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The Night Visitors
Shortlisted for The Saboteur Awards 2017 Best Novella.
Orla Nelson used to be a famous writer and now she’s seeking a comeback. Alice Wells wants to make something of herself before it’s too late. In The Night Visitors these two women, connected by blood and ambition, investigate their ancestor Hattie Soak, a silent film star who fled the scene of a gruesome unsolved crime. Told entirely via an exchange of emails, The Night Visitors is a story of ghosts, obsession and inherited evil.
This novella traces the ways in which technology can hold and transmit our worst secrets and unspoken fears, and what happens when uneasy collaborations start to unravel.
Orla Nelson used to be a famous writer and now she’s seeking a comeback. Alice Wells wants to make something of herself before it’s too late. In The Night Visitors these two women, connected by blood and ambition, investigate their ancestor Hattie Soak, a silent film star who fled the scene of a gruesome unsolved crime. Told entirely via an exchange of emails, The Night Visitors is a story of ghosts, obsession and inherited evil.
This novella traces the ways in which technology can hold and transmit our worst secrets and unspoken fears, and what happens when uneasy collaborations start to unravel.
101 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 27, 2017
3 people are currently reading
547 people want to read
About the author
Jenn Ashworth
37 books172 followersJenn Ashworth is an English writer. She was born in 1982 in Preston, Lancashire. She has graduated from Cambridge University and the Manchester Centre for New Writing. In March 2011 she was featured as one of the BBC Culture Show's Best 12 New Novelists. She previously worked as a librarian in a men's prison.
She founded the Preston Writers Network, later renamed as the Central Lancs Writing Hub, and worked as its coordinator until it closed in January 2010. She has also taught creative writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Lancaster.
Her first novel, A Kind of Intimacy, won a Betty Trask Award in 2010. An extract from an earlier novel, lost as a result of a computer theft in 2004, was the winner of the 2003 Quiller-Couch Prize for Creative Writing at Cambridge University.
She founded the Preston Writers Network, later renamed as the Central Lancs Writing Hub, and worked as its coordinator until it closed in January 2010. She has also taught creative writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Lancaster.
Her first novel, A Kind of Intimacy, won a Betty Trask Award in 2010. An extract from an earlier novel, lost as a result of a computer theft in 2004, was the winner of the 2003 Quiller-Couch Prize for Creative Writing at Cambridge University.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
July 7, 2017
Alice Wells, a middle-aged ex-librarian, is at something of a crossroads. She's recently been made redundant, has split from her husband, and her teenage son is growing up fast. Having always nursed ambitions of becoming a writer, she tracks down a distant, and now elderly, relative, Orla Nelson. Orla is a distinguished author – while she only ever penned one novel, a dark coming-of-age story titled In the Lost Province, it has come to be regarded as a modern classic. Alice hopes to write about their shared ancestor, the silent film actress Hattie Soak, and with Orla's endorsement, Alice's book might just become the success she's always dreamed of.
Things don't quite go to plan for Alice: Orla is crotchety, impatient and suspicious, refusing even to answer Alice's overly chummy emails at first. When they do begin to converse, Hattie's story unravels, tragic, bloody and mysterious all at once. The actress was on the cusp of success when her husband and children were murdered and she disappeared without a trace. The film she'd just shot, Maisie Runs with the Hounds, has since been lost. It isn't long before strange echoes of Hattie's life begin to surround the two women: visions, voices, inexplicable interruptions. There's also the matter of a film historian who is obsessed with Hattie, claiming to spot the actress's image in films made long after she vanished.
The Night Visitors cleverly exploits the tensions involved in co-authoring while, of course, being an example of collaborative work itself. Orla is haughty and self-important, but her arrogance is a mask concealing deep fears of loneliness, old age and helplessness. For her part, Alice has a gigantic chip on her shoulder about her lack of university education and writing experience, and is painfully aware of how banal her life must seem to Orla, whom she treats with both reverence and spite. Each woman's character is slowly revealed as their bickering about Hattie strips their performative layers away.
Told entirely through emails between Alice and Orla, The Night Visitors is a fantastic example of how a good old-fashioned ghost story can be updated to a modern setting without losing any of the subtlety and tension associated with the genre. There's something of both Susan Hill and F.G. Cottam – two of my favourite writers of ghost stories – about The Night Visitors. It's very sinister, but Ashworth and Hirst take the time to lay the foundations for a proper story, creating investment in the plot and questions about the characters' intentions as well as a spooky atmosphere. I absolutely relished it.
