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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"What I saw was no more or less than an abomination.", July 7, 2009
This review is from: The House of Lost Souls (Hardcover)
Eerie and gothic, there is nothing frivolous about this novel, a tale delving into the unmentionable horrors of the unknown, the evil that opposes good. From London in the jazz age and the estate of Karl Fischer, a Nazi sympathizer, to the mid-1990s, when Paul Seaton, a moody Irish newspaperman, offers to help his girlfriend with research for her dissertation, a frail thread extends from an unquiet grave to the hysterical state of a group of modern-day college students who visit Fischer House and are confronted with the unfettered malice that inhabits the estate. When Paul travels to Fischer House in search of more information on the subject of the dissertation- society fashion photographer Pandora Gibson-Hoare- he barely escapes with his life, his emotional stability severely compromised. Since then, Seaton's world has been in shambles, his relationship ruined, years spent traveling from one country to another in search of peace.
All is reawakened with the students' tragic mishap. One student commits suicide and the others are in desperate condition, visited my unimaginable horrors unless deeply sedated.
One of the hapless students is the sister of Nick Mason, a covert operations expert who meets with Seaton, the two determining a course of action to release the students from their torment. Through Paul's retelling of his harrowing experience and the diaries of Pandora Gibson-Hoare, we learn the details of an experiment in 1937 at Fischer House that has nearly destroyed Paul and threatens the remaining students. It is hard sometimes to separate the present from the past, Seaton's endeavors sprinkled with shimmering apparitions of sophisticated gentlemen in top hats and spats with soulless eyes and a thirst for depravity, or the creaky strains of 1920s cabaret songs, random visitations in the night, all hinting at an invitation, a return to Fischer House.
What is evil? Is it something to be teased, bantered with, exploited? This is heady territory and Cottam never underestimates his subject or the dangerous psychological terrain he explores, coincidental deaths, a lost boy, the nurturing of generational evil, birthed by war, nourished by decadence. Madness flickers around the edges as one chapter leads to the next, deeper into an inevitable confrontation. With the same authority of Dan Simmons's Carrion Comfort, this novel explores the nature of ancient evil, dark forces unleashed upon an unsuspecting world and one man's reckoning with his soul. Luan Gaines/2009.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly atmospheric and truly creepy supernatural story!, July 24, 2009
This review is from: The House of Lost Souls (Hardcover)
"The House of Lost Souls" by F.G. Cottam is very well-written and highly atmospheric. In fact, this novel qualifies as literary fiction, for the prose flows so well and the use of language is compelling and highly imaginative. I know that this may seem to be overly high praise, but in the horror genre, which happens to be one of my favorite genres, it isn't often that one comes across such a well-written work that also has a compelling plot [and to think I found it in the local library!].
The plot begins with a group of young university students [the story is set in England] who are attending the funeral of one of their classmates who had committed suicide. The other girls go into fits of hysterics upon seeing an apparition of their dead friend at her own funeral. Soon after, each of the girls still alive tries to take her own life. This includes Sarah Mason, beloved sister of military officer Nick Mason, and in desperation [and through the intercession of a sinister psychiatrist with questionable motives, Malcolm Covey]turns to Paul Seaton, a troubled man who is trying to forget some harrowing events in his past, but finds it difficult to do so, haunted by disembodies strains of ragtime jazz.
It turns out that the students had been to the infamous Fischer House, an abandoned and isolated mansion on the Isle of Wight, which has some sinister associations. Paul Seaton is well acquainted with the house, having almost been a 'victim' of it years ago. Without giving away too much of the plot - it goes back to eleven years back with Paul discovering the journal of a certain young female photographer, long dead, named Pandora Gibson-Hoare, talented and beautiful, who also ran with a rather strange crowd including renowned occultist Aleister Crowley, horror novelist Dennis Wheatley, and the enigmatic and sinister owner of the house itself, Klaus Fischer, a man dedicated to the dark arts.
There is much in this novel to engage an avid fan of supernatural-themed stories - the plot moves along at a good pace, and one is never mired in too much details. Literally every page made me eager to get on to the next, to discover what was going to happen next. There are enough elements of suspense and puzzles here to keep a reader figuring out what is going to happen, right till the very end. This is not one of those novels where a seasoned reader can see the plot twist coming from a mile away - I was kept guessing right to the end, where there is a major twist, one that had me shaking my head in appreciation for the author's mastery of his craft.
Too much platitudes? This book deserves it and more! The themes are indeed dark and reveal the bitter darkness and depravity of some human souls, but it also attests to the unwavering courage in others to do what's right. It is the quintessential battle between good and evil portrayed in a riveting story of the supernatural peopled with human characters that readers can genuinely care about, and other not so human or monstrous characters that repulse and horrify. Other novels I'd recommend are Jonathan Aycliffe's novels such as Naomi's Room and The Matrix,and Susie Moloney's "The Dwelling", among others. Conclusion - highly recommended for fans of atmospheric & character-driven supernatural stories.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Worth reading, with proper expectations, March 21, 2010
This review is from: The House of Lost Souls (Hardcover)
This came up as a suggestion when I bought Harwood's The Ghost Writer (no relation to the Polanski movie), and its main failing is the same: after many pages of wonderfully creepy atmosphere and absorbing nested tales, the ending goes right off the rails with a truncated, poorly-explained resolution. I think both books are still well worth reading, as long as you realize they won't bring it home with a satisfying conclusion. I agree with another review as well: Cottam's language becomes repetitive in a rather distracting way. I think the adjective "blearing" was used at least six times, and it became a bit annoying. Still, he really delivers atmosphere, and I enjoyed reading this enough to check out his other work.
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