“Georgette Shapley died outside this house. Her ghost has spent the past century trying to get back inside so she can be reunited with her child.”
FROM THE AUTHOR OF ASYLUM, THE FARM & THE ASH HOUSE.
James Spence doesn't believe in ghosts, so he has no worries about going with his girlfriend Rachel to visit an old, abandoned country home.
Rachel, meanwhile, is convinced that a weekend at Shapley Hall will make James change his mind. After all, she knows from bitter experience that the the house is haunted by a woman who once died in the most horrific manner possible, and who now waits to be reunited with her long-lost child.
As the weekend continues, however, James starts to realize that maybe ghosts are the least of his problems. Rachel's behavior is becoming increasingly erratic, and it soon becomes clear that she'll stop at nothing to fulfill a promise she once made to a dead woman. Did Rachel imagine a terrifying experience during her childhood, or are the hallways of Shapley Hall really haunted by a terrifying, vengeful creature?
The Ghost of Shapley Hall is a horror novella about two people who venture into a dark, abandoned house, and about the echo of a terrible crime that still haunts the Shapley family to this day.
Amy Cross writes novels and short stories in a number of genres, mainly horror, paranormal and fantasy. Books include The Farm, Annie's Room, The Island, Eli's Town and Asylum.
Guy meets girl. Goes to girl's stately pile, and shit happens. This book does really remind of M R James.
However, I'm sorry but the typo about a living character who doesn't have children being caught up in the history of her descendents made me laugh so hard.
A very good idea destroyed under piss poor writing, lots of typos, boring under developed characters, and a confusing ending.
:( the idea was a solid one. This is just he sort of horror story I love. Spooky old house, skeptical characters, slowly learning to believe. A twist ending. :) & There were some genuinely creepy scenes, and with some more work, "the ghost of Shapley Hall" could have been made in to a wonderful novel.
In fact, it'd make a pretty decent horror film. most of the spooky bits would have worked far better on screen then in pages.
It moves along at a decent pace as well, getting pretty exciting during the ending.
But The characters are very weak And impossible to identify with. I know nothing about them except that James doesn't believe in ghosts and is poor. And the Rachel is rich and is crazy. There's nothing here to make me care about them or worry for them as they go on their ghostly adventures. No quirks or things to make them unique. Rachel does say "here's the thing" a lot, but it doesn't come across as real. It just sounds like bad writing.
& real. The writing is BAD! Its choppy and doesn't flow naturally & the dialogue tremendously awful. More typos than I could count. The main issue with the novel was lack of editing. I think a couple of rewrites and more careful editing could have definitely helped.
As it stands now, it reads more like a first draft then a finished novel.
It's an okish novel. Great idea, but poorly executed. It's a fast easy read though, so yay there. Maybe a good pick for horror fans, but don't go in expecting anything spectacular and maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised. Definitely a mindlessly easy read. I really liked the idea, so I will be checking out more of the authors work. Maybe they'll be better.
Five stars, hands down one of the best little stories I've read in a while. It's a pretty standard ghost story with a twist and I thought it was lovely. Well, maybe "lovely" isn't the best word to describe it, but it was really good. It's a super quick read, the writing is pretty good and the pace is just right, not a dull moment. Just an observation, though: Rachel is a major bitch. That's all. Great read!
This book was definitely a thrill ride from the very beginning. James and Rachel go visit her abandoned family home, Shapley Hall. While Rachel leads him there for a weekend away, he soon finds that the house and Rachel are not all they seem to be. As the tale unfolds he learns the truth and the truth is haunting.
This book was really really good. I have never red Amy Cross, but I am glad that I found her book. This book was a great ride. It was full of action, suspense, and yes....ghosts! This story unfolded and I found myself shocked many times. From Rachel's past to the ending with James, I was sucked in. Honestly, I was sucked in on page one, but the book kept getting better. I could not put it down and read it in one sitting. It definitely had that fear factor that you look for in a ghost story.
I am hooked on Amy Cross and I look forward to reading more from such an awesome author....Stormi
I love, love, LOVED this foray into the spooky and while it is essentially a ghost story, the psychological aspect is firmly ensconced within. The author has a talent for ratcheting up the tension ... before releasing it - only to send it sky high in the next moment. The scuttling, chattering beetles that infest the mansion gave me the major creepies - I can literally still feel them crawling over me! Without giving away any spoilers, the ending is amazing and does leave you wondering. This author is on my list of new ones to explore next year.
Another good tale from Amy Cross. An old fashioned ghost story with her trade mark twist at the end. I really had to finish this story and couldn't put it down until I reached the final page. Well recommended.
