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Incubus
You can trust Cora Whitman. She's a minister's wife, gardener, food writer, and just the kind of narrator that you don't find in most horror novels. She is practical, skeptical, and her matter-of-fact telling of the events that took place in Dry Falls, Maine, makes this incredible story easy to believe.
Incubus begins with Cora Whitman's preface to the "case study" that is the novel. It's an almost scientific warm-up for the paranormal roller coaster that lies ahead. Arensberg's Dry Falls is a typical, small New England community, except during the summer of 1974 when the weather got unusually hot, the rain refused to fall, and the town was gripped by a sinister sexual spirit. The first signs of the incubus were relatively innocent--the town eccentric lost a few hours of her day, husbands became uncharacteristically ardent, schoolgirls saw a "ghost" in a graveyard. As the story progresses, the incubus grows more sinister, until it stirs up a supernatural hurricane with Cora Whitman trapped in its eye.
Arensberg, whose other works include Group Sex and Sister Wolf, has created a sophisticated work of literary horror with Incubus. She raises many questions about religion, marriage, and the supernatural, and handles the subject matter with unflinching objectivity. Her prose is simultaneously elegant and pointed, and her characters both unusual and familiar, making the story irresistible. --Mara Friedman
322 pages, Hardcover
First published February 2, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
October 26, 2014
When I read the blurb for this book I got very excited. It sounded like such a awesome idea...
Well..it was a good idea but carried out very badly. The author rambles on for several paragraphs about mundane happenings. Who gives a shit?? Get to the point. You could skip several pages and still not get to where the story was going.
I hate not finishing a book, but life is just too short.
The publishers of this book have been very nice but dang I just can't do it. It's been said of this book that it's great literary horror..the fuck?
I received an ARC copy of this book from Netgalley and Open Road Media in exchange for an honest review.
Well..it was a good idea but carried out very badly. The author rambles on for several paragraphs about mundane happenings. Who gives a shit?? Get to the point. You could skip several pages and still not get to where the story was going.
I hate not finishing a book, but life is just too short.
The publishers of this book have been very nice but dang I just can't do it. It's been said of this book that it's great literary horror..the fuck?
I received an ARC copy of this book from Netgalley and Open Road Media in exchange for an honest review.
May 10, 2012
This book was supposed to be about an incubus. At least that's what not only the title, but also the book blurb promises. What you get, instead is lots of description, character background, town history - multiple times on that last! - and the leading protagonist's thoughts, opinions and observations on gardening, cooking and even architecture and lawn at one point!
For example, on page 77 of my hardcover edition, the protagonist's sister comes to stay with her. Even the most amateurish writer would simply narrate the story with letting one's sister stay in the converted attic and leave it at that. Arsenberg wasn't satisfied with leaving it there, however. She spent six paragraphs (on into page 78) not only describing every minute detail of the room but also the history behind the bed in the attic.
That was her pattern throughout the novel. Every mundane thing had to be described in several paragraphs. All I kept thinking was, okay, what does this have to do with the incubus? Answer: Absolutely nothing! This author was so caught up in writing about the background on every little object, room and person that she completely lost focus on the plot. As a matter of fact I haven't seen a disaster this huge since the last self-published book I tried and failed to finish reading. But at least the latter had the excuse of not having a major publishing firm's editing team at his disposal. How on earth this book made it into print as is, is beyond me.
For example, on page 77 of my hardcover edition, the protagonist's sister comes to stay with her. Even the most amateurish writer would simply narrate the story with letting one's sister stay in the converted attic and leave it at that. Arsenberg wasn't satisfied with leaving it there, however. She spent six paragraphs (on into page 78) not only describing every minute detail of the room but also the history behind the bed in the attic.
That was her pattern throughout the novel. Every mundane thing had to be described in several paragraphs. All I kept thinking was, okay, what does this have to do with the incubus? Answer: Absolutely nothing! This author was so caught up in writing about the background on every little object, room and person that she completely lost focus on the plot. As a matter of fact I haven't seen a disaster this huge since the last self-published book I tried and failed to finish reading. But at least the latter had the excuse of not having a major publishing firm's editing team at his disposal. How on earth this book made it into print as is, is beyond me.
December 7, 2009
Strangely enough I managed to find this book both compelling and a bit tedious. The underlying story was interesting enough for me to want to continue turning the pages while I often became frustrated at Cora's rambling style of telling the story and her lengthy descriptions of everything surrounding her. Some details were interesting (gardening) while others made me smile (especially those of her friends sex lives) but many were just plain dull. This tidbit, taken from a scene where Cora is describing herself, could just as well describe the author's method of telling her story. "When he (Cora's husband) told me a story I made him repeat himself. When he baptized an infant I asked him to describe the christening dress."
Last night, probably fueled by exhaustion and way too much coffee, I polished off a good 100 pages before finally falling asleep and was awoken (repeatedly) by a very disturbing dream taken straight from the scene with the college girls (it was only a dream, wasn't it?). Guess this book disturbed me on a level that I wasn't aware of! And, here I thought I was too jaded to be bothered by a story.
