Adams Fall

by Sean Desmond

With the fall of his senior year at the College upon him, the nameless protagonist of Adams Fall finds himself under the great strain of senior year with a thesis to write, a Marshall to apply for, and a girlfriend to elude. It is a full, but manageable plate for one of "the country's best and brightest."

A resident of Adams house's reportedly haunted B-entry, he is familiar with tales of phantom footsteps, vanished laundry, lurking shadows. But when he begins to find himself the object of the house's cruel attentions his world quickly begins to unravel. As the protagonist's grades slip, so slips his mind.
Into his privileged ivy-league world enters a charming and vindictive playboy from the College's past who relishes reminding the protagonist of the circumstances surrounding the suicide of his first year roommate. When the protagonist is faced with the mutilated body of a woman he had been sneaking around with, he resolves to discover the identity of the ghost in order to put an end to its raging and to maintain his sanity.

Adams Fall is an elegant blend of ghost story and psychological thriller, with a tip of its hat to Henry James.

Genres: Horror, Mystery

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 9, 2000

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few years before I read this book, I watched a movie called Abandon. It starred Katie Holmes & the ultra hot Charlie Hunnam (who's currently still hot on "Sons of Anarchy"). Later, I found out that Abandon is loosely based on this novel, Adam's Fall. Since I usually love a story that takes place in a school setting & is part ghost story, part crime thriller (think The River King), I thought I'd go back & see if the book was better. It wasn't. I can't talk specifics here since I read this years ago, but I vividly remember thinking, "Here's a case where the book wasn't any better than the movie." That's too bad, because the story's premise was so promising.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was also published as ABANDON.

[Lana Crotty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not convinced there is a ghost story here, I got the feeling the protagonist was disturbed since the beginning. He was sleeping with his roommate and his roommate's girlfriend in his freshman year. His roommate supposedly committed suicide, though I don't think he did, I think the narrator killed him to keep their affair/gay interaction secret. He also cheated on his current girlfriend. He seemed hypersexual. Another sign of mental illness.
It could of been a ghost story where the narrator was haunted/possessed by a spirit of a former student who stayed in the same old dorm the narrator did and so history repeated itself.
The whole time I read the book, I felt like I was reading about the narrator's decent into madness, he drank and did drugs, took cough medication, and pain pills. He seemed to suffer from insomnia and paranoia, and he was sick and barely ate properly. He was most certainly hallucinating and could not tell what was reality and what was dreams.
So was this a ghost story or just a student who had psychopathic tendencies that went out of control due to his insomnia and alcohol and drug use?

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a pretty good thriller book, a bit too gory for my taste. Sometimes it was hard to read and my mind started drifting away from the story line/plot. Overall it was an okay book, not sure if I would recommend it to a friend or anyone unless I knew that they were totally into this kind of book. I started to read this book so that I could watch the movie as Zooey Deschanel is in it. Still haven't watched the movie as I have read the synopsis of it and it sounds almost nothing like the book, but it is "loosely" based on it. It must be as there is a female lead in the movie and a male in the book. I wouldn't have wanted Hollywood to make a movie on my book if they didn't follow it somewhat closely.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good read. Shades of both Henry James and Wilkie Collins run continuously through the novel. A good first-time novel by Sean Desmond. The novel definitely interweaves the intriguing ghost story elements utilized so well by both James (Turn of the Screw) and Collins (Woman in White, Moonstone) before him. The narration leaves the audience off balance, just as the narrator appears to be, increasingly so as the novel progresses. An unsettling and spooky good read.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creepy and engaging- Desmond borrows themes and motifs from "Hamlet"- fitting, seeing as our nameless narrator is doing his thesis on Shakespeare's middle plays, including "Hamlet". We have drownings, a ghost, and a protagonist who slowly descends into madness. The ghost is terrifying- chase scenes in the old libraries thrilling.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Desmond does a great job with atmosphere, but is less successful with plotting in this ghost story. If you are a graduate of Harvard you would likely enjoy it more, and maybe Desmond will be more successful once he's a little further away from college life.

Edited to add: someone made a movie from this? I am shocked. It really wasn't that good.

[MaryAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Facinatingly creepy!!!

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an eerie, almost at times, hard to read book. Tragic and disturbing. A real gut clenching ghost story. I liked this book, but also wanted to run from it. That is good thing!

[Kammie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read awhile ago. Can remember liking it a little will have to read again to fully remember.

[Carly · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was so much potential for this to be a fantastic psychological thriller but it just felt too rushed. Great writing though!

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very unsettling and creepy. Saw the movie Abandon was based on this book but the book was much more disturbing than the movie.

[Ewa Gawrych]

awesome book