Okay, I liked the twist, but this book wasn't just that thrilling like the rest of Amy Cross's books (at least the ones I've read). The ending was disappointing. So, 3.0*
I don't often write reviews but this one I couldn't let slide.
My first complaint was there were so many errors. Not spelling errors but misused words. For example "Tricked to trick me" should have been "Tried to trick me" and so many others like that. I can forgive one maybe two but there was a lot that should have been caught by the first read through of an editor.
Then the characters. Those poor characters. We know almost NOTHING about them except that they are at this big house and looking for some papers, then it turns out they aren't looking for papers but a long dead baby. We find out why they are looking for a dead child but we still know nothing about them. We eventually learn more about Rachel at the end of the book because a villager that James runs into tells him things he didn't even know. I almost felt like these two poor characters were simply used as "tools" to tell a mildly good ghost story. The plot of the book was good, though the ending wasn't that fantastic. Ends up being a twist we don't see coming but feels very forced. James is in the house and confronted by Edward, next thing we know he's in a mental hospital. No explanation on how he got from the house to there. We finally learn that he was found (no idea by who or why) in the house unconscious but we have no idea how he ends up in the mental hospital, though it's clear why he's there. It just made the ending feel rushed and forced to leave out so much.
If there was more time and editing put into this book it would have been a great read. It left me disappointed all around. The only positive thing I can say about it is that the plot is a good one. It just needs editing and some pizzazz put into it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I don't like leaving negative reviews, but it's hard for me to bite my tongue on this one. In short, this was very poorly written and edited. After dabbling in the author's other work, I had hoped for a good story, competently told, but instead ran into a deluge of typos and really muddled prose. Don't misunderstand; I'm forgiving of a typo here or there. It happens. But there were just too many in this book for me to turn a blind eye.
The prose in this was grueling to read. I really didn't enjoy it, which is a surprise, since I found the prose style in "A House in London" to be pretty palatable. The writing was so repetitious that I wanted to quit the book by the time I was a quarter of the way through, but I kept on trucking. How many times do we have to discuss the sound of beetles crawling about behind the walls? Like, seriously.
The plot was serviceable, and I admit that the twist near the end was a satisfying one. There were things to like in here, it's just that I had to wade through a good deal of junk to get to 'em.
I'm sorry to be a downer, but if I were you, I'd avoid this one. The author is talented and is capable of far better than this, I think. If edited a bit better and written less clumsily, perhaps this would be a 3 or 3.5, but as things stand I can't recommend it.
It started out really slow & the "romance" stuff just felt really awkward and forced. I was glad when the author finally dropped it. It did get a little scary towards the end but I felt like the rest of the book just dragged on & on. It was pretty much nothing but "I don't believe in ghosts", "my girlfriend is going nuts", & James asking Rachel what's wrong & her starting to answer before tapering off & going off into her own little world & then saying "it's nothing" or "I'm fine". It was an okay read but the author could take a lesson or two from Stephen King. Also, she needs a proofreader. There were several typos & mixed sentences throughout the book.
OK, parts of it were good. The main character was not likeable and was impossible to identify with, I feel. He didn't react to situations in reasonable ways.
The big plot fail was - spoiler - when WBFE (Worst Boy Friend Ever) discovers a fresh grave and says, "My god, she's buried herself!" then digs up the body just in case she's still alive so he can do CPR or something. Buried herself. Dug a hole, climbed in, wrapped herself in a bag, then filled in the soil over herself to the top without even getting out of the bag. And without a shovel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Okay. This little book started off fine, but the repetitive actions, thoughts, and dialogue started to grate on my nerves pretty quickly.
The main protagonists are a couple who’ve been dating for only a couple of months, with the boyfriend readily admitting his girlfriend has mood swings going from hot to cold to bitchy to loopy, and I guess because of her high sex drive he’s okay with an erratic and unpredictable personality. Then she gets really weird, claiming the family home they’re visiting for the weekend is haunted, she sees ghosts, and is only there because she’s obsessed with following through on a promise she made as a child to a ghost, and to do this she’ll have to tear the house apart trying to find the bones of a baby murdered over a hundred years ago. She disappears randomly, leaving her boyfriend alone for hours at a time. Then when they’re together she’s downright weird and rude.
Why does he stay? Why does he put up with her behavior. RED FLAGS, DUDE!!!
The boyfriend makes horrible decisions that are unrealistic. For example, he feels compelled to search for his weirdo girlfriend rather than give all attention to save a dying girl. WTF???!!!
