorites of the genre, and I'm trepidatious about my next foray with Holt.

Dorothy Daniels: Mystic Manor

I am not going to do a long review of this novel, Mystic Manor by Dorothy Daniels, published in 1975. Sorry I couldn't find a nice image of it; the one I found was super small. The edition I have is the same one that is linked below in the Amazon link-- lots of turquoise and black with what actually looks like a church behind the blond heroine.

Anyway, this novel was pretty terrible, from page 2. The main character went into this long narrative to another character, detailing all that had happened to her, starting in the early pages. The only problem is that the other character would have known all of it already. Then, the male character tells Melinda, the heroine, all about her eye color and every feature on her face. At that point, I laughed, read a few more ridiculous pages and quit around page 21.

I guess I need to start a "stinkers" category. This one would definitely go in there. One of the passages that convinced me of this is found on page 10:

"Melinda, you're actually a beautiful girl. There's gold in your hair and interesting flecks of darker blue in your regularly blue eyes. You have the round face of youth, a a very pretty nose and a smooth chin line. I would say you'd be a fine subject."

Now that is some unrealistic dialogue. I do not recommend this novel. I'll give Daniels another try some time as I saw that others have rated her decently or well on Goodreads.

Monica Heath: Calderwood

I started this one yesterday morning, and it was pretty suspenseful. I ended up finishing it between waiting in the car line for my daughter and having some spare reading time tonight. This is my first Gothic Romance by Monica Heath; it was published in 1975 (the Signet edition I'm reading from). The original cover is all green mossy background with a dark haired girl with a blue dress on in front of the house.

Camilla Carlyle's father has died, leaving her on her own. She finds a letter from Aunt Marilyn at Calderwood, the old ancestral home of her mother. Camilla remembers leaving there in haste after her mother's death when she was six, but the rest of her history is foggy. She wonders why her father grew to dislike her mother so as the years passed.

Camilla decides to go home to Calderwood to find out what she can about her mother and her own history. Her arrival at the estate or near it is rife with bad turns, and a ghost appears as a face and a voice in her ear over the bayou. Whom can Camilla trust? Her Aunt Marilyn or Deedee, her spiteful cousin? Can she even trust Kris Kincade-- a man working on the neighboring Dazincourt Hall-- and to whom she is attracted? What about Jules, the man others say is her true father?

Characterization: 4/5 [I could easily picture Camilla being played by a young Liz Taylor (while her mother is played by an older Liz Taylor for the flashbacks and supernatural bits). I think Alan Tudyk would make a good Kris; I have liked him ever since he starred in Firefly. Jules Dazincourt put me in mind of Vincent Price with his "dark" looks. The characters were drawn well. The one issue I had was with the words "dark" and "darkly" used in redundant phrases three times in two pages when it wasn't necessary and many other times thereafter: "darkly hideous," and "darkly malicious" (20), "darkly skeptical," "dark-clad," "dark stare," "dark brows," (39) and so on. I decided to catalog them all for a giggle after finding so many on page 39 alone, so I did for about ten more pages. I mean, black, shadowed, onyx, obsidian and all manner of words could be used as synonyms, right? These repetitions would make for a killer drinking game. The words were repeated so often as to be distracting, obviously.]

Plot: 4/5 [The plot sucked me right in; there is plenty of action and some twists and inventive happenings in the genre as well. The end was a shocker, and that is always a pleasant surprise.]

Atmosphere/spooky elements: 5/5 [A ghost appears early, and the Louisiana setting is creepy in its own right. Heath really gets it right (at least from the time I've spent in that area near New Orleans or driving through the LaFourche Parish area in the bayous). I also like the way Heath uses two ancestral homes in the novel; that device is reminiscent of Wuthering Heights to a mild degree. The ancestral mansion also has a "death couch" that is shiver worthy and the first mention of such in a Gothic Novel I've read. In fact, this novel is chock full of Gothic Elements of all kinds. The setting of the spring house on the property as an area where mischief occurs is creative, and this novel landed a few new elements of Gothic Novels on the Epic List. Most have been done before, so that makes this novel special. If you like moldy graves, crypts, bayous, evil rings, death masks, creepy dolls, and so on, this is your book. It is probably the most Gothic of the Gothic Novels I have reviewed thus far on the blog.]

Literary? 4/5 [Yes, Keats' Lamia is quoted and references to other literature and works are sprinkled throughout the novel.]

Romance? Yes... and I didn't know who Camilla was going to end up with until right at the end. That's always the sign of a good Gothic Romance.


Rating: 4 + stars ****+

I recommend this one; it is inventive and suspenseful and most definitely Gothic. I highly enjoyed it! I'll be hunting out more by Monica Heath; I have a double gothic by her as well-- the Clerycastle ones.

Calderwood (Ulverscroft Large Print)