Customer Reviews

Hiding from the Light

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

... and possession and witches if you read this book.

I've been a huge Barbara Erskine fan since reading Lady of Hay. Unfortunately this book (at least the regular-size type edition) has not been released for sale in the United States yet. Fortunately I was able to order it through Amazon.uk.

This is a long, virtual door-stopper size book - at just over 540 pages, this hardcover is a hefty read. Though there were a few spots where it did lag a tiny bit, the plot was well done and the action continued to move at a brisk pace keeping my interest through the entire book.

Emma Dickson is a successful business woman living in London with her fiancé Piers. During a visit to her dentist, she leafs through a magazine and sees a cottage for sale on the Essex coast. It's a house she remembers from her childhood summers in the country. She immediately senses that she must buy the house. Piers wants nothing to do with it. He loves their life in London and flatly refuses to even look at the cottage. Emma goes out to the country herself, falls immediately in love with the house, and puts in an offer for it. She buys it against the wishes of her fiancé, quits her job, and leaves Piers behind in the city. ...the excitement is just about to begin for Emma.

The cottage Emma bought is haunted, as is the local shop, by long-dead spirits who were once in a heated battle - one was a witch (the ghost in Emma's cottage) prosecuted by the Witch Finder General Matthew Hopkins (the ghost in the local shop). The spirits of these people begin a war against each other using the living players in the tiny village, pitting one against the other. Slowly a tide of evil builds in the town. Senseless crimes are committed. Life in the village is thrown out of balance. To restore the balance the age-old battle between warring spirits needs to end.

I don't want to spoil the story by telling any more of this tale. Suffice it to say, this is a very well written ghost story. You will believe in ghosts when you read it. The tales of the persecuted witches is thoroughly engrossing, the glimpses into the past are seamless, and the ending is so well crafted that you will believe it could all so easily happen. This was a highly enjoyable read and is a keeper of the best kind.

I just finished reading this book. I've always been a fan of Barbara Erskine and this book lives up to her usual standards. It's a great read in the dark and the place she sets the book gives off a wonderful atmosphere, evoking witches and the Ward, a sort of pre-medieval protector of the village. The ending is quite suprising. My only complaint would be that we never find out where Hopkins is buried, or what actually happened to him. Sorry, I've gone and blown the book now haven't I?
A great read and one I would recommend.

I have been a fan of this author ever since I read her wonderful bestselling book, "Lady of Hay". So, I looked forward to reading this, her latest book, which has supernatural portents and characters from another place and time.

In this book, the mid-seventeenth century and the present converge. Ghosts from the time of Oliver Cromwell, when Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General, unjustly persecuted women in some rural communities in North Essex for being witches, are stirring. With Halloween on the horizon, it is only a matter of time before they make their presence felt.

Emma Dickinson, a high-powered business executive finds herself inexorably drawn to a quaint cottage in a rural community in North Essex, where, as a child, she had spent some time. Leaving behind her lover and significant other, she buys her dream cottage, which long ago belonged to a herbalist named Liza who met her end at the hands of the Witchfinder General. When Emma moves into the cottage, she begins having a series of nightmares of a past that she cannot bear to remember.

Unbeknownst to her, Mike Sinclair, the handsome new rector of her parish, likewise finds himself consumed by images of the past. A voice in his head interjects concepts and feelings that are alien to Mike. He is at a loss to explain what is happening and does not know that he is barreling towards a climax that will be decisive in determining whether the forces of evil or good will prevail.

The author, a master storyteller, weaves a tale that is engaging, but the quality of the writing, however, is uneven, and some of the characters are not fully-fleshed. Moreover, the book could have benefited from some better editing. Nonetheless, while the book falls somewhat short of the standards that this author herself has set, it is still a moderately entertaining book that fans of the author will, in some measure, enjoy.

What fun! Safe to read at home, but if I was staying at a hotel/home/building that was reputed to be haunted, I'd save this one for later. It took a good couple of hundred pages to set the scenes and the characters, but then things took off and I couldn't put the book down. In some ways I can see cutting some of those characters and still keep the main story, but I loved the whole book anyway.

Don't let the page count deter you, the paperback was 700+ but with so many short chapters, leaving half pages blank leading into the next chapter, it was a very quick, albeit enjoyable read.

it's really hard to take anything about it seriously. I've read several other Barbara Erskine books starting with Lady of Hay, and have finally come to the conclusion that either that book was a complete fluke or I wasn't sufficiently observant when I read it years ago, because I thought it was a very original and satisfying book that expertly wove the past and present together into a compelling whole and I have not been able to say the same about any of her other books I've read, though until this one, I haven't felt as if my intelligence actually was being insulted.

This book is extremely formulaic and full of stereotypes, not characters. The ghostly incidents in the book are absolutely ludicrous and anyone who takes any serious interest in ghosts and possession will wonder how Barbara Erskine could possibly have done any research in either matter. I realize there is such a thing as suspension of disbelief, but when there are SO many books and TV shows out there on haunted locations and how ephemeral the viewing of ghosts truly is, it's a bit much to expect readers to buy, even in a book of fiction, that there is a town where the ghosts basically appear on demand.

But the worst thing about this book to me was how insulting it was to the concept of Wicca. I am not even Wiccan, but the heavy-handed inaccurate depiction of Wicca compared to "Good guys are Christian" mentality stunned me.

But I guess Barbara Erskine knows what sells - this book is as over-the-top and overblown as it gets.

For reasons that are not entirely clear to her, Emma feels compelled to purchase a little cottage she remembers, in the village where her family used to summer. In the process, she leaves behind her "high flying" London career and her posh fiance. Emma devotes herself to fixing the house up, becoming accustomed to life on her own, and introducing herself to her rural community. She loves her new home, but something seems seriously amiss. Terrifying nightmares, strange goings on in the abandoned churchyard, apparitions, voices in her head, weird weather - but Emma will not be frightened off. As summer turns to fall, she becomes deeply embroiled in a perilous paranormal situation, one that can only end in disaster if she cannot stand and fight.

Hiding from the Light involves two sets of characters from two centuries, the mystery centering upon the witch hunt prosecuted by the infamous Matthew Hopkins. In parts, the writing descends into melodrama, and some of the characters are laughably hackneyed, but the bones of the story are good, with some sections quite effective. Recommended to readers who enjoy spooky but not overly gory tales of hauntings.

Hiding From the Light is the first book of Erskine's that I have read and it may very well be the last. The description on the back of the book sounded interesting so I was looking forward to it, but it disappointed. The characters are one dimensional and none of them are particularly evoking of sympathy. Instead of proving any sort of point that people should be accepted for being different (a bit PC, I grant), this novel instead fulfills all the fears of that people have toward Wiccans. While I understand that Erskine was trying to display history repeating itself in modern day witch scares, the characters respond to each other with maddening foolishness and it seems to take forever to get anywhere with the story. The fact that the author displays women as totally stupid and weak willed (Emma, Paula) or foolhardy and blinded by self righteousness (Lyndsey, Sarah, Judith) and all in need of saving by religious men (Mike, Bill) left a bad taste in my mouth to say the least. That both Sarah and Liz (in addition to Lyndsey in modern day) betray their own ideals in order to avenge themselves on men simply confirmed the fears they were unjustly accused of originally! Other characters are introduced but have no bearing to the story, so I am not sure why they are there at all (Emma's mom and stepdad, friend Flora, even ex-lover Piers, really) And if a writer is going to fill 540 pages, at least have something more interesting happen than Emma whining about her lost love (who it sounds like she is much better off without), please. Some romance, real scares, and believable characters would have helped.

The book provided lightweight diversion when waiting for busses or when nothing is on the TV, the setting, storyline and characters were cozy in a twee, Olde English way, but the weak writing style really got in the way. The prose is littered with cliches and lazy terminology, including adjectives as 'lovely' and 'ordinary'. These words (unless used in dialogue) is inexcusable in a novel. I could not immerse myself in the story or feel concerned about what what happened next, although I ploughed onwards to the end. I also feel an opportunity had been missed to make Mike Sinclair, the rector more sinister and interesting. He was the best element of the story and held it (albeit a little) together. Sadly, the characters were flat and the story was too long.

I too have been a great fan of Barbara Erskine- i have reread Midnight is a Lonely Place and House of Echoes many time and was excited when websites like Amazon finally became available so i could find more of her work. What a disappointment to find out that her other novels including this one were not only less well crafted and more improbable but actually reveal her true beliefs about the world of the supernatural. Instead of an author we thought held a broad view of the "the unknown" and had a good grasp of the past we discover that the supernatural can only be overcome by the "light" of Christianity and that it takes a priest and a cross to dispel "the evil pagan ghost." The end of this book took my breath away it was so insulting to the memories of every women ever burned, drowned or persecuted for being "a witch." I'm not naive enough to think there has never been an evil pagan but also know how many christians perpetuated evil in the name of God. When i look back at her other books i can see a much more subtle, similar theme but i could overlook it as the book was satisfying in so many other ways. Not so any more. Well, I always found her principle women characters to be wimpy, whiney and foolish anyway (and always always thin as a rail) so time to find something better. Any recommendations?

This is the first book I have read by Barbara Erskine and I really enjoyed it. I loved the way fact and fiction were combined to make a spooky tale with a fabulous plot. Barbaba seems to have put so much research and imagination into this book which really pays off. I initially started reading this and thought 'oh no not a ghost story' but as you read on you find that it is so much more than that. It was quite long and at times I felt that was quite hard going but worth it for the ending!