House of Glass - Susan Fletcher

"June 1914 and a young woman - Clara Waterfield - is summoned to a
large stone house in Gloucestershire. Her task: to fill a greenhouse with exotic plants from Kew Gardens, to create a private paradise for the owner of Shadowbrook. Yet, on arrival, Clara hears rumours: something is wrong with this quiet, wisteria-covered house. Its gardens are filled with foxgloves, hydrangea and roses; it has lily-ponds, a croquet lawn - and the marvellous new glasshouse awaits her. But the house itself feels unloved. Its rooms are shuttered, or empty. The owner is mostly absent; the housekeeper and maids seem afraid. And soon, Clara understands their fear: for something - or someone - is walking through the house at night. In the height of summer, she finds herself drawn deeper into Shadowbrook's dark interior - and into the secrets that violently haunt this house. Nothing - not even the men who claim they wish to help her - is quite what it seems."

I had such high hopes for this book. A period novel with lonely women, ghosts, gothic houses and reclusive men. It sounded like Jane Eyre with botany, something I was all for. But I got absolutely nothing. 

It does some things well. A main character that has a disability and is different and she stayed clear of the “this girl has a disability so she must be sweet and lovely” trope which I was grateful for but apart from that this book just did not quite know what it wanted to be. Completely all over the place. If I wasn’t so incredibly bored I could perhaps gather up some disappointment. This book is confusing and plotless from start to finish and there is nothing gothic about it at all. 

A promising start with a beautiful and atmospheric description of the protagonist's childhood and mourning of her mother. But all this promise petered out with a weak middle and was absolutely destroyed by the many pointless and unearned revelations at the end. The ending was truly abysmal with plot holes galore and absolutely nothing making sense. 

House of glass turned out to be less of a ghost story and more of a tale of loss and lies. Strangely, the plot spiralled into an odd half-baked romance that seemed to belong to a whole other story. By the time I read the last page, I just ended up feeling drained and sad.

There were some beautiful lines and sentimental moments that were truly memorable, for sure. The author took a lot of creative liberties with her grammar, which can be effective when done properly. As I said, there were many beautifully written lines. However, she did it a little too often for my taste, and sometimes for no reason at all. Many sentences just seemed incomplete.

Overall a deeply disappointing read. 

Age Rating 16+. Some surprisingly sexual and violent scenes. 

Dracul - JD Barker, Dacre Stoker

"The prequel to Dracula, inspired by notes and texts left behind by
the author of the classic novel, Dracul is a supernatural thriller that reveals not only Dracula's true origins but Bram Stoker's--and the tale of the enigmatic woman who connects them.

It is 1868, and a twenty-one-year-old Bram Stoker waits in a desolate tower to face an indescribable evil. Armed only with crucifixes, holy water, and a rifle, he prays to survive a single night, the longest of his life. Desperate to record what he has witnessed, Bram scribbles down the events that led him here...

A sickly child, Bram spent his early days bedridden in his parents' Dublin home, tended to by his caretaker, a young woman named Ellen Crone. When a string of strange deaths occur in a nearby town, Bram and his sister Matilda detect a pattern of bizarre behaviour by Ellen--a mystery that deepens chillingly until Ellen vanishes suddenly from their lives. Years later, Matilda returns from studying in Paris to tell Bram the news that she has seen Ellen--and that the nightmare they've thought long ended is only beginning."

A good, simple, fun summer read. Would probably be a better fun autumn read but oh well. It was atmospheric, traditionally gothic, simple to follow and didn't require any deep soul searching. Don't expect high literature or any especially chilling horror, though there where some genuinely good moments. It often read like a silly Halloween movie with way too many vampire tropes stuffed in with little work done to try and make them feel less silly.

A fun element, for me anyway, was the opportunity looking into this book offered to dig up some dirt on the real Bram. The one piece of intel that I found most amazing was that when Bram first submitted his manuscript, it was as a work of non-fiction. Because of tender sensibilities at the time about a relatively recent bout of wide scale mortality, it was thought better to present it as fiction. In doing that, the first 101 pages of Bram’s manuscript vanished like a sated bloodsucker on a foggy night. I am itching to get my hands on the Icelandic "Makt Myrkranna."

I most enjoyed the first part with the ominous Nanny which I found to be chilling, creepy, and scary. It was the second part which, in my opinion, was slow and a little too long for my liking. The eventual back story for said Nanny was also so disappointing and cliché. I mean please, melodramatic romance gone wrong. No, no, no thank you. I also struggled with the writing itself, which at times felt gimmicky, overwrought, and not particularly of its time. If this was supposed to be a prequel to Dracula, I would have expected a closer resemblance to the language used in Dracula. This is a minor quibble, tho.

Age Rating 15+. Some scary horror moments.