In the end, the story was interesting but the telling of it deadly dull.
Last night, probably fueled by exhaustion and way too much coffee, I polished off a good 100 pages before finally falling asleep and was awoken (repeatedly) by a very disturbing dream taken straight from the scene with the college girls (it was only a dream, wasn't it?). Guess this book disturbed me on a level that I wasn't aware of! And, here I thought I was too jaded to be bothered by a story.
In the end, the story was interesting but the telling of it deadly dull.
April 9, 2011
(I AM SO INCREDIBLY MAD! I WAS JUST FINISHING MY REVIEW FOR THIS BOOK AND THE FREAKIN WINDOW JUST CLOSED! JUST LIKE THAT! I DUNNO WHAT HAPPENED!! ARGH!!!!!)
As I was saying, the premise for this book was great. Incubus, you get all excited reading the title, right? Well no such luck everyone. The reading is oh-so-incredibly-slow you wish you could pluck your eyes out just to escape the BOREDOM it immerses you in. It is absolutely reproachable to an author that its book gets to page 200 without virtually anything of interest happening (except if you count the cooking and gardening skills of Cora, the narrator).
I believe it was a great subject to write about, but POORLY, POORLY executed. It goes on and on narrating trivial stuff, most of which could be either omitted without losing focus or condensed in a significantly smaller way. There's no reason to point out how one of your characters files and cuts her toenails. It's just plain pointless.
If I finished this excruciatingly slow book it was because I was expecting some action or just write the harsh review it deserves for wasting my time so bad (I'm only thankful I didn't buy it, it was a gift, and no, the previous owner hadn't read it).
There are probably only two or three parts in the whole book I could say were on to something good: Helen's narration, Adele's haunting and the hauntings at Cora and Henry's house. Those were the parts I was waiting so much for, but so scarce and then waved off of any importance from Cora's point of view I couldn't believe how skeptical and detached that character is. It made me lose my interest in reading. It is annoying how she can be "terrified" and even faints by seeing an incubus rising from her friend Adele's body but the same thing happened to her (except even scarier), and it's a FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE, and she acts like nothing important happened. That bitch is totally inconsistent and I dislike her character to the point of wanting her existence to be banished from Literary History.
I end up giving the book 1.5 stars just for those few parts where it was mildly interesting. And encourage everyone to NOT read it. Ever.
As I was saying, the premise for this book was great. Incubus, you get all excited reading the title, right? Well no such luck everyone. The reading is oh-so-incredibly-slow you wish you could pluck your eyes out just to escape the BOREDOM it immerses you in. It is absolutely reproachable to an author that its book gets to page 200 without virtually anything of interest happening (except if you count the cooking and gardening skills of Cora, the narrator).
I believe it was a great subject to write about, but POORLY, POORLY executed. It goes on and on narrating trivial stuff, most of which could be either omitted without losing focus or condensed in a significantly smaller way. There's no reason to point out how one of your characters files and cuts her toenails. It's just plain pointless.
If I finished this excruciatingly slow book it was because I was expecting some action or just write the harsh review it deserves for wasting my time so bad (I'm only thankful I didn't buy it, it was a gift, and no, the previous owner hadn't read it).
There are probably only two or three parts in the whole book I could say were on to something good: Helen's narration, Adele's haunting and the hauntings at Cora and Henry's house. Those were the parts I was waiting so much for, but so scarce and then waved off of any importance from Cora's point of view I couldn't believe how skeptical and detached that character is. It made me lose my interest in reading. It is annoying how she can be "terrified" and even faints by seeing an incubus rising from her friend Adele's body but the same thing happened to her (except even scarier), and it's a FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE, and she acts like nothing important happened. That bitch is totally inconsistent and I dislike her character to the point of wanting her existence to be banished from Literary History.
I end up giving the book 1.5 stars just for those few parts where it was mildly interesting. And encourage everyone to NOT read it. Ever.
July 25, 2016
I was surprised to see all the negative reviews. I found this novel to be quite engaging, even though I am not generally a fan of the horror or supernatural genre. Some reviewers complained of long descriptive passages that did nothing to move the story forward. For me, it was precisely the author’s lively descriptive writing that set this novel apart from the average supernatural novel and all the other Stephen King knockoffs out there. The author’s authentic descriptions of small town life in rural Maine and the quirks of its residents were so well drawn that I felt I was there, in the midst of it all.
The narrator and her husband, a local minister whose faith has been shaken by the recent unexplainable and paranormal events, set out to investigate a series of no-touch sexual assaults on young women, perpetrated by some invisible force that seems to have occupied the community causing unnatural weather patterns, drought, and crop failures, while leaving the surrounding communities unaffected by these events.
