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Ghost Mansion
THE HOUSE WITH NOBODY IN IT...
It was a big, old, abandoned place--rundown, neglected and empty. Or was it? Houses are inanimate objects. They have no heart, no pulse, no life or breath of their own... They cannot hurt or harm, terrorize or kill--especially if they're empty--except if they're the GHOST MANSION.
It was a big, old, abandoned place--rundown, neglected and empty. Or was it? Houses are inanimate objects. They have no heart, no pulse, no life or breath of their own... They cannot hurt or harm, terrorize or kill--especially if they're empty--except if they're the GHOST MANSION.
350 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1981
1 person is currently reading
135 people want to read
About the author
J.N. Williamson
99 books55 followersGerald Neal Williamson (April 17, 1932 - December 8, 2005) wrote and edited horror stories under the name J. N. Williamson. He also wrote under the name Julian Shock.
Born in Indianapolis, IN he graduated from Shortridge High School. He studied journalism at Butler University. He published his first novel in 1979 and went on to publish more than 40 novels and 150 short stories. In 2003 he received a lifetime achievement award from the Horror Writers of America. He edited the critically acclaimed How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction (1987) which covered the themes of such writing and cited the writings of such writers as Robert Bloch, Lee Prosser, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, William F. Nolan, and Stephen King. Many important writers in the genre contributed to the book. Williamson edited the popular anthology series, Masques. Some of his novels include The Ritual (1979), Playmates (1982), Noonspell (1991), The Haunt (1999), among others.
He was also a well known Sherlockian and received his investiture (The Illustrious Client) in the Baker Street Irregulars in 1950.
Source: Wikipedia
Born in Indianapolis, IN he graduated from Shortridge High School. He studied journalism at Butler University. He published his first novel in 1979 and went on to publish more than 40 novels and 150 short stories. In 2003 he received a lifetime achievement award from the Horror Writers of America. He edited the critically acclaimed How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction (1987) which covered the themes of such writing and cited the writings of such writers as Robert Bloch, Lee Prosser, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, William F. Nolan, and Stephen King. Many important writers in the genre contributed to the book. Williamson edited the popular anthology series, Masques. Some of his novels include The Ritual (1979), Playmates (1982), Noonspell (1991), The Haunt (1999), among others.
He was also a well known Sherlockian and received his investiture (The Illustrious Client) in the Baker Street Irregulars in 1950.
Source: Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 5, 2018
Haunted house horror story with the ghosts of the previous owners haunting the unsuspecting new family that moves in. Good enough story that kept me interested, but then the story just seemed to peter out at the end leaving it all a bit anticlimactic.
October 19, 2020
As a transplant Hoosier since 2013, I felt it my duty to sample some of Indianapolis legend J. N. Williamson's works during my tour of haunted houses through stories and novels, so what better place to start than this 1981 Zebra classic of supernatural mayhem? Now, I had been hesitant for a while to read this author, because there seems to be an even split in the horror community between those who enjoy his writing and those who despise him. But I eventually decided to test my curiosity and see what this controversy is all about.
I immediately was hooked by the set-up for the novel, as I could identify with the family of characters that serve as the main protagonists. I and many Americans grew up with the notion that owning your own home, not "sharing it with the mortgage company," was the ultimate step in being an adult, signifying that you have arrived, that you have secured the greatest and wisest investment of your life which will set you for retirement or allow you and your kindred a stable place to live out the days for generations if necessary. But we homeowners have become disillusioned with this part of the American dream. The cost of housing is perposterous in many places in the country. I've moved five times and each time I have gone house-hunting, I am amazed that in even in small towns hours away from the nearest gentrified metropolis, where the main industries that keeps the town alive are methadone clinics and pill-mills run by giant medical Entities, that people put price tags on real estate as though they really don't want to give up the family plantation. Then there are the McNeighborhoods popping up in what once was corn fields or untouched countryside, becoming nightmarish grids of earthtone boxes where you can't distinguish your house from your neighbor's, filled with shoddy construction and design flaws like gutter-spouts dripping right onto the front door stoop, onto visitors waiting for you to answer the doorbell, or onto your Amazon packages. So people scheme to buy older "fixer-uppers" to get a decent bargain, hoping that a little initial hardship and investment will earn them their dream house someday.
