Fifteen year old Molly has problems most teens don’t. Her
mother lives in a mental care facility, heavily sedated. The home she shares
with her grandfather has been taken over by cameras and a crew, and her life is
broadcast every week, on one of those reality shows about the supernatural.
Why? The house is haunted. And the focus of the haunting is Molly.
She just wants to celebrate her 16th birthday
with her friends, but they become alienated from her. People in town point and
stare and whisper about her. And she can’t get enough sleep, because the haunt
walks up and down the hall, rattling her door knob, and otherwise being a
nuisance. Still.. It’s not so bad.
Then one night the door to her room bursts open. Things are
flung off the shelves. And it starts touching her… in truly sickening ways. But
they’ve already found that leaving the house doesn’t leave the haunt behind…
and the contract with the TV company says she can’t quit anyway.
Molly’s grandfather seems oddly unconcerned about a lot of
it, although he does blow up at times- usually at the film crew. The only one
who seems truly on Molly’s side is Samuel, the huge parapsychologist who is the
official investigator.
We’re not very far into the story before we are told that it’s
not a ghost, but a demon, that’s after Molly. In fact, we are introduced to two
more characters who are *also* demons. They have a big interest in the
investigation.
The story is quite dark and gory. There is a lot of graphic
torture. There is also a fair bit of satire. Not laugh out loud stuff, but a pretty
pointed look at modern society. The tale is told pretty well, right up to the
end and then it sort of falls apart a bit. I’d already figured out the cause of
the haunting- the author drops a few clues, but not blatant ones- but I was not
satisfied with the ending. Four stars, with a warning for over the top
violence.
The above is an affiliate link. If you click through and buy something- anything- from Amazon, they will give me a few cents.
I got this book free from the Library Thing Early Readers program in return for an unbiased review.
Neither of these things influenced my review.
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