The author is at her best when describing the town's social life, family dramas, and the tensions of the narrator's sexless marriage. Cora is the older of two sisters whose mother clearly favored the younger sister while ignoring the other. Ironically for Cora, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for she has grown up to be “well-adjusted” and much more successful in life than her younger sister who has spent much of her life trying to escape the cloying obsession of her mother. I found the family drama and the subplots to be much more interesting than the main plot concerning the ghostly happenings in their small town. While some reviewers found the story interesting but the writing dull, for me it was just the opposite. The story is dull and the writing interesting, even at times superb.
I wavered between three and four stars, simply because I am not a fan of genre fiction, particularly ghost stories. But this particular ghost story is so well written, with believable characters, a unique setting, and highly descriptive writing, that I had to give it four stars.
The narrator and her husband, a local minister whose faith has been shaken by the recent unexplainable and paranormal events, set out to investigate a series of no-touch sexual assaults on young women, perpetrated by some invisible force that seems to have occupied the community causing unnatural weather patterns, drought, and crop failures, while leaving the surrounding communities unaffected by these events.
The author is at her best when describing the town's social life, family dramas, and the tensions of the narrator's sexless marriage. Cora is the older of two sisters whose mother clearly favored the younger sister while ignoring the other. Ironically for Cora, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for she has grown up to be “well-adjusted” and much more successful in life than her younger sister who has spent much of her life trying to escape the cloying obsession of her mother. I found the family drama and the subplots to be much more interesting than the main plot concerning the ghostly happenings in their small town. While some reviewers found the story interesting but the writing dull, for me it was just the opposite. The story is dull and the writing interesting, even at times superb.
I wavered between three and four stars, simply because I am not a fan of genre fiction, particularly ghost stories. But this particular ghost story is so well written, with believable characters, a unique setting, and highly descriptive writing, that I had to give it four stars.
July 2, 2014
Incubus is not your standard 'gore'/'shock' horror novel, there is much more going on here. Set in Dry Falls, a small rural town in Stephen KIng heartland, Maine. Narrated by Cora , the wife of the local Episcopal priest Henry Lieber, who tells a disturbing tale of an unusual heat wave which hits the town in 1974, it brings with it strange happenings with local animals bearing deformed offspring, and then the women of the town start reporting nightly disturbances. They claim that they are experiencing nightmares but feel as if they are awake during them, most unnerving is their reports of a sense of sexual assault occurring during these nightmares. All say they feel paralysed, and they sense a presence (many assume it's their husbands, yet their husbands claim to be sleeping), and then terrifying attacks assaults take place. Alongside these occurrences we witness Henry dealing with loss of faith, but these supernatural happenings fascinate him and Cora tells of Henry's near obsession with the dark side of faith.
In another author's hands Incubus may have fallen flat, but Ann Arensberg has managed to produce a literary, horror novel which works not only on a 'horror' level but she deals with biblical/spiritual/pagan faith and belief. Unsetttling, disturbing and highly readable.
In another author's hands Incubus may have fallen flat, but Ann Arensberg has managed to produce a literary, horror novel which works not only on a 'horror' level but she deals with biblical/spiritual/pagan faith and belief. Unsetttling, disturbing and highly readable.
December 1, 2017
Yeah, let’s make this narrator woman do even more domestic tasks to ward off an evil sex demon, who has in a way enabled women to fulfill their own bodily desires (though that had backfired)! Unfortunately, at this point in the book (aka the resolution), the narrator's agency is expressed through housekeeping (cooking and cleaning). The most vulnerable character in this portion of the novel, men are perpetuating gender roles: "Forget the exercise," said Henry (husband). She'll get plenty doing the cooking and the housework." "Cooking and cleaning fill the bill two ways. They keep her body moving and her mind focused on mundane things. Cora's natural skills are her best protection." Wow.
(Not even to mention how anticlimactic the actual ending was…)
And the whole pointless ruse/character of Hannah, I honestly don’t understand why the author didn’t just go full Freud (conflict with the mother) instead of injecting useless Greek mythology that didn’t serve any purpose.
And xenophobia?: "From now on we must temper our natural instincts with suspicion, withhold our compassion for cripples, paraplegics, victims of third-degree burns, Thalidomide babies, the birthmarked, clubfooted, scarfaced, harelipped, and hunchbacked, until we make certain they have human forebears.” Cool, bro.
This book was awful—pointless subplots, predictable plots and obvious motifs, sexism/ableism.
(Not even to mention how anticlimactic the actual ending was…)
And the whole pointless ruse/character of Hannah, I honestly don’t understand why the author didn’t just go full Freud (conflict with the mother) instead of injecting useless Greek mythology that didn’t serve any purpose.
And xenophobia?: "From now on we must temper our natural instincts with suspicion, withhold our compassion for cripples, paraplegics, victims of third-degree burns, Thalidomide babies, the birthmarked, clubfooted, scarfaced, harelipped, and hunchbacked, until we make certain they have human forebears.” Cool, bro.
This book was awful—pointless subplots, predictable plots and obvious motifs, sexism/ableism.
July 12, 2014
Review: INCUBUS by Ann Arensberg
A few decades ago, my first introduction to the concept of Incubi was Frank de Felitta's rather graphic horror novel, "The Entity," published in 1978. I found it very disturbing, but since then the concept has not often recurred to me. I still remember, though, the impression of implacability, the impossibility of escape from.the encroaching horrors.
Ann Arensberg' s INCUBUS is a very different sort of novel. For one aspect, this is "literary horror," not blood and grue "splatterpunk." It's not designed to titillate, scandalized, and terrify.. well, maybe terrify, because here is that same encroaching implacability again, that juggernaut of terror and danger approaches, except you don't hear it, you don't see it. Throughout the book I felt as if I stood beside a farmhouse window at twilight of an overcast day, knowing something dangerous was near, but unable to peer through the filmy pebblesd glass. I also held the same kind of recurring fearful tensions as while reading Conan Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskervilles," and I.can easily imagine this Maine story transplanted to bleak English moors. It has that same articulated, genteel, style of narrative.
November 10, 2014
Some reviewers have suggested that this book is not a horror novel, and should not be judged by the common criteria applied to horror novels. I disagree. "Incubus" is a work of supernatural horror; it's simply a bad one. There's nothing wrong with integrating local culture into a horror story (Stephen King has made a career of it); but in "Incubus," the opposite is the case: the story (to the degree there is one) seems to be for the purpose of providing a backdrop for the author's musings on everything from gardening to cooking to sociology. Arsenberg manages to make sex and demon-possession equally boring.
July 15, 2008
So, maybe my supernatural-novel diet gives me certain expectations.
I was intrigued that a book titled "Incubus" would be a NYT Notable.
It was neither literary nor B-movie fun. Just dry and boring. Too bad.
I was intrigued that a book titled "Incubus" would be a NYT Notable.
It was neither literary nor B-movie fun. Just dry and boring. Too bad.
December 29, 2022
Artful. Lyrical and haunting. Creepy as shit. RIP to the haters; have you guys tried getting demon content from something other than Marvel movies? Maybe then you’d understand subtlety and poetry in horror a bit better!
July 31, 2014
Hmm.
I wanted to like this novel a lot. The blurb sounds fascinating, and I love supernatural stories with an intellectual bent. However, this book failed me on a number of levels.
The bulk of the book is narration by Cora, the wife of the town rector. Initially, I was intrigued by Cora's detached, almost obsessively detailed perspective, but within a few chapters, it became nearly infuriating. Excellent books are much about what is NOT said as they are about what IS. The craft is in the gentle manipulation of language into a vivid narrator's voice. Cora's voice at times felt like a dry autobiography written by someone's great grandmother, who can't quite figure out what's actually important to tell us.
I wanted to like this, and perhaps with a more feisty editor, or perhaps beta readers who are expecting a literary thriller, the interesting idea of the book could have been revealed. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
(ARC REVIEW - NETGALLEY)
I wanted to like this novel a lot. The blurb sounds fascinating, and I love supernatural stories with an intellectual bent. However, this book failed me on a number of levels.
The bulk of the book is narration by Cora, the wife of the town rector. Initially, I was intrigued by Cora's detached, almost obsessively detailed perspective, but within a few chapters, it became nearly infuriating. Excellent books are much about what is NOT said as they are about what IS. The craft is in the gentle manipulation of language into a vivid narrator's voice. Cora's voice at times felt like a dry autobiography written by someone's great grandmother, who can't quite figure out what's actually important to tell us.
I wanted to like this, and perhaps with a more feisty editor, or perhaps beta readers who are expecting a literary thriller, the interesting idea of the book could have been revealed. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
(ARC REVIEW - NETGALLEY)
March 31, 2020
There's only one word to describe this book. Tedious. A cool concept that faintly glittered through at times but was horrible overtaken by rambling. The story wandered all over the place and had constant diatribes about gardens, snack foods, furniture, gothic novels, and church pitch ins and other mundane shit, that made the story last even longer than it should have. And trust me this story lasted forever. I could not wait for it to be over. The premise was so cool, a bunch of women in this small town keep having erotic nightmares and weird shit is happening. Cool right? It's fucking buried in this novel. Five hours of my life that I will never get back!
July 28, 2015
Very heavy on the horticulture, pretty light on the horror.
If you're one of the select few looking for a supernatural gardening book this is for you. If you're looking for something suspenseful, keep looking.
If you're one of the select few looking for a supernatural gardening book this is for you. If you're looking for something suspenseful, keep looking.
January 26, 2019
I thought this book was amazing! So good that I'm still thinking about it more than ten years after discovering it and am looking for a copy again to re-read it. There is a sinister feeling to this book. Dark, confusing for the characters. I highly recommend this book!
August 6, 2021
Boring. Nothing happened for a long time so I gave up.
