The Lingering has all the right pieces but didn't deliver on its promise.
The setting is a Gothic dream. We're in an old asylum, on the outskirts of a small village with a history of witchcraft. The asylum is now a commune of sorts, inhabited by people escaping mysterious pasts.
But we never delve beneath the surface.
The people who live in this asylum-turned-housing project have no interest in the place. They live in their little area, in their assigned rooms. They don't want to know the asylum's history. They don't explore the uninhabited wing, which still contains all the old medical equipment and patient files. Their absolute lack of curiosity drove me nuts.
Pacing is slow. In fact, very little actually happens. We could condense it all to about 75 pages.
The characters aren't developed and consequently don't feel real. We never learn much about most of the inhabitants. The few characters with starring roles are one-dimensional.
Nothing surprised me. The big reveal is obvious from early on.
But the cover is fantastic, so there's that.
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![The Lingering by [SJI Holliday]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+sXxD6Z9L._SY346_.jpg)
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Customer reviews
Novel set in Cambridgeshire from the Queen of creepy storytelling
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2018
Rosalind House has a chequered history. For many years it was an asylum and by the 1950s it had become a psychiatric unit. Today, it houses a community of disparate people, founded in 1995 by Smeaton Dunsmore, who is still in charge; the individuals are encouraged to ‘Embrace the LIght’. But the dark walls have many a gruesome tale to tell, from the 16th Century when women were consigned to brutal deaths as witches, through to the 19th and 20th Centuries when patients, who had the misfortune to find themselves incarcerated, were subject to terrible practises. Some of the more horrific treatment methods were recorded in the 1950s by observer Dr Henry Baldock and excerpts from his diary appear in the book, underlining some of the more horrible and entrenched things that went on.One of the residents, Angela, is a woman with otherworldly gifts, She has a heightened sense of smell and can determine so many things through her extra sensory perception. She is of course perceived as an odd character who invests a great deal of time searching for phenomena, including ghosts. I am not a keen reader of ghostly stories but the author manages Angela’s quest to seek out the other-worldly in a most natural and engaging way. Angela uses her gut feelings to almost “read” situations, and intuition is something which all humans possess to a greater or lesser extent, and therefore Angela’s heightened sensory feelings are relatable.The latest incomers are Ali and Jack, a nurse and policeman respectively. They have their reasons for joining the community and these begin to become more evident as the novel unfolds. Ali herself is on edge and she too has a sense of unfinished business in the house, the hairs sometimes stand up on the back of her neck. She treads the fine line between what is real and what she imagines… or does she? Right down to a trail of small, wet footprints….Ali and Jack’s presence upsets the finely honed balance in the house, and therefore they attract more scrutiny from some of the other people living there. It is clear that things are not going to end well.SJI Holliday is the Queen of creepy storytelling and keeps the pathos going throughout the novel.A quick mention for the cover – it reflects so well the content.Setting from a TripFiction point of view isn’t particularly strong in this book, though the damp, forested environment certainly adds atmosphere.
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2018
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Top reviews from other countries
Oliver Clarke "whatmeworry"
Effective blend of mystery and ghost story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 23, 2018Jacob Collins
Dark, unsettling and so, so creepy!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 7, 2018Chanatkins
Not quite what I hoped for
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 7, 2019Customers who bought this item also bought
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