The Quickening

by Mari Biella

A strange force awakens in an abandoned house. A young girl is struck mute. A grieving woman is haunted by a spectral presence, and a scientist finds his scepticism being challenged by inexplicable events…

A psychological ghost story set in the Victorian Age, 'The Quickening' explores the contrast between perception and truth, faith and reason, and history and modernity, and leaves you wondering: What is reality?

Genres: Horror, Gothic

202 pages, ebook

First published April 11, 2012

About the author

Mari Biella was born in Wiltshire, England, of Anglo-Welsh parentage. Growing up in a small town, she took refuge in books. The progression from reading to writing seemed entirely natural, and the result was a deluge of terrible juvenilia, which has, mercifully, all been destroyed.

These days Mari lives in Northern Italy. She'll read just about anything she can get her hands on, but she particularly loves fantasy, the supernatural, horror and historical novels. She writes because she loves writing, and has a day job because it's a grim necessity. Pressures of work allowing, she enjoys gardening, cooking, and embellishing an already tortuously complicated fantasy world.

Reviews

[Francisco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a first for me in many ways. The first book I've read published independently by the author(an author I met here at Goodreads). I was tempted to say my first "ghost story" except that I think there have been others I can't remember now. There are so many things I admired and learned from this book. I love the way Mari Biella, the twentieth century author, totally disappears from the narration leaving us with a story told by a Victorian man. The immersion in the world and in the mind of the book's first person narrator is total. (I imagined myself reading a book written by Wilkie Collins) I love the way the story unfolds, slowly, taking it's time, confident that we as readers will stay with the patient description of the narrator's inner and outer world. And we do, we stay there, because of the beauty and the truth of the language. So beautiful to see this quiet self-assurance in an author. There were places in the book where Mari Biella could have opted for the sensational, the literary ghosts that customarily scare us. Instead, she went hunting for the deeper, truly scarier ghosts that hover inside of us - those born of grief and loss, of wasted life and unused love.

[catherine ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure about the pacing, but other than that, I thought the writing style was phenomenal.

It was something that combined paranormal and psychological ideas and blurred the lines in between. The ghosts, festered over time through intense grief and loss, really tore a hole through my heart and gave me chills.

Mysterious and enthralling.

[Lucinda Elliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a psychologically slanted ghost story, and classic ghost stories generally, and this is a combination of the two.

I was sometimes put in mind of ‘The Turn of the Screw’ and also of ‘The Woman in Black.’ Not because there is anything derivative about this story, but through the power of description and the skilful building up of an atmosphere of a remorseless, impending doom closing in on the characters, struggle against it though they do.

Reminiscent of classical ghost stories though this is,the characters are depicted with a depth and realism that is only possible to a more sophisticated age than the Victorian one.

The story is told from the point of view of Lawrence Fairweather, amateur botanist, a determined atheist and believer in rationality, who together with his wife Julia and their daughter Hazel, is struggling to come to terms with the loss of their younger daughter, Emily.

The shared grief about which the couple find it impossible to communicate has driven them apart. They cannot comfort each other. Lawrence, a naturally passionate man, represses his emotions beneath a surface of icy calm and drinks steadily; the sensitive Julia has been overwhelmed by her grief, taking refuge in morphine and opium. Their daughter Hazel refuses to speak, and concern over this drives a further wedge between the unhappy couple.

And yet, passionate feeling still remains between Lawrence and Julia Fairweather; this story became so real to me that I found myself longing for them to find each other again.

The two adults’ different interpretations of what it is that is causing an atmosphere of increasing fear and despair in their family home in the lonely Fens is gradually tearing the family apart. Meanwhile Lawrence Fairweather’s friend the local Doctor tries to help keep things on an even keel, while his sister Sophie has brought up from London the medium Mrs Marchant, in whom Julia desperately wants to believe, and who embodies everything that Lawrence Fairweather despises.

The writing is sensitive and evocative. There are wonderful word portraits, of states of mind, of the stark Lincolnshire countryside.
I could quote many, but here are three of the best: -

‘I sensed that whatever lurked there in the passageway wished me ill ...It's anger and hostility seemed to seep through the wood of the door and to radiate across the bedroom.'

'A scarlet sun slunk towards the horizon, and stained the water in the dikes and the drains...The reeds crackled and hissed in the strengthening wind. A crow gave a strange, wild cry at my approach, and soared into the ashen sky.’