December 3, 2019
‘Incubus’, Ann Arensberg’s novel, is a post-modernist twist on the Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter. Rife with fecundity and harvests, it’s a feminist-centered narrative, steeped with the possibility of a small town’s citizens’ lives being disrupted by incubi, those nocturnal demons who prey on both women and men sexually.
Is Dry Falls, Maine, experiencing an invasion of succubi who dampen the spirits and passions of the town’s husbands? Are women and young girls being targeted and tormented by nightly visitations of something other? Is it all hysteria caused by unnatural seasonal weather patterns? And why, is there an endless recitation of planting, cooking and celebration threaded throughout the narrative?
Cora, the narrator of these unsettling events, is a domestic goddess. Early on we learn she writes a column for a local publication centering on recipes, harvesting, planting, seeding and all things of nature. Seemingly staid, and unconcerned with worldly things, she enters marriage later in life to an Episcopalian minister, a man with one foot in church doctrine and the other in supernatural and psychical hauntings.
As the year of unnatural weather unfolds, women become dispirited, restless and tired. They complain that their sleep is interrupted nightly. Young girls fall into slumber that lasts days. Fruit and flowers ripen, then wilt, echoing the spirits of those who inhabit Dry Falls.
Henry, Cora’s husband experiences a lapse in faith and makes much ado about events he analyzes as unnatural. All the while, Cora, grows, harvests, and cooks scintillating recipes and worries over her garden’s health.
Despite its title, Incubus, is no book of grisly horror. There are no loud bumps in the night. No ghosts or gory deaths. No monsters to speak of. There is little in the way of an ultimate crescendo. If anything, the novel begins on a higher note, than the whimper it ends on. As Henry James did in The Turn of The Screw, Arensburg crafts a cerebral tale of easily rattled townspeople.
Against a backdrop of church ritual, Arensburg’s novel unfolds as a mirror image, an echo of sorts, of Druidic rituals, that was transmuted into orderly church doctrine, that if one looks closely enough, you can see still in existence in a different guise but under the surface of established Christian dogma.
Incubus succeeds as a question in the reader’s mind. Are these events unfolding as related to us? What is real? What is not? Ultimately, the ending attempts to capture the psyche of Persephone as Cora decides to work six months of the year, crafting her fecund world, while the remaining six months are spent assisting her husband, no longer a theologian, in his cold, psychical research investigations.
Clever, yes. However, a diligent reader wades through 322 pages before getting to this quiet denouement. Therein lies the problem. Reading this book is often like wading through mud. It is slow-going and oft times boring.
I should also add that this is the second time I’ve read the book. I plucked it from my shelf thinking I won’t read to the end. I noted some excellent sentences highlighted from my first earlier reading of it. I continued reading all the while thinking, okay, I’ll remember it, everything will come back to me, and I will put the book down. Alas. That never happened. Perhaps this is the most damning thing about Incubus. If it were truly a memorable and good read, some part of it, something would have stayed with me. Unfortunately, nothing did and I read it as if it were the first time. That is why I rated it three stars.
Is Dry Falls, Maine, experiencing an invasion of succubi who dampen the spirits and passions of the town’s husbands? Are women and young girls being targeted and tormented by nightly visitations of something other? Is it all hysteria caused by unnatural seasonal weather patterns? And why, is there an endless recitation of planting, cooking and celebration threaded throughout the narrative?
Cora, the narrator of these unsettling events, is a domestic goddess. Early on we learn she writes a column for a local publication centering on recipes, harvesting, planting, seeding and all things of nature. Seemingly staid, and unconcerned with worldly things, she enters marriage later in life to an Episcopalian minister, a man with one foot in church doctrine and the other in supernatural and psychical hauntings.
As the year of unnatural weather unfolds, women become dispirited, restless and tired. They complain that their sleep is interrupted nightly. Young girls fall into slumber that lasts days. Fruit and flowers ripen, then wilt, echoing the spirits of those who inhabit Dry Falls.
Henry, Cora’s husband experiences a lapse in faith and makes much ado about events he analyzes as unnatural. All the while, Cora, grows, harvests, and cooks scintillating recipes and worries over her garden’s health.
Despite its title, Incubus, is no book of grisly horror. There are no loud bumps in the night. No ghosts or gory deaths. No monsters to speak of. There is little in the way of an ultimate crescendo. If anything, the novel begins on a higher note, than the whimper it ends on. As Henry James did in The Turn of The Screw, Arensburg crafts a cerebral tale of easily rattled townspeople.
Against a backdrop of church ritual, Arensburg’s novel unfolds as a mirror image, an echo of sorts, of Druidic rituals, that was transmuted into orderly church doctrine, that if one looks closely enough, you can see still in existence in a different guise but under the surface of established Christian dogma.
Incubus succeeds as a question in the reader’s mind. Are these events unfolding as related to us? What is real? What is not? Ultimately, the ending attempts to capture the psyche of Persephone as Cora decides to work six months of the year, crafting her fecund world, while the remaining six months are spent assisting her husband, no longer a theologian, in his cold, psychical research investigations.
