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The Locktender's House
Come to the body.
Janice Witherspoon’s stagnant life is abruptly upended by the senseless death of her boyfriend thousands of miles away. Fueled by shock, steered by fate, uncertainty, and fear, she gathers her belongings from the North Carolina apartment they shared and takes to the road, intending to meet the soldier’s body on its journey back from the Iraqi desert. But something–an inner voice, or the beguiling utterances of an older, darker soul?–drives Janice farther and farther off course. When after a mechanical and emotional breakdown she finally comes to a stop, Janice finds herself deep in rural Pennsylvania, on the grounds of an abandoned lockhouse.
Despite the building’s ramshackle quality and its lack of electricity, plumbing, or any apparent links to the outside world, Janice is seduced by the calm of the old house, the canal, now dry, it once governed, and the mountains rising up all around. Days turn to weeks, weeks turn to months, and then she finally lets down her guard, opening her doors to the inhabitants of her new province: Stephen Gainy, a reclusive art teacher and stone carver, and a spectral, alluring woman with a beautiful voice. But as Janice grows closer to both Stephen and the elusive minstrel, her calm gives way to a flood of terrifying blackouts, inexplicable accidents, and nightmares.
As the indefensible edges between the real and the unreal blur and break down, Janice is pulled into the tattered web of her own incriminating genealogy, and finds herself roped by blood to a series of unspeakable tragedies that occurred generations ago, when the canals were full and thriving.
Whether or not the truths Janice discovers will drown or resuscitate her depends on the choices she makes.
Steven Sherrill follows up his acclaimed novels The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break and Visits from the Drowned Girl with an evocative, mesmerizing tale that delicately navigates the line between suspense and horror. Based loosely on actual events that took place along the canal systems of the Northeast around the turn of the twentieth century, The Locktender’s House is an eerie, gripping narrative that reveals how the dark sins of the past are often inescapable.
From the Hardcover edition.
Janice Witherspoon’s stagnant life is abruptly upended by the senseless death of her boyfriend thousands of miles away. Fueled by shock, steered by fate, uncertainty, and fear, she gathers her belongings from the North Carolina apartment they shared and takes to the road, intending to meet the soldier’s body on its journey back from the Iraqi desert. But something–an inner voice, or the beguiling utterances of an older, darker soul?–drives Janice farther and farther off course. When after a mechanical and emotional breakdown she finally comes to a stop, Janice finds herself deep in rural Pennsylvania, on the grounds of an abandoned lockhouse.
Despite the building’s ramshackle quality and its lack of electricity, plumbing, or any apparent links to the outside world, Janice is seduced by the calm of the old house, the canal, now dry, it once governed, and the mountains rising up all around. Days turn to weeks, weeks turn to months, and then she finally lets down her guard, opening her doors to the inhabitants of her new province: Stephen Gainy, a reclusive art teacher and stone carver, and a spectral, alluring woman with a beautiful voice. But as Janice grows closer to both Stephen and the elusive minstrel, her calm gives way to a flood of terrifying blackouts, inexplicable accidents, and nightmares.
As the indefensible edges between the real and the unreal blur and break down, Janice is pulled into the tattered web of her own incriminating genealogy, and finds herself roped by blood to a series of unspeakable tragedies that occurred generations ago, when the canals were full and thriving.
Whether or not the truths Janice discovers will drown or resuscitate her depends on the choices she makes.
Steven Sherrill follows up his acclaimed novels The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break and Visits from the Drowned Girl with an evocative, mesmerizing tale that delicately navigates the line between suspense and horror. Based loosely on actual events that took place along the canal systems of the Northeast around the turn of the twentieth century, The Locktender’s House is an eerie, gripping narrative that reveals how the dark sins of the past are often inescapable.
From the Hardcover edition.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2008
59 people want to read
About the author
Steven Sherrill
12 books122 followersSteven Sherrill has been making trouble with words since 8th grade, when he was suspended from school for two weeks for a story he wrote. He dropped out of school in the 10th grade, ricocheted around for years, eventually earning a Welding Diploma from Mitchell Community College, which circuitously to an MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Now, Steven is an Associate Professor of English and Integrative Arts at Penn State University, Altoona, where he teaches, paints, and captains the Allegheny Bilge Rats Shanty Choir. He has three novels and a book of poems in the world. He has written several articles on contemporary artists for Modern Painters and for TATE Magazine. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Fiction in 2002. His first novel, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break, is translated into 8 languages and was recently released as an audio book by Neil Gaiman Productions. His second novel, Visits From the Drowned Girl, published by Random House (and nominated by them for the Pulitzer Prize), US and Canongate, UK was released in June of 2004. The Locktender's House, novel #3, was released by Random House in Spring 2008. And in November 2010, CW Books released the poetry collection, Ersatz Anatomy. Most recently, Louisiana State University Press: Yellow Shoe Fiction Series has accepted the novel JOY, PA for publication in the spring of 2015.