I didn’t care for the twist at the end and felt it was a cheap non-resolution to what could have been an interesting ghost story. And the rotten cherry on top is that his witch girlfriend abandons him at the lowest point after admitting she was only using him because she didn’t want to return to the haunted house alone. I’m surprised her parting words to the screaming distraught boyfriend weren’t, “Bye, Felicia!”
Two stars because there were genuine scary scenes when the boyfriend was wandering around the dark and creepy house alone at night (usually searching for the disappearing girlfriend). The ghostie parts were quite good, the premise of the story was promising, the characters and their dialogue was wretched.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Amy Cross, at 10,000 words a day, belongs to the category of very prolific writers. With more than a hundred titles to her name, it was difficult to make a choice. Still, it eventually fell on "The Ghost of Shapley Hall" and I loved it! To begin with, the author deserves a compliment for Shapley Hall's descriptions. These are properly decadent, and this decay enhances the atmosphere. For example:… I started spotting plenty of cracks in the brick work, and other tell tale signs of a building that had long been left untouched and unloved. One of the steps out front was broken, and knotted weeds had begun to gro through gasps in the stones " And the beetles motif is great! On the one hand, the bugs crawling through the house in great numbers enhance the uncomfortable feeling and refer to the presence of Edward Shapley. On the other hand, they represent transformation and change and that in turn refers to the main characters of the story. In my experience, "The Ghost of Shapley Hall" is about responsibility, especially towards a loved one. That subject plays a role in the lives of various characters. Rachel Shapley in particular takes this very seriously, creating fascinating passages of psychological horror. And there are interesting similarities between Rachel and Geogette. Finally, the twist in the end is very surprising and therefore not entirely credible. It's an original ending that comes totally unexpected. In my opinion it would have been better to introduce this twist better so that the reader is not left with a strange feeling. In short, "The Ghost of Shapley Hall" is a successful first introduction to Amy Cross's work! She writes at the pace I read and I want to get to know her work better! #theghostofshapleyhall #amycross
I could see it coming. Of course, someone who doesn't believe will believe...eventually. The rest of it, I didn't see coming. The ending surprised me. Not a big Aha kind of surprise but the kind of I didn't see that coming surprise. The book was worth the time spent to read it but it dragged in some places and the characters were a bit whiney at times. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. It's worth a little whiney to finally get to the twisted ending.
James doesn't believe in ghosts. When Rachel invites him to her ancestral estate, he is not sure what to expect. He certainly does not expect for his girlfriend to become obsessed with a story in her family's past. He tries to get her to leave: he's worried about her health and sanity, but Rachel insists that there is something she must do.
The story's smart: James tries many times to get himself and Rachel away from the house that unveils nothing except beetles and bad news. Before whatever is out to harm them gets at them. But it's not a ghost. Ghosts don't exist, right?
Amy Cross does it again with this hauntingly wicked tale. It’s a story about Racheal and her boyfriend who go to a family estate. Racheal is looking for documents for the estate, at least that is what she is telling James. When strange things start happening and James finds out the real reason Racheal is there, will anyone make it out unscathed? Amy Cross delivers another out right scary story that is shrouded in mystery. The ending? Oh boy it’s an ending only Amy Cross can pull off! This book was fabulous!
First thing, I couldn’t stand Rachel. There were so many times I wanted to stop reading this book because of her alone. James was a pushover with absolutely no backbone till the last chapter or two and it was a pathetic backbone at that. I always look forward to Amy’s current timeline and past timeline and we did not get that here, so I felt no genuine need to know what happened to Georgette or Edward or any of them.
I really really love Amy Cross. This book was a real let down for me. Amy usually writes a slam bang horror story.The twist and the end sucked. Come on Amy. I have read about 6 of your books now and loved them. Everyone has a clunk of a book. This one was yours. I still love your books and will continue to read them. I just want people to know this story is not her best.
wish I could unread this book. I haven't read a book this bad in a long time. Rachel is so obsessed with finding a babys skeleton for a ghost who she met at like 11 and 12 yrs later she's obsessed and keeps spacing out and James isnt the greatest at saying no, standing his ground. and that ending? ya hard pass for me this read.
Any Cross can tell a good ghost story. Rachel and her boyfriend go to her family's ancestral home so she can finish something she started as a child. I don't want to give away the plot so let's just say if you like a good creepy story read this
Like all Amy Cross books that are things you expect and can predict. This shorter book changed what is usual to wha TV I’d unexpected. Great book, again Amy does not disappoint.
Well that was an interesting read. Not sure if I believe in ghosts or not. Many people believe that they exist but who am I to say they don't. Fast easy read.