Clever, yes. However, a diligent reader wades through 322 pages before getting to this quiet denouement. Therein lies the problem. Reading this book is often like wading through mud. It is slow-going and oft times boring.
I should also add that this is the second time I’ve read the book. I plucked it from my shelf thinking I won’t read to the end. I noted some excellent sentences highlighted from my first earlier reading of it. I continued reading all the while thinking, okay, I’ll remember it, everything will come back to me, and I will put the book down. Alas. That never happened. Perhaps this is the most damning thing about Incubus. If it were truly a memorable and good read, some part of it, something would have stayed with me. Unfortunately, nothing did and I read it as if it were the first time. That is why I rated it three stars.
January 24, 2025
In the long ago land of 1974, a time before cell phones or internet, in the isolated town of Dry Falls, Maine, life is...well, dull. Husbands work, wives garden, seasons change. Nothing much has changed for the past hundred years or so. Everyone knows everyone, and religion has assumed a watered down, avuncular role, the church having become more of a public meetinghouse than a place of worship. Even Cora, the preacher's wife, is pragmatically agnostic, preferring to worship through cooking and gardening.
But as the seventies loom and bring their upheaval and rebellion even into the smallest American towns, a shadow of unease falls over the stale and somewhat inbred population. True to its name, Dry Falls is suddenly the scene of a sexual drought. The men are suddenly stricken impotent. The women turn to nature looking for answers in herbs, flowers and food, each in their own innocent way practicing witchcraft: teenage girls summon goddesses in graveyards, wives sew love pillows and cultivate aromatic roses. But as the winter snows melt, summer suddenly descends with a vengeance, bringing an unrelenting heat wave with it. Desire is not merely reawakened, but viciously unleashed and every woman in Dry Falls finds herself preyed upon by seemingly inexhaustible lust. Crops wither, gardens die and women are ridden by an insatiable presence to the point of collapse.
Stalwart Cora refuses to believe in the supernatural and, despite suffering her own sexless marriage, becomes a source of resentment among the village wives, who view her as "protected" in her role as a preacher's wife. But no one is safe in Dry Falls, and even the most repressed and unimaginative soul will be forced to face the undeniable facts of the demonic entity in their midst.
I don't understand all of the negative reviews of this book. It is a literal feast; loaded down with descriptions of delicious food, rich landscapes, the overwhelming perfume of flowers and symphonies of gardens blooming bright and heavy. The action lies within the lush abundances of nature, taken for granted by the community. Everything here - the women, the plants, the smells of baked goods and simmering meals - is a baited trap, luring in a lustful horde of demons.
There's no action packed car chases or bloody murders. There's barely a cuss word to be found. But it is deeply, darkly ominous for those who appreciate the slow, shadowy walk through true horror instead of the instant gratification of a cheesy jump scare every twenty minutes.
This modern day retelling of the tale of Persephone and Demeter is a sinfully lush tapestry, exploding with sensory overload. It's a seven course meal, meant to be savored by connoisseurs. If you prefer a quick snack of junk food and the brief, empty fulfillment of a sugar rush it brings look elsewhere.
But as the seventies loom and bring their upheaval and rebellion even into the smallest American towns, a shadow of unease falls over the stale and somewhat inbred population. True to its name, Dry Falls is suddenly the scene of a sexual drought. The men are suddenly stricken impotent. The women turn to nature looking for answers in herbs, flowers and food, each in their own innocent way practicing witchcraft: teenage girls summon goddesses in graveyards, wives sew love pillows and cultivate aromatic roses. But as the winter snows melt, summer suddenly descends with a vengeance, bringing an unrelenting heat wave with it. Desire is not merely reawakened, but viciously unleashed and every woman in Dry Falls finds herself preyed upon by seemingly inexhaustible lust. Crops wither, gardens die and women are ridden by an insatiable presence to the point of collapse.
Stalwart Cora refuses to believe in the supernatural and, despite suffering her own sexless marriage, becomes a source of resentment among the village wives, who view her as "protected" in her role as a preacher's wife. But no one is safe in Dry Falls, and even the most repressed and unimaginative soul will be forced to face the undeniable facts of the demonic entity in their midst.
I don't understand all of the negative reviews of this book. It is a literal feast; loaded down with descriptions of delicious food, rich landscapes, the overwhelming perfume of flowers and symphonies of gardens blooming bright and heavy. The action lies within the lush abundances of nature, taken for granted by the community. Everything here - the women, the plants, the smells of baked goods and simmering meals - is a baited trap, luring in a lustful horde of demons.
There's no action packed car chases or bloody murders. There's barely a cuss word to be found. But it is deeply, darkly ominous for those who appreciate the slow, shadowy walk through true horror instead of the instant gratification of a cheesy jump scare every twenty minutes.