'She carried her secrets with her like a child; I imagined them curled up in the warm cradle of her body, awakening, quickening.'

Mari Biellia leaves it to the reader to judge whether or not there is anything supernatural in the sensations and visions that plague the Fairweather family.

An excellent, disturbing and absorbing read.

[Lauren Sapala · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was extremely impressed with this book.

Let me just say, first of all, that I looooove horror. However, I read very little horror because I’ve found there are so few books out there that are done really well. I’ve ripped through everything by Stephen King, Anne Rice, Clive Barker, Lovecraft, and other classic authors, so I usually either know exactly how a plot is going to play out, or the story just isn’t scary to me.

This book completely surprised me. AND it scared the hell out of me. Hence me being extremely impressed.

The story takes place in the late 19th century (I think 1890 is the year specified) and opens with a rational-minded man, his tortured wife, and their silent daughter returning to their home in the rural English countryside after months spent in Europe. We soon find out that they spent so much time abroad in an attempt to run away from the horrible things that have awaited them at this isolated house they call home. I won’t go into any more detail due to the risk of spoilers, but I will say that I was astonished at how well the author was able to capture the voice of a Victorian gentleman with a scientific turn of mind. The writing style reminded me of a mix of Bram Stoker, Charlotte Bronte, and Henry James in Turn of the Screw. Really, really wonderful prose that carried me along with a mix of spooky urgency and turn-of-the-century delicacy.

What I most loved about this story was the emotional depth of the main characters and the way the dynamic tension between them was teased out, explored, and finally ripped wide open. This was so much more than a ghost story. It did remind me of Stephen King in that I saw how the horror that came knocking at the door (or was to be found already seething inside the house, in this case) was directly linked to the mental turmoil and emotional agony of the characters. This is a very well-written book and I believe I’ll be turning it over in my mind for weeks to come.

[J.D. Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first came across this novel I was less than enthused by the title, which has been used elsewhere, several times.

Within the first few pages I was disabused of any idea that the title was an indication of the standard of writing within.

The writing is erudite and masterful. The apprehension created by Mari Biella in this ghost story is remorseless in intensity and almost unbearable. The style was classically simple without all the bells and whistles - the fripperies of blood and guts - usually added by modern ghost and horror writers. It reminded me strongly of M.R. James, Wilkie Collins and particularly the novel by Henry James: `Turn of the Screw' - one of my favourite novels of all time. But this writer has her own methodology for scaring the pants off the reader that fully updates these supreme authors without losing any of their powerful storytelling abilities.

The scenario is a familiar one. A solitary house in the middle of a deserted countryside. A family descending into insanity as the past creeps insidiously into the future and the power of the supernatural slides through the windows of perception.

What separates this story from others is the near perfection of the writer's adherence to a beautifully sparse and compelling style of writing and a refusal to dissolve the tension with premature thrills and spills. Combined, these factors make this book one that will live long in memory and prompt one to avoid lonely houses in lonely places.

Restrained and ultimately more disturbing than overtly visceral novels of the genre, if there is one classical ghost story you should read in 2013, this is the one. Recommended.

[Thomas Cotterill · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Quickening is above all a novel of mood. It has a pleasing quality of intriguing familiarity that brings other writers and their works to mind while at the same time setting out its own unique ambiance. As an old-fashioned atmospheric ghost story, the author’s style suggests that of a young Wilkie Collins or a less-ornate Edgar Allan Poe. The feel and theme of the story inevitably bring to mind Henry James’ classic, “The Turn of the Screw.” The isolated house and flat marshy landscape of the setting remind one of William Hope Hodgson’s The House on the Borderland, although Biella’s story is pure horror without the science-fiction elements introduced to such tales by Hodgson. The intelligent cosy conversations between Fairweather and the local medic, Doctor Devonald, echo similar talks between those in charge in the upper-class adventure novels of John Buchan. The creepy spiritualist, Mrs. Marchant, with her dramatic séance (one of the novel’s most powerful scenes) recalls the supernatural thrillers of Charles Williams. In short, The Quickening rests comfortably among the works of some of the English language’s most entertaining writers.

