A thrill deep in my partitions. [Graveneye by Sloane Leong]
What if a haunted house was not the horror, but the people who dwell within it ...
Isla lives along in a large mansion deep in the woods. Her house has seen its share of blood horror, and the depths of the human soul. Isla has hired the young Marie to help her keep the big house tidy, but Marie brings demons of her own into Isla's domain. Cursed with sentience, it is destined to observe the terrors that lurk inside each and everyone of us.
Gothic horror is always interesting partly because the origin story of the haunted house is often left unanswered, maybe the answers not as satisfying as hoped for, the story still leaving you with horror and disgust. Written by Sloane Leong and illustrated by Anna Bowles, Graveneye takes the rarer approach of having the house speak for itself and the horrors it has witnessed. Instead of a house being the causal focal point of the story, here the house simply fosters, protects the horrors within its walls. Unfortunately, the story of that horror illogically underwhelms.
Telling the story of a strange attraction that leads to death and reflects an unfulfilled yearning, as far as origins go I wasn't really sated, there wasn't really a sense of "now the house is haunted." More than anything this was just the recounting of some sordid goings-on told from the point of view of a house. What was the horror? Participants were passive victims with no real hope. And hopeless stories, despite whatever beautiful commentary they may make, aren't the most compelling, I find.
The illustration style matched wonderfully with the narration and tone of the story, so points for that. But again, while the tone of the story set the stage wonderfully, the story was something I found lackluster. 3 stars from me.
Graveneye (ISBN: 9781952203176) is due for publication November 30, 2021.
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