This modern day retelling of the tale of Persephone and Demeter is a sinfully lush tapestry, exploding with sensory overload. It's a seven course meal, meant to be savored by connoisseurs. If you prefer a quick snack of junk food and the brief, empty fulfillment of a sugar rush it brings look elsewhere.
May 17, 2017
I was not as impressed with this book as I expected to be. I ordered this years ago from the Book-of-the-Month Club, and it has been waiting patiently in its original wrapping for me to read it. So I finally took it out and read it.
The book is billed as a story of a demon possession or the invasion of an Incubus demon. But the demon aspect seems rather flimsy throughout most of the novel. Any number of women, including the narrator, are oppressed by the thing, weighed down by it, unable to move. As time goes on, it seems to be having sexual intercourse with many of them, and this happens while other people are right there watching, apparently unable to do anything about it or stop it. They hear strange sounds, but it doesn’t talk, doesn’t tell them what it wants. They could be dreaming. It could be a psychological thing or an effect of the unusual heat or drought that is occurring at the same time.
After her last encounter with the thing, the narrator is convinced the incubus is not a spiritual entity but an invasion of beings from another planet or another world of some kind.
The book is well written and as a depiction of small town life and a chronicle of the rivalry between two sisters and their competition for the attention of their parents it is very well done. Also, the philosophizing and history on the nature of demons are interesting.
But it seems to me that most of the events in the book, except for the last scene where everybody in town suddenly shows up at one particular church to see the exorcism, could have happened to anybody without necessarily needing to resort to demons or aliens to explain them.
Also, I didn’t much like the narrator. She seemed to be a fairly normal and intelligent person, but she wasn’t very sympathetic to her neighbors when they had their encounters with the demon or whatever. And these people were all acting like they were dying of the heat wave when it got into the low 90’s. Give me a break! They should spend any random summer in Nashville sometime.
The book is billed as a story of a demon possession or the invasion of an Incubus demon. But the demon aspect seems rather flimsy throughout most of the novel. Any number of women, including the narrator, are oppressed by the thing, weighed down by it, unable to move. As time goes on, it seems to be having sexual intercourse with many of them, and this happens while other people are right there watching, apparently unable to do anything about it or stop it. They hear strange sounds, but it doesn’t talk, doesn’t tell them what it wants. They could be dreaming. It could be a psychological thing or an effect of the unusual heat or drought that is occurring at the same time.
After her last encounter with the thing, the narrator is convinced the incubus is not a spiritual entity but an invasion of beings from another planet or another world of some kind.
The book is well written and as a depiction of small town life and a chronicle of the rivalry between two sisters and their competition for the attention of their parents it is very well done. Also, the philosophizing and history on the nature of demons are interesting.
But it seems to me that most of the events in the book, except for the last scene where everybody in town suddenly shows up at one particular church to see the exorcism, could have happened to anybody without necessarily needing to resort to demons or aliens to explain them.
Also, I didn’t much like the narrator. She seemed to be a fairly normal and intelligent person, but she wasn’t very sympathetic to her neighbors when they had their encounters with the demon or whatever. And these people were all acting like they were dying of the heat wave when it got into the low 90’s. Give me a break! They should spend any random summer in Nashville sometime.
October 7, 2022
This book was very slow and the story that was told in 300 pages, I felt like ours be told in maybe 150. The author describes LITERALLY EVERYTHING and gives background on the most useless information. Some parts described the main character and her personality and likes but so much of it was unneeded. In my opinion it took away from the actual story because you had to dig through so much to get there.
I also think the main character was not very likable. she wasn’t personable and it was hard for me to feel any connection to her because she was described in such a dull way. And I realize part of the book is that her marriage is sexless, but it even seemed loveless to me. I feel as though Henry was very cold to her multiple times in the book and any time she describes anything sexual between them it feels awkward to me.
The whole part with her sister didn’t make sense. How did she disappear into the poppies and then all of a sudden reappear in the church, coincidentally causing Emily to leave the circle and break the “spell” or whatever they were doing.
Overall, I think if the author spent more time explaining the actual haunting or events, instead of useless background or in depth explanations of things that don’t matter, the story would have been much better and held much more attention. I still gave it 2 stars because I liked the actual story, but was getting frustrated that the book seemed so off track of the main events.
I also think the main character was not very likable. she wasn’t personable and it was hard for me to feel any connection to her because she was described in such a dull way. And I realize part of the book is that her marriage is sexless, but it even seemed loveless to me. I feel as though Henry was very cold to her multiple times in the book and any time she describes anything sexual between them it feels awkward to me.
The whole part with her sister didn’t make sense. How did she disappear into the poppies and then all of a sudden reappear in the church, coincidentally causing Emily to leave the circle and break the “spell” or whatever they were doing.
Overall, I think if the author spent more time explaining the actual haunting or events, instead of useless background or in depth explanations of things that don’t matter, the story would have been much better and held much more attention. I still gave it 2 stars because I liked the actual story, but was getting frustrated that the book seemed so off track of the main events.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 22, 2021
Honestly, I wouldn’t classify this book as “horror”, but rather a sort of post-modern gothic character study. Maybe for folks who like slow burns this would be enjoyable, but I found it to be boring and meandering. I could never quite follow the purpose of different plot points and I never felt a sense of urgency when considering the incubus infestation in Dry Falls. It just felt like reading a series of somewhat strange, but unrelated occurrences written in a way to seem more important than they were. I imagine that is the point, considering the narrator is a skeptic, but it just doesn’t make for an interesting read. I also found some of the interactions between characters to be infuriating in a way that I’m sure Arsenberg intended, but was, again, not actually enjoyable in practice. Not a terrible read, but I just didn’t connect with it.
March 10, 2023
I made myself finish this book, because it was pretty expensive when I bought it, more than twenty years ago. Since it has been on my shelf for that long I thought I owed it that much.
I don't know why I bought it on the first place. I remember looking it up on the internet. Probably, I wanted a book that would actually scare me. Up untill I am writing these very words I have not read any such book.
This book definitely did not scare me. It dragged along and having finished it I am utterly at a loss as to why the book was published at all...
1 star because it was set in the year I was born and a second star for making me remember a very scary night when I and a friend made a ouija board similar to Walter's and conversed with something for a few hours (we, in fact, did lift our hands from the glass and it did move on its own..). Other than that...no.
I don't know why I bought it on the first place. I remember looking it up on the internet. Probably, I wanted a book that would actually scare me. Up untill I am writing these very words I have not read any such book.
This book definitely did not scare me. It dragged along and having finished it I am utterly at a loss as to why the book was published at all...
1 star because it was set in the year I was born and a second star for making me remember a very scary night when I and a friend made a ouija board similar to Walter's and conversed with something for a few hours (we, in fact, did lift our hands from the glass and it did move on its own..). Other than that...no.
June 18, 2017
Not a bad book. I just didn't fall into it. Was always outside the story. Hope that makes sense.
It was strange. By the end I was not sure if it was fantasy/horror or sci-fi. It gives you a few things to think about. The character studies are severe. Hard to believe the two sisters and mother were from the same family. Each fit snuggly into their own personality/psychology box. Nothing seemed to overlap. The characters were over-structured for me. The story itself was interesting. Think I would have enjoyed it more if the story had been told from the entity side and the people were less explained.
It was strange. By the end I was not sure if it was fantasy/horror or sci-fi. It gives you a few things to think about. The character studies are severe. Hard to believe the two sisters and mother were from the same family. Each fit snuggly into their own personality/psychology box. Nothing seemed to overlap. The characters were over-structured for me. The story itself was interesting. Think I would have enjoyed it more if the story had been told from the entity side and the people were less explained.
February 7, 2023
Over all I found the book incredibly slow and tedious. I didn’t mind the over explanation of the goings on around Dry Falls or the description of every last meal that Cora cooked, what I found absolutely unbearable about this book was Cora’s absolute arrogance in the face of something that was clearly supernatural. Her rigid skepticism in light of her witnessing phenomena right in front of her eyes and even being VICTIM to it at points was wholly unbelievable. It really sapped away from the action of the book and didn’t really drive the story forward. You know what would have? More spooky stuff besides the last bit in the second to last chapter. Don’t waste your time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 15, 2024
This is a book about devil spirits, NOT written a la Stephen King, which was fine, since it was the cover art that captured me. I had no real expectations about the book. I have to say I found the writing slyly funny in lots of ways. I loved the way she put certain things, such as "I was Christian by marriage" and her comparison of giving instructions during sex to moving a piano. I didn't think it was as dull and over descriptive. I think I found the end puzzling. I was falling asleep while reading it (naptime) and my thought was the book didn't so much end as just stop.
March 11, 2018
This book was so boring and just a meandering piece of material..Ugh, it picked up 3/4 of the way through it, but the end was really confusing and I was at a loss as to what did I just read here. I lacked the will and determination to read the ending over again. It's out of my library and been donated to the Salvation Army.
February 20, 2021
This book has a sort of slow burn to it. I actually forgot it was supposed to be a horror novel for a while, and let the eerieness sneak up on me. That probably worked to my benefit, since there really aren't any quick scares. I found I enjoyed the small-town-not-as-quiet-as-it-seems aspect as well.
February 19, 2020
Arensberg has a way with words that other authors should envy, however, her ending to this otherwise perfect book left something to be desired. I would rather the threat go as it had come, and to have been banished by the women and their earthy ways.
September 5, 2022
I thought this was kind of a porny Shirley Jackson until it devolves into ?????? Given the description, it was sadly boring throughout—I can’t count the number of times I dropped my kindle struggling to stay engaged. Okay..and Dry Falls? Really?
January 20, 2019
I started this on Halloween and couldn't finish it until after Christmas. It's a shame, there was some some very, very good writing in it. But the story just took forever to ultimately get nowhere.
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