Lawrence Fairweather, a typical gentleman of the late 19th century, narrates the yarn and Biella does an excellent job of catching the formal and slightly florid prose style of the times. Like so many characters in more traditional English novels, Fairweather does not seem to have a job and is, in fact, an unambitious gentleman botanist of leisure.

Beneath the skilfully maintained mood, this is also a psychological novel. We see the thoughts and feelings of the rather conventional Fairweather as he narrates the story, and watch through his steadfastly rational eyes as a strange “presence” in the gloomy country house erodes his wife Julia’s sanity. The home’s sole servant, a superstitious conspiratorial housekeeper, only worsens the dreary situation. “‘I have faith in impressions, ma’am. There’s often something in them, though I don’t know why or how … Mr Fairweather would think us as superstitious as savages, if he could hear us!” And all the while, little Hazel, the couple’s disturbed and increasingly neglected child suffers in fearful silence.

The interplay among the characters is both interesting and revealing. The stolidly sensible Fairweather, who rationalizes every uncanny incident, contrasts with the slightly eccentric Dr. Devonald who, although he professes to be a man of reason admits, “… I’m afraid that we men of science are not always as rational as we’d have the world believe.” He is as good as his word, naively and irresponsibly allowing Julia an excess of drugs. “As for your wife – well, the chloral is more of a benefit than a peril, I assure you. She’s been taking it for months with no ill effects; she told me so herself. She has taken laudanum in the past, at my direction.”

Yet even he mocks the foolish romanticism of his sister Sophie, telling Fairweather that, “She has a taste for the old and the ruinous, and is adamant that the electric light will drive every last ounce of romance from the world.” Sophie brings her friend, the exotic spiritualist, Adelaide Marchant, onto the scene and the already fraught situation begins to unravel. We have the fateful séance: “Mrs Marchant dropped into her chair and spread her hands over the table in the manner of a stage conjurer. Her eyes swept across our assembled faces, and her features lost their cast of slight amusement and became sombre.”

Julia Fairweather is weak and visibly unstable, swiftly falling victim to the more forceful personalities around her as she seeks to embrace – at any cost – what she believes is the ghost of a lost child. Sophie and the sinister Marchant reveal their unfeeling recklessness as these stronger women pursue their own impulses at the wounded Julia’s obvious expense.

For those who enjoy period ghost stories that generate a sustained atmosphere or mood, The Quickening is a feast. The contrast between Fairweather’s sober rational worldview and that of the irrational people with whom he must deal is illuminating. Julia’s plight is saddening. While the ending is not completely unexpected, the novel builds towards it with an inexorable sense of foreboding and despair.

[Áine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Quickening, The Song of the Sea, Loving Imogen, Summer by Mari Biella

How does she do it? Channel Henry James, I mean.

While it is grossly unfair to Biella to include all of her Amazon offerings in one review, I want you to read ALL of them.

Like the ravenous sirens in The Song of the Sea gobbling up a hapless sailor (spoiler alert), I read all the above in succession. They are that good! “Poor old Jake,” the fishermen say, looking up from their nets as he walks along the harbour wall on chill grey days when the wind is up and the clouds are low..." “He ain’t been right since the accident."

"It was just that, he said: singing, pure and high and sweet – the sweetest sound he had ever heard or could ever have imagined. There were no words, for this song was too ancient for language."

James, noted for psychological thought experiments, hovered over my shoulder as I read Loving Imogen, a tale of twins of questionable origin and a schoolmaster, growing old and irrelevant alone, suddenly cohabiting the same small house. What Maisie Knew came to mind, too, because of the precocious nature of Biella's young characters.

"And so here he is, amidst the debris of a spent life and a dead love, an ageing man for whom no one cares. “An unenviable position,” he admits, standing by the kitchen door and watching the dusk gather over the hills. “Most unenviable, indeed."

Are you getting the picture? This is seriously good writing.

The Quickening put me in mind of The Romance of Certain Old Clothes in that Biella's story is certainly Gothic, a story of the revenge of the dead and another thought experiment about the effect upon a remaining sibling and parents when a child dies.

It is also unfair to doggedly compare Biella to James, because she deserves her own place in modern writing. She is imaginative, meticulous in her choice of words, creates amazingly atmospheric narrative and utterly enchanted this reader. Somehow she manages to write in an almost-19th century voice, acutely aware of the consciousness of her characters. She has mastered point of view and interior monologue whilst writing about the supernatural. She creates the conflict, nostalgia, the notion of the sublime we sometimes associate with the past - a kind of romanticism which forces us to deal with her characters' terrors and intense emotions on their terms. We are pulled into their inner worlds. "Back then, I thought that houses were but stone and wood, and had no power other than that which we chose to bestow on them. I thought that abandoned houses were only pitiful, the haunts of mice and spiders and beetles, and believed that nothing could quicken in empty rooms and silent spaces."


Summer brings us another ghost story in a village outside of London. “An old house and excitable women ,” one paper blared the next day, alongside an unflattering photograph of Peter scowling at the camera. According to the rectory’s owner, Mr Peter Anderson, the supposed ghost is an all-too-human prankster." "She loved walking through the rooms at dusk, watching as the darkness took them in its arms and rocked them to sleep."
Biella is also a very good story teller.

So, gentle reader, if you've grown weary of the usual modern vapid offerings, spice up your literary appetite with a hapless sailor or two; maybe a tasty spectre; maybe these wonderful ghost stories.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on the posted reviews I was expecting to love this book. Although the skill of the author came through easily, the story itself left a lot to be desired.

First things first, Mari Biella's writing style is top notch. Her choice of words, her phrasing, her depictions of the scenery truly do make you feel as if you are observing the story rather than just reading it. It's very easy to formulate the mental image as you read along.

However, despite her obvious talents, the story itself falls flat. I'm not sure why so many people have categorized this novel as "horror" as there is nothing remotely scary or disturbing in it. It may, or may not, have a ghost but I never felt any fear for the safety of the protagonist. Although even if I had, I don't think I would have cared. The story is told from the POV of Lawrence, and I didn't find him particularly sympathetic. His depictions of his wife and child make them come across as more annoying than loved. I'm still asking myself if I disliked the characters because Mari Biella was so effective in describing Lawrence's frustration and scorn of them or if it's just because they're the type of people I consider irritating.

As for the "horror" itself, the big reveal a third into the novel shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has read or watched a recent novel or book where "young married couple with a single child takes a holiday to try to escape their recent tragedy" is the main plot. In addition, about halfway through the novel Lawrence suffers detoxing from being an apparent alcoholic despite little, if any, prior mention of his drinking. And then a few pages later starts boozing it up again with no apparent effect on the story. I had trouble reconciling this. .

I can't say I was surprised at the ending, it wasn't really telegraphed but it certainly fit with everything else i the novel, and was neither suspenseful nor scary.

I'm curious to see where Mari Biella goes from here. This is in no way a bad novel, she has a definite gift for words. Unfortunately the plot of her first work didn't come across as terribly original. Although perhaps the problem is the labeling of this as a "horror" novel. I kept waiting for the scares, they never came.

[Aniko Carmean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seven out of Five Stars - Read This Book!

The Quickening is the story of a family tormented by loss. They left their remote home in the English Fen to travel the Continent, only to find that loss cannot be outdistanced. They return to their home where, in the "quiet rooms and empty hallways, something had quickened and come to life."

Mari Biella's debut novel, The Quickening, starts quietly. There is something wrong with this family, and something wrong with their home, but the actual source of the 'wrongness' is not revealed for the first third of the book. This makes the palpable dread even more intoxicating: you are nervous, soul-darkened - and you cannot stop reading. This is a haunted house book where you don't often see the ghosts directly, but rather as reflections in the mood of the living characters. When the source of their torment is revealed, your heart will break with the unfairness of the universe. If you are like me, you will also feel a sickening anger at the wife's weakness, vile repulsion to the sucking Spiritualism of the era, and a complete eclipse of the light of reason. In the depths of night, in a house in the middle of nowhere, you stay with the main character, listening and yearning and fearing that a creak of the floorboards will smash your view of the universe. You stay with him, and wonder as he does, Which is worse? That there is something there, or that there might really be nothing?

Mari Biella's voice is breathtaking, pure. The Quickening is told from first person, and written in the style common to learned men at the "twilight years of the nineteenth century." Never once does the style lapse, nor are there any anachronistic appearances of things from the wrong period. To me, Biella's voice and ability to create a dark atmosphere are akin to the skills of Edgar Allen Poe. Akin, and in terms of being concise, better. Biella's voice is opulent, but lacking in the somewhat long-winded descriptions of which Poe was wont to include. Biella's mastery impressed me, and I cannot give a higher recommendation for a contemporary work of horror than I do for The Quickening.

