The Attic

by Jack Scaparro

When "Aunt Clara," the strange old woman whom Beth's parents took in after finding her wandering around, helps Beth win a story contest at school, Beth soon realizes that the old woman is gradually taking over her body

Genres: Horror

350 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1991

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Zebra horror published a lot of dreck, they also put out some super pulp horror, and The Attic exemplifies this. Where to even start with this one? It reminded me a bit of Johnstone's batshit crazy novels, but with more focus. The Attic chronicles the move of a NYC family, the Boles, to a small town in Vermont, but more importantly, to an old farmhouse they restored. Charlie used to work for an ad agency in NYC but always had artist inclinations. One day when they were driving around Vermont looking at the foliage in the fall, they stumbled across an old abandoned house. Charlie took a bunch of pictures of it, which he later turned into paintings; these paintings catapulted him into some fame, which solo shows, and hence he quits his day job to paint. Further, he purchased the old farm house in Vermont (which has a rather sinister history) and restored it.

So, the novel begins in earnest with the family (Charlie's wife and young daughter Beth) moving to their newly renovated abode. Charlie has fixed up the basement as a studio and the old attic has been converted to a guest room. Shortly after their arrival, the family goes out for a drive on some back roads and almost hit an old lady in the road. Pretty spry for someone so old, but it seems she has lost her memory; she cannot even recall her name. Calling her Aunt Clara, the family (after a stint in the local hospital, where she is checked out), take her back to their house and install her in the guest room. Hopefully she will get her memory back soon and they figure she is better off with them rather than some state institution...

Enough on the plotting. The Attic starts off with a wicked prologue (of course), but this one is nastier than most. Right from the get go Scaparro builds a great creep factor and tosses in lots of strange and evil little twists along the way. We get to know some of the townies and Scaparro does not waste a lot of ink with endless descriptions, but still manages to construct an excellent supporting cast. Charlie is a great character for sure; aspiring artist and all that, but he has been having trouble with his muse since the move and his marriage, already pretty rocky, is further strained. Beth, their daughter, is also a good character.

The surprises and twists just keep coming as the novel progresses and the denouement, while not a complete surprise, was utterly fitting. If you like trashy horror pulp, this is pretty much a must 4.5 creepy stars!

[Richard K. Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this 90's vintage horror novel... I normally do not like horror stories about 'Witch like characters' but this I really liked, the Aunt Clara character really pulls through with the best and most disturbing scenes in the book. You might think that it kind of drags in the middle a bit, but believe me, dont give up with it, keep going. Totally satisfying in the end.....I thought. You might not.
Richard.
check out my horror reviews here on my YouTube channel;

I absolutely LOVED this book! I have been reading horror for over 48 years, and this was a good and gory, disturbing and great book for the time it was written.
Richard.

[Horror Guy · Rating 3 out of 5]

First 'paperback from hell' that I read.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Boles family move into an old farm house on the countryside. There happened multiple murder (farm animals, husband) many years ago. The woman responsible for it was hanged as a witch. When the family makes a trip into the surroundings of their house they find an old woman and nearly run her over. She can't remember her name and they name her "Aunt Clara". When Beth runs off into the woods and meets "The Leatherman" the horror begins... this definitely is one of the best haunted house/witches/resurrection and possessed stories I read for a very long time. The author refers to Pet Semetary, Stephen King is mentioned as a prize for the reading competition at school and at the end I had to think about The Shining... what a blast from the past. The cover is one of the best ever and the content fully comes up with the highest expectations (very seldom is actually). I really like the reference to the short stories Martha Ordway (the witch) wrote. Never heard of this author before but he did a full throttle job here from page 1 to the end. Scary masterpiece from hell. Highly recommended. Horror Highlight!

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come.

[Egghead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adopt old woman
Tween still into puppet shows
Dogs munch severed heads

[C Lr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insane book. It really is all over the place.

That is what you get from a Zebra book, and it's what makes them so much fun.

I bought a copy of this maybe ten or so years ago on Amazon for about $4--you know, when Zebra Horror was something few people really knew about and was fun to collect for until PAPERBACKs FROM HELL kind of fucked it for the collector market.

Now we got all kinds of idiots flipping the shit like nintendo games.

Try fetching a decent paperback copy of this for a decent price now.

Schmucks.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

No.

[Juniper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cheesy, easy read.