Such is the position we find our protagonist, Rich McRoberts, and his wife Shannon, who do not have the money to finance a new home. So they decide to go through an HUD-sponsored program which offers for a nominal fee the purchase of neglected historic homes for restoration up to city codes within three years in an effort to save blighted communities. The investment is risky as with any of these money pits--a crime-ridden neighborhood streaked with major thoroughfares and the I-70 corridor, a questionable public school district, deep structural issues beyond the general aesthetic improvements needed, the possibilities of unhealthy mold growth sporing from a cavernous root cellar. Little did they know that these challenges are just the tip of the iceberg, as the former owners still think they run the place, and they have grown quite selective of their guests.
If you are looking for a modern but traditional example of a haunted house story, you've come to the right place. There are some genuinely effective, though often cliched, scares to be found throughout. However, sometimes the book shocks you with the dark and absurd places that it goes.
I appreciate Williamson's writing-style--it blends the classical lyricism still found in early 20th century prose with modern American idioms and sensibilities. I've heard this novel criticized for being too "wordy." I did not really feel this was the case here. The book flowed very well exactly as it was, with just enough description to make the story come alive, just enough character-building for you to invest in what was happening, and just enough narrative action. Perhaps some readers were turned off by sentences such as this:
"Nightmares of the familiar city itself after the last bomb's fallen and huddled, grotesquely lumpish forms mutter sharply sensed vile remarks in their tatterdemalion oblivion." I don't really know what the hell all that means, but it sure sounds lovely to me, and "tatterdemalion" is your fifty-cent word of the day which means ragged or dilapidated. Don't say you never learn anything from reading my reviews!
So I do understand some issues that readers have with Williamson's work. And though I know very little of the writer as a person, it has been circulated that he was quite full of himself. There may be some elements of this personality, if true, that comes across on the page, though I suspect if I had not heard this ahead of time, I would not have noticed too much.
One of the plot points that fails "Ghost Mansion" is what plagues many haunted house narratives--the fact that the action is in a sense limited to the confines of a location, namely, the haunted house itself. Once things really start getting scary enough to keep the reader hooked for the duration of a full novel, that is when reasonable characters would be leaving the location of their woes and troubles. Then there would, in effect, be no further story. "Ghost Mansion" is particularly flawed in this respect, because Williamson built in an easy "out" for the characters. The McRoberts family had just purchased the mansion for just over a C-note, which is a darn good deal even for 1980s standards. They hadn't yet invested much further in the house as far as moving in, buying furniture, or making renovations before things started getting obviously dangerous. Therefore, they weren't really financially or emotionally tied or trapped by the house. So when it becomes obvious by the beginning of the second act that the place isn't safe, the reader has to ignore the obvious contrivances to keep the action going.
However, the book does attempt to rectify this plot trap better than others of its ilk. By Part 2, Rich himself becomes a haunted man, seeming to still bring misfortune onto others in the apparent safety of their own homes. Also, one of the major themes of the book is the powerful nature of status in American culture, so that even if the McRoberts family can physically and financially leave the cursed home behind, there is a spell of pride that still has hold over them, keeping them stuck in ambivalence and from taking decisive action. That spell rises from "...the nature of economics in America. The nature, as well, of the American spirit, which genuinely held that it was worth risking your life and soul to hold on to the smallest upward step in the ladder--even if all that you clung to in your arms was a tattered [wait, doesn't he mean tatterdemalion?] strand of rope or a slab of wood with porcupine splinters."
I must say that my first forray into the horror of Mr. J. N. Williamson was quite enjoyable. This was not high literature, but was a perfectly entertaining piece of suspense and spooky chills, with some very realistic and likeable characters.
"But Warren, you brave and noble spelunker of demonic domiciles where all things go bump in the night," I hear you ask, "How does it stack up to other haunted house stories?" Well, if were to compare it to one of the Gold Standards like "Hill House," I would say the latter is a superior work of art, but I enjoyed "Ghost Mansion" more. Compared to another one of the greats, "Hell House," I say that the two are very similar in a lot of ways. "Ghost Mansion" unfortunately does not rise to the more inspired modern classics like "House of Leaves" and "The Shining." Of course, this is all purely subjective, but I can say with conviction that if you are a horror fan and enjoy ghost stories, you should seek out this book. Unfortunately, as of the last update of this review, "Ghost Mansion" is still only available as a second-hand Zebra paperback, though the cost of getting one has remained reasonable and it is one of the least obscure "out-of-print" titles, so I encourage you to do some happy hunting if you are interested.