[Naima Haviland · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Quickening is a novel of quiet horror set in Edwardian England. It is atmospheric, psychological, and emotionally resonant without ever going over the top -- even when its two central adult characters finally lose a grip on their steel-girded self control.

This story is told by Lawrence Fairweather, a young man returning home to Halfway House, his remote country estate, after traveling abroad with his wife, Julia, and their five-year old daughter, Hazel. Biella uses names that are cleverly descriptive. The Fairweather family hasn't seen 'fair weather' in a while. They'd hoped their travel would help them recover from a loss, one that has wrenched them inside out but that they never talk about. (As if to complement her parents' coping-by-not-mentioning-it strategy, Hazel has given up speech altogether.) 'Halfway House' is an estate halfway between isolation and sociability, sanity and insanity, this world and the next. Once the emotionally fragile Fairweathers move back in, they are caught halfway between these things, too. Each Fairweather is vulnerable in a unique way the others can't understand. Halfway House has plans for each of them; Halfway house plays favorites.

But is it really something dwelling in Halfway House that poses the threat? Or something dwelling in the Fairweathers? Or a combination of both? Ostensibly, The Quickening is an effective ghost story, with all the atmospheric creepiness that makes a quiet horror story so shivery. But in the tradition of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger, the ghost might be in the ever-tightening twist of the characters' tormented minds.

The Quickening is set in the era of Sigmund Freud, and I couldn't help thinking that Julia Fairweather could have been a patient. This is a world ruled by decorum, clear gender roles, class distinctions, and ritual. It's to Mari Biella's credit that I felt comfortable in The Quickening's England of 1895, moving around in it without ever feeling like a tourist. I read her short ghost story, The Song of the Sea, and can't wait to get my hands on her next novel. I'm hooked on this writer.

[L.K. Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like a good ghost story and I love a Victorian one. So 'The Quickening' by Mari Biella fits the bill both ways. This is another example of an indie author producing high quality fiction that rivals that of traditional publishing. A subtle ghost story that creates an evocative setting and very strong characterisation.

A man, his wife and their mute child return from an extended trip across Europe to their home in the Fens (also my home). It is clear that they have suffered some sort of set back but have now returned to the place of their grief. The tension builds and the truth is slowly revealed in a house that acts like a pressure cooker to the family's grief.

This is a quality read, the description is detailed but measured and the presentation of the characters both intimate and shocking in the way that a slow creeping psychological story should be. This literary ghost story is on a par with Henry James' 'Turn of the Screw' and is thoroughly worth a download.

[Christine Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Quickening was an interesting story of love, grief, and the possibility of what lay beyond death. After the death of their youngest child, the Fairweathers attempt to regain some normalcy and perspective by vacationing in Europe. When this fails to bring his family back together, Lawrence Fairweather decides that to go back home to Halfway House in the remote of England would be best. Little does he realise that sometimes home is not the best place to be, especially with an acutely mute child, a depressed and disturbed wife, and a mysterious spirit roaming the home. Can Lawrence save his family and their sanity before all is lost?

A good read and it would be very much open to a sequel of this family's future...

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darkly atmospheric and well developed with a gathering sense of gloom. An unhappy tale of quiet desperation. It is very well written and does border on horror without gore or overt torture.
Gifted through LibraryThing giveaway.

[Petite · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very enchanting for some reason or another to me. It was a smooth read if you understand what I am trying to describe. It was as if the author was very comfortable with the writing of this book. Although strange content it was heartfelt reading.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this Gothic novel. The author uses language well in her writing; not all authors do this. At first one is unsure whether or not the family's problem is caused by grief. In fact even by the end I was unsure of this. A book to put on the shelf to be reread at a later date.

[Cally Phillips]

Find out by reading the READINB BETWEEN THE LINES REVIEW
http://callyphillips.wordpress.com/20...

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book, couldn't put it down.. Love this Author!!!

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A disturbing read. . . . . Happy Halloween to me!

[Diane Waggner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, the story was so well written it took me back in time. I have ordered Loving Imogen and can not wait to read it. I hope this author continues to write more books.