The Dead House by Dawn KurtagichMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
“I've learned, in my tragic little life, that memories are like water. Not solid, like some people think. Once something happens, it isn't set it stone. It can change. You can make yourself believe anything if you lie to yourself enough.”
The pretty cover gets me again! I must admit I didn't know very well what this book was about when I first picked it up, and yet still, the content was nothing like what I was expecting or hoping for.
The story revolves around Katherine, she's the alter ego of Carly, it is never clear if their two-minds-in-one-body situation is the result of a medical condition or a paranormal one. While Carly exists during the day, Katherine functions during the night, they've never met and only comunicate with each other through written messages in a book, but each one loves the other as if they were sisters. The novel is fashioned out of a series of diary entires, transcripted interviews and videos, emails and medical records which are put together as a means to try to explain a mysterious accident in which the two girls had a major role more than a decade before the present day.
“One box, and it holds a whole life of love - almost every letter Carly and I have ever exchanged. Seeing it here, all together, three big bundles of paper...is that all we were? Dying pages, fading ink?”
Generally speaking there are just as many things I liked about this book, as the ones I disliked about it so I guess it's a tie. For example, the first few pages didn't capture my interest at all, and in a way I felt that though the atmosphere was really good, it took the author way too long to build it. There are pages that feature images that are supposed to add up to said atmosphere, but which are totally incongruous with the story or the characters (those I heavily disliked) they weren't needed or wanted and didn't fulfill their purpose.
The story feels ambiguous at first and almost nothing happens during the first half of the book, the characters are not especially likeable, I have to admit I was even considering dropping the book in that moment... And then, the amazing happened, somehow the story picked up, sucked me right in and had me turning pages at three in the morning like crazy. The funny thing is that the parts that really spooked me were not the parts where in which I was supposed to be spooked I think, all the horror scenes felt a bit corny for me, what got me was the overall feeling of the story towards the end, there's a sensation of helplessness combined with the notion of not beign in control of your own body, that I found really creepy.
Although for all the good moments there quite a few fails: there are some police reports between the diary entries that make absolutely no sense (and not in the paranormal realm, but in the logical one) most characters are terribly underdeveloped and there's a plot twist I saw coming from miles away. In the end however, as a scary Halloween read it excels all expectations, so if you're looking for something like that, The Dead House has it.
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