I immediately was hooked by the set-up for the novel, as I could identify with the family of characters that serve as the main protagonists. I and many Americans grew up with the notion that owning your own home, not "sharing it with the mortgage company," was the ultimate step in being an adult, signifying that you have arrived, that you have secured the greatest and wisest investment of your life which will set you for retirement or allow you and your kindred a stable place to live out the days for generations if necessary. But we homeowners have become disillusioned with this part of the American dream. The cost of housing is perposterous in many places in the country. I've moved five times and each time I have gone house-hunting, I am amazed that in even in small towns hours away from the nearest gentrified metropolis, where the main industries that keeps the town alive are methadone clinics and pill-mills run by giant medical Entities, that people put price tags on real estate as though they really don't want to give up the family plantation. Then there are the McNeighborhoods popping up in what once was corn fields or untouched countryside, becoming nightmarish grids of earthtone boxes where you can't distinguish your house from your neighbor's, filled with shoddy construction and design flaws like gutter-spouts dripping right onto the front door stoop, onto visitors waiting for you to answer the doorbell, or onto your Amazon packages. So people scheme to buy older "fixer-uppers" to get a decent bargain, hoping that a little initial hardship and investment will earn them their dream house someday.
Such is the position we find our protagonist, Rich McRoberts, and his wife Shannon, who do not have the money to finance a new home. So they decide to go through an HUD-sponsored program which offers for a nominal fee the purchase of neglected historic homes for restoration up to city codes within three years in an effort to save blighted communities. The investment is risky as with any of these money pits--a crime-ridden neighborhood streaked with major thoroughfares and the I-70 corridor, a questionable public school district, deep structural issues beyond the general aesthetic improvements needed, the possibilities of unhealthy mold growth sporing from a cavernous root cellar. Little did they know that these challenges are just the tip of the iceberg, as the former owners still think they run the place, and they have grown quite selective of their guests.
If you are looking for a modern but traditional example of a haunted house story, you've come to the right place. There are some genuinely effective, though often cliched, scares to be found throughout. However, sometimes the book shocks you with the dark and absurd places that it goes.
I appreciate Williamson's writing-style--it blends the classical lyricism still found in early 20th century prose with modern American idioms and sensibilities. I've heard this novel criticized for being too "wordy." I did not really feel this was the case here. The book flowed very well exactly as it was, with just enough description to make the story come alive, just enough character-building for you to invest in what was happening, and just enough narrative action. Perhaps some readers were turned off by sentences such as this:
"Nightmares of the familiar city itself after the last bomb's fallen and huddled, grotesquely lumpish forms mutter sharply sensed vile remarks in their tatterdemalion oblivion." I don't really know what the hell all that means, but it sure sounds lovely to me, and "tatterdemalion" is your fifty-cent word of the day which means ragged or dilapidated. Don't say you never learn anything from reading my reviews!
So I do understand some issues that readers have with Williamson's work. And though I know very little of the writer as a person, it has been circulated that he was quite full of himself. There may be some elements of this personality, if true, that comes across on the page, though I suspect if I had not heard this ahead of time, I would not have noticed too much.
One of the plot points that fails "Ghost Mansion" is what plagues many haunted house narratives--the fact that the action is in a sense limited to the confines of a location, namely, the haunted house itself. Once things really start getting scary enough to keep the reader hooked for the duration of a full novel, that is when reasonable characters would be leaving the location of their woes and troubles. Then there would, in effect, be no further story. "Ghost Mansion" is particularly flawed in this respect, because Williamson built in an easy "out" for the characters. The McRoberts family had just purchased the mansion for just over a C-note, which is a darn good deal even for 1980s standards. They hadn't yet invested much further in the house as far as moving in, buying furniture, or making renovations before things started getting obviously dangerous. Therefore, they weren't really financially or emotionally tied or trapped by the house. So when it becomes obvious by the beginning of the second act that the place isn't safe, the reader has to ignore the obvious contrivances to keep the action going.
However, the book does attempt to rectify this plot trap better than others of its ilk. By Part 2, Rich himself becomes a haunted man, seeming to still bring misfortune onto others in the apparent safety of their own homes. Also, one of the major themes of the book is the powerful nature of status in American culture, so that even if the McRoberts family can physically and financially leave the cursed home behind, there is a spell of pride that still has hold over them, keeping them stuck in ambivalence and from taking decisive action. That spell rises from "...the nature of economics in America. The nature, as well, of the American spirit, which genuinely held that it was worth risking your life and soul to hold on to the smallest upward step in the ladder--even if all that you clung to in your arms was a tattered [wait, doesn't he mean tatterdemalion?] strand of rope or a slab of wood with porcupine splinters."
I must say that my first forray into the horror of Mr. J. N. Williamson was quite enjoyable. This was not high literature, but was a perfectly entertaining piece of suspense and spooky chills, with some very realistic and likeable characters.
"But Warren, you brave and noble spelunker of demonic domiciles where all things go bump in the night," I hear you ask, "How does it stack up to other haunted house stories?" Well, if were to compare it to one of the Gold Standards like "Hill House," I would say the latter is a superior work of art, but I enjoyed "Ghost Mansion" more. Compared to another one of the greats, "Hell House," I say that the two are very similar in a lot of ways. "Ghost Mansion" unfortunately does not rise to the more inspired modern classics like "House of Leaves" and "The Shining." Of course, this is all purely subjective, but I can say with conviction that if you are a horror fan and enjoy ghost stories, you should seek out this book. Unfortunately, as of the last update of this review, "Ghost Mansion" is still only available as a second-hand Zebra paperback, though the cost of getting one has remained reasonable and it is one of the least obscure "out-of-print" titles, so I encourage you to do some happy hunting if you are interested.
February 12, 2021
The prose was really florid but I kind of dug it. The concept was kind of off for me.
December 30, 2009
Yup. I'm one of the few and the not-so-proud.
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December 20, 2021
Pretty typical Williamson novel, not quite as ridiculous as Premonition but more entertaining than The Evil One. This one is your standard post-Amityville haunted house book (family buys old house for unusually low price, random supernatural manifestations occur), although the supernatural events tend towards the unintentionally absurd, such as a ghost shitting on the protagonist's bed or a seance that ends with a character being hurled through the air in a sequence that verges on unintentional comedy. All of the characters seem to be unusually well read in the field of paranormal literature (this seems to be a common thread in the author's books; it made sense in Premonition, where most of the characters were paranormal researchers of one sort or another, but the idea that a random Indianapolis suburbanite's first reaction to hearing about a strange telephone call that another character received would be to summarize the key points of the book Phone Calls From The Dead strikes me as being faintly absurd). The author includes a large number of quotes, mainly from other horror novels, with one at the beginning of each chapter, several at each break between parts of the book, and a couple more at the end of the book as well; for the most part, these just remind the reader of better books they could read instead (several of the quotes are from relatively obscure sources; it amused me to see quotes from such books as The Unborn, The Legacy, and The Mountain King, which likely weren't especially well-known at the time and are even more obscure now). I'm not going to go into detail about it, as I don't want to give too much away, but the ending of the book is abrupt and genuinely baffling. Probably only of interest to other 80s horror completionists.
September 17, 2022
Surprisingly, Ghost Mansion wasn’t as terrible as I had originally thought it would be, especially considering it’s a Williamson Zebra, 2 factors that usually don’t mix well.
Overall, this one had the requisite number of ghosts and ghouls, and, though ridiculously cliched and unoriginal, Williamson did manage to make some moments seem creepy enough to warrant this being a “horror” novel, as well as one of the bleakest and most satisfactorily depressing endings I’ve read in a very long time. I’ll even give him credit for continuously ramping up the tension until the eventual climax…though it took nearly 320 pages to get there.
And I think that’s my major gripe with Ghost Mansion: it’s just way too wordy and overwritten. Williamson seems to go to great lengths to overdescribe nearly everything. Conversations never end and the build up to spooky moments feels like a lot of pointless backstory to tread through. At 350 pages, this book isn’t long by any means, but I can imagine just how much more fun and fast paced it could have been with about 25-30 less pages of inane expositon.
Overall, this one had the requisite number of ghosts and ghouls, and, though ridiculously cliched and unoriginal, Williamson did manage to make some moments seem creepy enough to warrant this being a “horror” novel, as well as one of the bleakest and most satisfactorily depressing endings I’ve read in a very long time. I’ll even give him credit for continuously ramping up the tension until the eventual climax…though it took nearly 320 pages to get there.
And I think that’s my major gripe with Ghost Mansion: it’s just way too wordy and overwritten. Williamson seems to go to great lengths to overdescribe nearly everything. Conversations never end and the build up to spooky moments feels like a lot of pointless backstory to tread through. At 350 pages, this book isn’t long by any means, but I can imagine just how much more fun and fast paced it could have been with about 25-30 less pages of inane expositon.
July 21, 2024
Now having read this book (after unknowingly reading the sequel Horror Mansion first), I think that this was the better of the two.
Much less metaphysical ideas and more of your regular creepy ghost story
Much less metaphysical ideas and more of your regular creepy ghost story
March 26, 2019
I found myself skipping pages due to wordiness but then having to read a paragraph twice because it was all over the place. It was an okay story concept.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews