Susan Hill is
the author of “The Woman in Black”, and so I expected some very creepy ghost
stories. With “The Small Hand” she delivers beautifully. A man, lost while
driving to a client’s house, accidentally comes across a deserted house and
garden in the English countryside and he feels drawn to it; while there, he
experiences a small, childlike hand grasping his own- except there is no child
there. Most people would want no more to do with the premises at this point,
but the man- Adam Snow- delves into the history of the property with the aid of
his client’s wife. While she does this, though, he finds that the invisible
child has followed him- unusual for a ghost as they seem to be tied to a
property. And the child keeps trying to pull him into very dangerous
situations. Who is this child, and why has he attached himself to Adam? A
discover by the client’s wife gives him a clue not just to who the child is,
but to his own past. The ending was a great surprise to me; it was not what I
was expecting. A very good, creepy story.
“Dolly”, on the
other hand, left me cold, and not in the good, scary way. Cousins Edward and
Leonora are sent to spend a summer at their Aunt Kestral’s house in the English
countryside. Kestral has no children and has no experience dealing with them; the
only other person in the house is her housekeeper Mrs. Mullen, who actively
dislikes children. The cousins are pretty much on their own and it soon becomes
apparent that Leonora is a budding sociopath, just like her mother. When Aunt
Kestral, aided by Edward, attempts to give a nice birthday present to Leonora
it’s not the right doll and she rejects it, smashing on the stone floor. That
action is to have consequences forty years down the road.
Evil inanimate
object stories can be very scary, and dolls can creepy just sitting still.
There are eerie moments- rustling sounds and crying in the night- and Hill is
the master of atmosphere. But somehow the story just didn’t hang together. It’s
more a story of “Well, that’s truly unfortunate” than horror.
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This book was given to me by the Amazon Vine program in return for an honest review. This in no way altered by review.
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