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Things don't quite go to plan for Alice: Orla is crotchety, impatient and suspicious, refusing even to answer Alice's overly chummy emails at first. When they do begin to converse, Hattie's story unravels, tragic, bloody and mysterious all at once. The actress was on the cusp of success when her husband and children were murdered and she disappeared without a trace. The film she'd just shot, Maisie Runs with the Hounds, has since been lost. It isn't long before strange echoes of Hattie's life begin to surround the two women: visions, voices, inexplicable interruptions. There's also the matter of a film historian who is obsessed with Hattie, claiming to spot the actress's image in films made long after she vanished.
The Night Visitors cleverly exploits the tensions involved in co-authoring while, of course, being an example of collaborative work itself. Orla is haughty and self-important, but her arrogance is a mask concealing deep fears of loneliness, old age and helplessness. For her part, Alice has a gigantic chip on her shoulder about her lack of university education and writing experience, and is painfully aware of how banal her life must seem to Orla, whom she treats with both reverence and spite. Each woman's character is slowly revealed as their bickering about Hattie strips their performative layers away.
Told entirely through emails between Alice and Orla, The Night Visitors is a fantastic example of how a good old-fashioned ghost story can be updated to a modern setting without losing any of the subtlety and tension associated with the genre. There's something of both Susan Hill and F.G. Cottam – two of my favourite writers of ghost stories – about The Night Visitors. It's very sinister, but Ashworth and Hirst take the time to lay the foundations for a proper story, creating investment in the plot and questions about the characters' intentions as well as a spooky atmosphere. I absolutely relished it.
TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
May 26, 2019
Delightfully creepy! This book kept me company on a late train from Edinburgh to Glasgow, and I hadn't quite got to the end when I got home. I couldn't bear to stop reading so I sat down, still in my coat and shoes, and finished it. I wish I hadn't read it so I could read it new all over again.
March 13, 2024
A creepy, unsettling tale that unfolds through emails. There’s something very novel about telling stories through emails so I did enjoy it. However, I wonder if it benefitted from something to ground the story. Maybe it would have been better if there was some narrative built around the emails like supporting documents or news articles? The creepiness relied on the reader not being able to really decipher what is real and what is some strange rambling. I most enjoyed reading the parts where Alice is recounting the events of what just happened to her. For example, her visit to Aaron’s.
I hated Orla’s raving and biographical reams of emails that really didn’t add much to anything. Each of them kept saying “did I tell you this already? I must have told you this already” which I know was supposed to hint at their deteriorating mental state but Jesus it was more frustrating than anything. Another thing, I have no idea if this was on purpose or not but Alice and Orla’s way of writing was sometimes too similar and it was hard to believe that they were two different people. Maybe they weren’t because there was a point in the book where it says at the top the email is from Olra but it’s written by Alice (this could be a mistake in my copy).
I could not understand anyone’s motivation even though they definitely stated what it was a hundred times over. The twists were small and were ultimately lacklustre. The ending was quite deflated and was just Orla taking a stab in the dark as to what happened.
While it is a creepy little story, I think it could have been much better in execution as much of the creepiness relies on confusion and obscuring reality with weird visions.
I hated Orla’s raving and biographical reams of emails that really didn’t add much to anything. Each of them kept saying “did I tell you this already? I must have told you this already” which I know was supposed to hint at their deteriorating mental state but Jesus it was more frustrating than anything. Another thing, I have no idea if this was on purpose or not but Alice and Orla’s way of writing was sometimes too similar and it was hard to believe that they were two different people. Maybe they weren’t because there was a point in the book where it says at the top the email is from Olra but it’s written by Alice (this could be a mistake in my copy).
I could not understand anyone’s motivation even though they definitely stated what it was a hundred times over. The twists were small and were ultimately lacklustre. The ending was quite deflated and was just Orla taking a stab in the dark as to what happened.
While it is a creepy little story, I think it could have been much better in execution as much of the creepiness relies on confusion and obscuring reality with weird visions.
February 5, 2018
I really liked the premise of this book: a woman emails a distant relative to find out more about a woman whose children were horrifically murdered. The relative, a writer, replies, and the whole book is a series of emails between the two. Both of them have been withholding information from the other, which means that it is revealed slowly and cleverly to the reader as well. I also really enjoyed how the true characters of these two women were revealed as the book progressed. But after the initial intrigue, I felt the middle of the book lost its way a little and the whole wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped it would be from the outset.
October 25, 2022
4.5*
Really enjoyed this quick creepy read. Loved how it was told through a series of emails - seeing the sent dates and times of each one was an interesting technique to show the mindset of each character as the story unfolded. The mystery at the heart of the story was intriguing and kept me gripped. Definitely had some very unsettling moments.
Recommend reading this over the space of one or two readings to really get that “down the rabbit hole” feeling.
Really enjoyed this quick creepy read. Loved how it was told through a series of emails - seeing the sent dates and times of each one was an interesting technique to show the mindset of each character as the story unfolded. The mystery at the heart of the story was intriguing and kept me gripped. Definitely had some very unsettling moments.
Recommend reading this over the space of one or two readings to really get that “down the rabbit hole” feeling.
December 28, 2019
What have I just read? Please, someone tell me?
A horror story -- without much horror. The story of a family curse -- without much sense of the family ... or the curse. A reflection on art, and fame, and ambition that doesn't ring true for a moment?
A novella that hearkens back to two artforms that might be considered contrived ... artificial (sometimes in a good way) ... the epistolary novel and silent movies. And nothing wrong with that -- probably the most interesting concept of the whole thing. But ... it does justice to neither. The insights into Hattie Soak, silent movies actress, and the movies she appeared in before her gruesome disappearance, are pretty superficial. And there is no sense that the emails between Orla and Alice do anything to throw light on these two prickly, haunted women, linked by their blood relationship to Hattie and their desire to trade that into literary fame and recognition. Immortality. (*cough* *cough*) In fact, the unlikelihood that, in reality, their correspondence would have progressed beyond the first couple of emails (Would two near-strangers have continued to throw insults at each other the way that they do? And continued reading, and replied? Really?) means that it's all to clunkingly obvious that they both have dark ulterior motives, and this is not going to end well.
I should confess that I don't really like epistolary novels. As I was reading this, I was trying to think of any that I thought were genuinely successful, and I came up with three: Frankenstein, Dracula and the 1960s humorous bestseller Up the Down Staircase.* The two ur-texts of horror made good use of the epistolary format because it allowed Shelley and Stoker to filter the action through the clueless participants/victims. The correspondence really brought home how Victor Frankenstein, Jonathon Harker, Mina Harker, etc etc, weren't up to dealing with the forces that they had unleashed. Up the Down Staircase was wonderful because it was a collection of "found" documents (memos, notes passed between teachers, etc) that really built to to a touching narrative of the challenges for teachers in an urban public school.
But this ... has all of the artificiality of the epistolary genre, and none of the artifice. And, while I "get" what happens in the end (oh, yeah, I get it ...) I honestly don't believe a word of it.
* Of course, there may be others -- I know Jane Austen used letters in her great novels. There's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall but -- full, honest disclosure -- I haven't read that, so I can't say how good it really is.
A horror story -- without much horror. The story of a family curse -- without much sense of the family ... or the curse. A reflection on art, and fame, and ambition that doesn't ring true for a moment?
A novella that hearkens back to two artforms that might be considered contrived ... artificial (sometimes in a good way) ... the epistolary novel and silent movies. And nothing wrong with that -- probably the most interesting concept of the whole thing. But ... it does justice to neither. The insights into Hattie Soak, silent movies actress, and the movies she appeared in before her gruesome disappearance, are pretty superficial. And there is no sense that the emails between Orla and Alice do anything to throw light on these two prickly, haunted women, linked by their blood relationship to Hattie and their desire to trade that into literary fame and recognition. Immortality. (*cough* *cough*) In fact, the unlikelihood that, in reality, their correspondence would have progressed beyond the first couple of emails (Would two near-strangers have continued to throw insults at each other the way that they do? And continued reading, and replied? Really?) means that it's all to clunkingly obvious that they both have dark ulterior motives, and this is not going to end well.
I should confess that I don't really like epistolary novels. As I was reading this, I was trying to think of any that I thought were genuinely successful, and I came up with three: Frankenstein, Dracula and the 1960s humorous bestseller Up the Down Staircase.* The two ur-texts of horror made good use of the epistolary format because it allowed Shelley and Stoker to filter the action through the clueless participants/victims. The correspondence really brought home how Victor Frankenstein, Jonathon Harker, Mina Harker, etc etc, weren't up to dealing with the forces that they had unleashed. Up the Down Staircase was wonderful because it was a collection of "found" documents (memos, notes passed between teachers, etc) that really built to to a touching narrative of the challenges for teachers in an urban public school.
But this ... has all of the artificiality of the epistolary genre, and none of the artifice. And, while I "get" what happens in the end (oh, yeah, I get it ...) I honestly don't believe a word of it.
* Of course, there may be others -- I know Jane Austen used letters in her great novels. There's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall but -- full, honest disclosure -- I haven't read that, so I can't say how good it really is.
June 2, 2021
This is a very thin epistolary novel - technically a novella, probably - which at first seems quite casually thrown together, but reveals itself to be cleverly and carefully crafted. It consists entirely of a series of emails between two (distant) cousins both obsessed with their mutual relative - silent film actress Hattie Soak, who disappeared the same night that most of her family were brutally murdered and was never seen again (or WAS she, etc). The authors take their time, peeling back the layers of the two women's personalities and lives and stories as they go, both of them seeming to become either more and more unhinged as time goes on, or more haunted. What begins as a kind of creepy mystery progresses through ghost story right down into horror. I was very impressed by what they managed to do with less than 150 pages.
I think reading it all in a few big gulps helped with the impact - this is definitely a book that's meant to be binged, not mulled over. I thought it was genuinely unsettling, a difficult thing to achieve with a ghost story nowadays, let alone one told in letters. Would love to know how the collaboration between the two authors worked.
I think reading it all in a few big gulps helped with the impact - this is definitely a book that's meant to be binged, not mulled over. I thought it was genuinely unsettling, a difficult thing to achieve with a ghost story nowadays, let alone one told in letters. Would love to know how the collaboration between the two authors worked.
January 8, 2023
The Night Visitors is a novella written by Jenn Ashworth and Richard V. Hirst. I make no secret that I love epistolary books. The Night Visitors is told via emails between two women. They have books, writing, and a mysterious ancestor in common. As they start to delve more into the mystery of their (in)famous relative, things start to devolve. If you like your stories a bit spooky and unhinged, pick this one up!
May 31, 2024
this was a very atmospheric, creepy little read. i love gorey horror too, but something about horror that just builds up dread in you is so good, maybe better?
i really like books that use different formats, such as the use of the emails in this one, seeing the story slowly build up to what you know will be awful, the characters unrelentingly descending into madness, finding out bit by bit about the great mystery — just so fun.
i really like books that use different formats, such as the use of the emails in this one, seeing the story slowly build up to what you know will be awful, the characters unrelentingly descending into madness, finding out bit by bit about the great mystery — just so fun.
September 11, 2023
A quick and delightfully dark and creepy read, hooked me in with an air of mystery. I loved watching this story unfold through letters. Rounded up to a four, when I first read it, it felt like a 4.25, now a 3.75, as over time, every time I see the name of the book I have to look again to remember what it was about.
July 2, 2024
Spent weeks trying to find a hard copy and only managed to “rent” a copy online… but I wanted to read it and I was determined to make that happen.
I love horror, mystery, ghost stories… I love stories about writers. Give me anything British. And, if done well, epistolary writing can be very entertaining. This story had all of these elements and overall made good use of them. However, the ending left me feeling a bit… deflated? I just feel like there was so much more that could have been done. I also firmly believe that in epistolary writing, the inclusion of multiples sources of “texts” in the narrative (article, book pages, diary entries, etc) helps provide necessary context. This story was lacking that.
The history mystery of what happened to a silent film actress and her family felt more like a red herring… we never got any solid answers or closure. Nothing was ever spelled out explicitly, yet this was the catalyst for the protagonists to correspond in the first place.
Some really well done eerie moments and some things with ghosts but again, without enough context or explanation, I kept asking myself whether or not things were real. Idk. It was a good, quick read, packed a creepy punch and really was entertaining. I just think the ending didn’t live up to the rest of it.
I love horror, mystery, ghost stories… I love stories about writers. Give me anything British. And, if done well, epistolary writing can be very entertaining. This story had all of these elements and overall made good use of them. However, the ending left me feeling a bit… deflated? I just feel like there was so much more that could have been done. I also firmly believe that in epistolary writing, the inclusion of multiples sources of “texts” in the narrative (article, book pages, diary entries, etc) helps provide necessary context. This story was lacking that.
The history mystery of what happened to a silent film actress and her family felt more like a red herring… we never got any solid answers or closure. Nothing was ever spelled out explicitly, yet this was the catalyst for the protagonists to correspond in the first place.
Some really well done eerie moments and some things with ghosts but again, without enough context or explanation, I kept asking myself whether or not things were real. Idk. It was a good, quick read, packed a creepy punch and really was entertaining. I just think the ending didn’t live up to the rest of it.
March 31, 2020
This is a novella told in emails exchanged between two related characters as one (the younger cousin) tries to find the truth behind a family mystery and use her older cousin's fame as an established writer to publish a book. As more is uncovered about the mystery and about each of the two main characters through their exchanges, the novella takes an increasingly tense and potentially supernatural turn. I loved the acerbic wit of Alice's elderly relative, a woman who frequently imbibed liberal amounts of alcohol and thus becomes liberal with her rapier wit, sharp tongue and use of swar words!
The climax to this work really made it for me, as it gripped me at the beginning and lost me for a great portion of the middle, but the ambiguity and unexpected nature of the ending made the reading of this entirely worth it. It is only because the writing or plot didn't grip me for such a large portion that I felt that I could rate it no higher than three stars as a result.
The climax to this work really made it for me, as it gripped me at the beginning and lost me for a great portion of the middle, but the ambiguity and unexpected nature of the ending made the reading of this entirely worth it. It is only because the writing or plot didn't grip me for such a large portion that I felt that I could rate it no higher than three stars as a result.
July 1, 2022
Told as a series of emails, this epistolary novella slowly and quietly builds tension and ultimately horror. Two distant cousins become obsessed with their mutual ancestor, silent film actress Hattie Soak. Soak disappeared the night that most of her family was savagely murdered, days before her first starring role was released. The cousins cautiously peel back layer after layer of revelations until they, and thus the reader, understands the nature of the crime, but will it be in time to prevent history from repeating itself? Some of the writing is a bit contrived--some of the emails didn't have the feel of quickly dashed off messages that emails often are, and the ending is (intentionally, I'm sure) somewhat ambiguous, but overall I enjoyed this suspenseful story.
March 31, 2019
3.5 stars. A short read about 2 cousins who start writing to one another, connected by their interest in the murder of some of their family members, possible by their ancestor Hattie.
A bit of a scary thriller which details more about what the two cousins suspect happened to their family on that night, and about the “visions” they, and another family associated with the murders, keeps seeing.
A strange ending, although the book did lead very well, and not obviously, on to. An interesting story but not my favourite kind.
A bit of a scary thriller which details more about what the two cousins suspect happened to their family on that night, and about the “visions” they, and another family associated with the murders, keeps seeing.
A strange ending, although the book did lead very well, and not obviously, on to. An interesting story but not my favourite kind.
June 3, 2024
I really had to hunt this book down, and it took a while, so I fear my expectations were artificially inflated when I did get my hands on a copy. It’s quite intriguing, especially if you’re into stories told in an alternative formate, e.g. email correspondence. It definitely left me with more questions than answers.
Even at 91 pages this novella is worlds better than the Fourth Wing book, which I’m still convinced was written by bad AI.
Even at 91 pages this novella is worlds better than the Fourth Wing book, which I’m still convinced was written by bad AI.
August 10, 2017
A murder-mystery-cum-ghost-story played out in a series of email exchanges. Enjoyed the cattiness of the two, related, protagonists and the slow reveal of the layers of mystery. Entertaining novella, never menacing but some nasty surprises lurking within...
October 12, 2017
It does work, yes. But anything more? No, not really... 2.56
January 16, 2018
Decently chilling and a quick read. I'd recommend reading it in one go, I think some of the impact of the ending was lost for me because I read the last ten pages a week after the rest of it.
October 9, 2019
More than a little ludicrous but a few shivery moments and a nice exploration of the intermingling of memory and image and the haunted possibilities therein.
January 12, 2021
3.5 stars
September 21, 2021
Wish this had an explanation, even if the explanation was “the co star was a werewolf the whole time!”
May 16, 2022
First half: Ok, interesting, where is this going?
Second half: Ah, someone didn't know how to finish their story and so threw a load of shit at a wall and ran.
... excellent...
Second half: Ah, someone didn't know how to finish their story and so threw a load of shit at a wall and ran.
... excellent...
March 24, 2024
I love that this book was an email correspondence between the two ladies. This book was fun and creepy. Can't trust anyone.
July 5, 2017
I really liked this book, but feel it probably requires a re-read to pick up some of the details now that I "get" the ending. But it was indeed very creepy and the format of having it be exclusively an email exchange between the two women was excellent!
I would love to read this book in a book group to get others' opinions and to maybe help put the pieces in place.
I would love to read this book in a book group to get others' opinions and to maybe help put the pieces in place.
July 31, 2025
I wanted to like this so much more than I did.
December 18, 2024
DNF 95% it was interesting at the start but then it became less about the mystery and more psychological horror with flowery prose, which just isn’t my thing! If you love psychological horror, epistolary novels, flowery prose, and the thought of slowly losing your mind terrifies you then this book is exactly for you
April 16, 2017
If you a) love epistolary novels b) like the everyday intertwining with horror c) a meta novella that shows the perils of collaboration while being written collaboratively, then this will be up your street. Read it in one sitting - thoroughly enjoyable.
June 10, 2017
An eerie, many-layered account of two women unravelling under the pressures of a vengeful family haunting.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews