Customer Reviews

Wildwood Road

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Welcome to a Neverland of lost girls. It is an old house of empty, shadow-washed corridors where silvery ripples catch at the corner of the eye, and the scent of cinnamon and apple pie tickle the nostrils. A soft chant begins just behind the nearest closed door: "One, two, buckle your shoe..."

Pathos is one of the hardest emotions to sustain in a novel of the supernatural, yet Christopher Golden manages it very well in "Wildwood Road." This is a story bathed in wan November moonlight, a little lost girl by the side of the road, the fey touch of a Ray Bradbury in the haunting.

If the author didn't have such a sure, sensitive touch, this book could have degenerated into one big belly laugh about menopause and really awful women. But it doesn't. "Wildwood Road" reminds me of "Carmilla," by the great Victorian supernatural author, Sheridan Le Fanu. Both are vampire tales where the psychological overrides the physical torment of the victims. Women prey on women. Neither story has a tidy resolution. Golden leaves his victims maimed or dead. No one lives happily ever after--sadder but wiser would be a more apropos cliché.

He also ensorcels his readers without sickening them on gouged eyeballs and steaming entrails. Don't be fooled by Stephen King's name appearing prominently on the cover. "Wildwood Road" creeps up on the reader. It doesn't splatter open skulls with a baseball bat. What I found most rewarding about his style was that he develops his story through his characters. He doesn't just shove them into one ghastly situation after another. Even the ghostly little girl, Scooter develops a dark side. I won't ruin the story for you, but I was shocked by Scooter's real persona. I should have been ready for it, but I wasn't. Subtle is the story-telling of this author.

This was a great haunted house book. I could not put it down. I actually bought it a year ago and have read it twice. It's very well written. The author is extremely good at descriptive writting. I actually got chills a few times reading this one.