Review by: Brennan Palm Holy Tragi-comic-horridy Batman! Just when you think Horns (Joe Hill) is enough, another book that you can’t quite put into a genre pops up out of the blue, and it’s just as good! Not that it’s riding on Horns coattails, as The After House is more of a Thriller/Romance/Ghost story type book. Our story begins with Captain Elijah Gasper whaling on the Atlantic. Eli’s been at sea some time leaving his pregnant wife and daughter at Cold Spring Harbor. Suddenly the whale he’s hunting turns and attacks the ship, and then we go to modern times where we meet our second protagonist, a woman called Remy who’s recently divorced her husband Scott for cheating on her. She and her daughter Olivia have recently moved into an old cottage in Cold Spring Harbor. Suddenly things turn for the worst, and things get weird. Everybody feels like they’re being watched then houses are trashed, yoga studios are nearly burned, cars with our main protagonist and a bearded ghost yelling “ Hard to port!” are nearly driven off a hill, people are stampeded, and cattle raped. The last two actually didn’t happen but you get the idea. Also the same time this is happening Remy thinks she’s met the love of her life Hugh, mayor, museum owner, ghost believer, occasional rebound guy, and limey millionaire. Who cares let’s just see if he gets killed or not. I give The After House 4 stars. It’s got a great story and interesting characters (minus Hugh) No mind blowing prose or grammar, but it’s okay (by okay I mean good).However, it has a lot of good throw away lines (like Han Solo). Now all it needs to be a classic is ninjas (ninjas make anything better). In short my eyes were glued to the page (screen). |
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July 2020
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