There are other books in the works, paintings always underway, much musical silliness underway, and seventeen ukuleles in the house, and 750 vintage wooden crutches in his basement.
Now, Steven is an Associate Professor of English and Integrative Arts at Penn State University, Altoona, where he teaches, paints, and captains the Allegheny Bilge Rats Shanty Choir. He has three novels and a book of poems in the world. He has written several articles on contemporary artists for Modern Painters and for TATE Magazine. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Fiction in 2002. His first novel, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break, is translated into 8 languages and was recently released as an audio book by Neil Gaiman Productions. His second novel, Visits From the Drowned Girl, published by Random House (and nominated by them for the Pulitzer Prize), US and Canongate, UK was released in June of 2004. The Locktender's House, novel #3, was released by Random House in Spring 2008. And in November 2010, CW Books released the poetry collection, Ersatz Anatomy. Most recently, Louisiana State University Press: Yellow Shoe Fiction Series has accepted the novel JOY, PA for publication in the spring of 2015.
There are other books in the works, paintings always underway, much musical silliness underway, and seventeen ukuleles in the house, and 750 vintage wooden crutches in his basement.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 12, 2017
This was a weird ride for me. I love Steven Sherrill generally. This book is a kind of horror novel, but it's also something subtler than the usual fare of that kind, and it is certainly literary rather than commercial fiction. But it is unrelentingly bleak. Overview: It starts grim, then gets really very grim, and ends up . . . yeah, well . . . GRIM. The narrative arc runs the gamut from horrible to horrible with nary a hope in sight. (If You See Hope, Tell It I'm Coming For It would be a reasonable alternate title.) Also, it's just a mess, really. I hate to say that. I feel disloyal. But it doesn't work, as a whole.
I felt some sense of satisfaction at having even been able to follow it, really. And I did work out the mysteries, or, I believe that I did. But I won't discuss that here because it would spoil it for others who wish to read it. Though, I can't recommend anyone read this. Firstly, it's a serious downer. Sherrill is too good a writer not to leave any impression and, in the case of this book, it's a torturous one. I cannot (my loyal fingers will not let me) rate him lower than two stars, despite the messiness of this book, simply because he is so beautiful with words, and through those words, he masterfully evokes a compelling and lingering sense of time and place and mood. I love him for his artistry and aesthetic sensibilities as a poet. In fact, I would say his prose is as poetic as his poems. This book, though. It doesn't hold together. It lacks integrity. I wondered more than once if Sherrill wrote it while whiskey-drunk. Perhaps if I'd read it in that state, it would have come together for me in the end.
But I cannot say I love or even like this book the way I love The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break. M the Minotaur is a gorgeous big lug of a protagonist. Janice, on the other hand, is a profoundly traumatised yet strangely unsympathetic character. I was not much on her side, in the end.
I felt some sense of satisfaction at having even been able to follow it, really. And I did work out the mysteries, or, I believe that I did. But I won't discuss that here because it would spoil it for others who wish to read it. Though, I can't recommend anyone read this. Firstly, it's a serious downer. Sherrill is too good a writer not to leave any impression and, in the case of this book, it's a torturous one. I cannot (my loyal fingers will not let me) rate him lower than two stars, despite the messiness of this book, simply because he is so beautiful with words, and through those words, he masterfully evokes a compelling and lingering sense of time and place and mood. I love him for his artistry and aesthetic sensibilities as a poet. In fact, I would say his prose is as poetic as his poems. This book, though. It doesn't hold together. It lacks integrity. I wondered more than once if Sherrill wrote it while whiskey-drunk. Perhaps if I'd read it in that state, it would have come together for me in the end.
But I cannot say I love or even like this book the way I love The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break. M the Minotaur is a gorgeous big lug of a protagonist. Janice, on the other hand, is a profoundly traumatised yet strangely unsympathetic character. I was not much on her side, in the end.
May 2, 2008
Sigh...sheer frustration and disappointment.
I quite literally about stumbled upon his debut novel in a London book shop back in 2003 and some how could not resist bringing back state-side with me, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break. It would trun out to be one of my favorite all time re-reads (and most certainly look forward to reading once again.) So endearing and fantastical, yet so rooted in human empathy. An easy narrative that can't help but enmesh you in to M's lumbering world as he tries to make do with the monotony of existence.
Sherrill's latest offering is so far off the mark, I can't quite believe he penned the aforementioned book. There are moments in Locktender's where I literally cringe at how trite and bad the narrative is; shocking that writing of this caliber is being published by an industry that labors to keep afloat. And I thought I was disappointed with his second novel, Visits From the Drowned Girl...good to know that he is capable of far worse. Be it right or wrong or slightly over-exaggerated, I personally feel slighted by an author who I at one time found so much promise in. Someone who I looked forward to anticipating a life long out put of...urm, good reads.
I quite literally about stumbled upon his debut novel in a London book shop back in 2003 and some how could not resist bringing back state-side with me, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break. It would trun out to be one of my favorite all time re-reads (and most certainly look forward to reading once again.) So endearing and fantastical, yet so rooted in human empathy. An easy narrative that can't help but enmesh you in to M's lumbering world as he tries to make do with the monotony of existence.
Sherrill's latest offering is so far off the mark, I can't quite believe he penned the aforementioned book. There are moments in Locktender's where I literally cringe at how trite and bad the narrative is; shocking that writing of this caliber is being published by an industry that labors to keep afloat. And I thought I was disappointed with his second novel, Visits From the Drowned Girl...good to know that he is capable of far worse. Be it right or wrong or slightly over-exaggerated, I personally feel slighted by an author who I at one time found so much promise in. Someone who I looked forward to anticipating a life long out put of...urm, good reads.
July 5, 2012
A horror/ghost story about the breakdown and isolation of a woman, haunted by her own fears, the events of her childhood and a tortured spirit from her family's past.
I find stories such as this, of horrors visited upon women by evil men, rather difficult and disturbing to read. I want to believe that the stark division between the evil of men and the suffering of women, can't be true and surely someone would have done something to help. But even the few "good guys" in this tale, turn their faces away when push comes to shove.
Nevertheless, the suspense of the story and the quality of the writing kept me going to the "bitter" end.
I find stories such as this, of horrors visited upon women by evil men, rather difficult and disturbing to read. I want to believe that the stark division between the evil of men and the suffering of women, can't be true and surely someone would have done something to help. But even the few "good guys" in this tale, turn their faces away when push comes to shove.
Nevertheless, the suspense of the story and the quality of the writing kept me going to the "bitter" end.
March 10, 2021
Terrible. I have a hard time giving up once I start a book so I literally pushed myself to finish. Didn’t like the beginning, the middle or the end. Dark. Dismal. Can’t even say I felt sorry for her because of emotional issues but frankly I just finished it and still don’t have a clue what the heck I just read. Just sitting here shaking my head. Confused on who was a ghost and who wasn’t. And when she pushed the little dog out of the car I totally despised her. More than bizarre. Would not recommend to anyone.
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June 12, 2019DNF
I could not stand the writing style one bit. I made it 3 pages before it just drove me crazy and I had to put it down. The first paragraph is just one massive run on sentence. No thanks.
I could not stand the writing style one bit. I made it 3 pages before it just drove me crazy and I had to put it down. The first paragraph is just one massive run on sentence. No thanks.
July 27, 2019
Intriguing and weird. Unsettling at the end.
August 9, 2009
I can't say whether I liked this book or not.... It was a disconcerting but captivating story of a woman with a lot of emotional issues confronting even more issues entwining her with the history of a house she inhabits. The history is sad and very ugly and agonizing but it is never divulged what is the true history and what is Janice's utterly unstable mind. As a result I think the author, Steven Sherrill, has done a damn good job crafting this eerie and beguiling tale. It feels unsettling enough that I'm not certain I'll pick up another of his books. But I am sure he is very good at what he does.
December 19, 2013
One of Janice’s local odd characters was a ghost trying possess her. This element gave Locktender potential for some really good chills, but Sherill couldn’t decide if the main conflict should be Janice losing her soul or finding a new boyfriend. Both conflicts thus became watered down. I couldn’t figure out what was driving Janice, so I had a hard time feeling for the character or understanding why the guy or the ghost wanted anything to do with her.
December 17, 2011
The main character is a nutcase. There aren't many other characters and the book is just weird. The author is also a poet and his writing style is kind of intriguing but I just can't decide if I liked this book or hated it.
July 18, 2008
Actually, this is 3.5...there were some wonderful moments but the characters and plot devolved into something less than what the beginning promised.
September 15, 2009
couldn't finish
July 28, 2010
A weird story for sure. I far cry from the minotaur
May 15, 2013
I have mixed emotions about this book. Although I loved the basic underlying story, I, like the main character, had difficulty sorting reality and dream. I am still a little confused.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews