Hush

by Eva Konstantopoulos

Angela Sayers is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Convinced by her controlling brother to stop taking her medication, Angela's world unravels just a little more when she discovers she can communicate with the dead. It's not a welcome revelation. Her dead mother was driven mad by this gift. Eager to capitalize on their mother's fame as a medium, her brother forces Angela to publically become the unwilling heir apparent. Soon, Sayers Medium Services is shamelessly exploiting the fears of the most vulnerable -- the elderly, the feeble-minded, the grieving -- for obscene profit. Uncertain if her increasingly fragile state of mind is caused by lack of medication, sleep deprivation, or guilt, Angela endures a plague of sleepless nights. If she's going to have any semblance of a future, she knows she must find a way to confront her own demons -- including the fear that it's all in her head.When they are hired to cleanse an old orphanage that is genuinely haunted, it's up to Angela to get everyone out alive. But with reality slipping away, can she escape the prison of her mind long enough to save them?

Genres: Horror, Halloween

152 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 9, 2011

About the author

Eva Konstantopoulos is originally from New York. She writes fiction and screenplays (not necessarily in that order). Her stories have appeared in print and online journals, as well as on stage and screen. Currently, she lives and writes in Los Angeles, where she spends most of her time walking and thinking about the end of the world.

Reviews

[Marie Helene · Rating 5 out of 5]

A big crush on this one 🤩

The final chapter is a thing of beauty where I found solace...

[Benjamin Irwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re looking for a disturbing little novella to curl up with this Halloween (or any time, really), you’d do well to pick up Hush. This story follows young Angela Sayers and her charismatic brother Jackson, who run a fraudulent medium service turning a profit deceiving the desperate and grieving out of their money with convincingly staged supernatural encounters and the illusion of contact with lost loved ones. Jackson, a born conman, drives the scheme, but the members of his team are growing increasingly tired of the charade. This is especially true for his troubled sister Angela, who fills the starring role in their scam as a gifted medium. The Sayers siblings are elevated by the name recognition of their mother, a notorious medium who committed suicide several years ago. Angela thinks often of her mother these days, of the hallucinations and voices that haunted her life. Angela has been feeling herself slipping away through the same mental illness that destroyed her mother, and at Jackson’s insistence, has not been taking her medication. The fractious team of mediums is ready to hang it up when they get one last call to cleanse a house for a tidy sum. The client is the proprietor of a decaying orphanage, now permanently closed, where a horrific series of child murders occurred. As the Sayers siblings and their compatriots begin the familiar ritual of staging a hoax encounter with the supernatural, they quickly find themselves in over their heads as they encounter a genuine evil within the orphanage.
I love the twist on the ghost hunter trope this novella brings, its oddly sympathetic cast of charlatans, its creeping sense of dread, and its moving examination of mental illness, grief, and family. A taut work with sparse prose, this author manages to accomplish an impressive range of real successes with her work in a short amount of time. The result is a nail-biter that is also surprisingly profound, and a novella you might devour in a day or two but will stay on your mind for a while longer.

[Joann Im · Rating 5 out of 5]

A horrifying piece of novella that kept me on the edge of my seat until the end. The Sayers siblings: Angela and Jackson run fraudulent medium services profiting from grieving and vulnerable clients staging supernatural encounters at their clients' homes. The medium service team consists of the Sayers' siblings, their mutual friend Elliot and Jackson's girlfriend Beth. Angela is suffering from anxiety and grieving after the loss of their mother's suicide. Angela, unsure if it's due to her fragile state of mind discovers she is able to communicate with the dead. The Sayers medium service are hired to cleanse a decaying former orphanage for one last time. Their final call turns quickly into a nightmare as the group are directly faced with genuine evil within the former orphanage.

I appreciated the novella's gothic supernatural element of the story. As the story unfolds, it perfected the atmospheric dread. The entirety of the story imbues darkness and fragility due to the protagonist's unreliability. I love ghost hunters tropes but through Eva Konstantopoulos ingenuity she created troublesome characters that eventually served their comeuppance. The author's multidimensional characterization provided for a conflicting love/hate emotional response from the readers. These problematic behaviors of these characters should easily display disdain but the author brilliantly embeds an empathetic touch that allows the readers at times experience sympathy for them. It was impressive how much there was to unpack within this short novella. The author perfectly blends the spine-chilling and its moving examination on grief, loss, mental illness, family and the recognition of self-efficacy. A suspenseful and profound novella that is filled with terrifying imageries that will remain with you.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO good
I originally got into this book because of the movie 'Malevolent' on netflix which is based on this novel (and both are done by the same author). Now the movie had its shortcomings and wasn't allowed to reach its full potential but I could see the underlying good traits and figured it was most likely a "studio execs got involved" issue, and decided to read the novel to get the whole pure story.
There's some typos, and this novel kind of gives me the sense it was self-published, but the concept and the way the story was woven and unraveled was SO UNUSUAL.
Now I'm not sure if there was a reason that the woman would choose to stay in the house that she knew was haunted by the ghosts of her victims, much less why she'd invite a ghost hunting team who were just going to expose and bust her anyways, so that part of the story had me a little confused where I wasn't sure why someone trying to hide her crimes would do that, but over all the idea of siblings pretending both to be psychic as a scam, and also pretending not to be psychic to stay out of the mental hospital, but actually being psychic was just really good and I loved how at the end, she comes to terms with her powers AND that her brother chose to stay with her, rather than move on and I'd have liked more of this universe , both a prequel of their childhoods, and a sequel to see where she and Eliot go with ghost Jackson.
I liked this, I recommend this.

[Kacy Hogg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What a great story! Totally creepy, totally entertaining and totally heartbreaking! Ghosts, unsolved murders, a haunted house, nothing new to the horror genre but they were all treated in a new way that I really enjoyed. I've been wanting to read this ever since I saw the trailer for it's film adaptation on Netflix but I didn't want to watch until I read the novella and I'm so glad I did! Towards the end I started guessing who might be behind it all, seeing as the cast of characters isn't very big but that ending though! So sad! I wish it turned out different but I understand why it was written that way. Great work Ms. Konstantopoulos! I'd love to write a story this exciting and this haunting one day.

[Tricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This horror novella is Honestly terrifying, and I loved every second of it. What a ride! It’s griping and chilling and I couldn’t put it down. Super well written, with interesting characters, and I can’t wait to see how it gets adapted to screen on Netflix.

[kat :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a great read for people who like gore in their books. The end of the book gave me a whirlwind of emotions. If you like horror / supernatural books I definitely recommend reading this book.

[Laurel Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Silly Kindle app marked this as read before I got here to write my review.

I'm a firm believer that books find us, and this one certainly found me by sheer chance today. someone in my horror group on Facebook was asking about the movie Malevolence and whether or not we knew if he could find it to watch somewhere in Ireland, and I wouldn't have looked into it, but I was pretty sure I've seen this movie before, I didn't know it was a trilogy. But also the title Malevolent came up, and I was like oh this looks good, oh look it has Florence Pugh. And then of course I had to look it up and oh look it's on Netflix, and then I look and of course it's already in my queue on Netflix because it's me. Long story short I looked and I saw that it's based on a book, and I immediately go to Amazon to find out whether or not I can get it on Kindle unlimited, and what do you know it's only a $2 book. Let's just say I started this book this morning and I already finished it because I couldn't put it down. Books find us people.

If you are in the mood for a quick spooky gothic story, read this, then go watch it. Though as usual, the book is better.

[Nevena Fairclough · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not usually a fan of horror, but this story managed to deliver the edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting suspense typical of the genre, while disposing of the all-too-common one-dimensional characters trope. Despite its short length, this novella makes time for character, using the story’s nightmarish rollercoaster ride as a vehicle for the protagonist’s emotional journey. But don’t get me wrong—there’s no fluff in this story. The author doesn’t waste a word. She keeps it short and sweet, getting to the point, but without it feeling rushed or lacking. My kind of story. I loved not only the relationship between Angela and her love interest, Elliott, but how it also explores the bond between her and her brother. Not to mention that the author has a gift with words, ghoulishly painting each grim detail into our mind’s eye. This is why I don’t read horror! Let’s just hope I can get these images out of my mind as I’m trying to fall sleep tonight. Overall, a haunting story and beautifully told.

[Tom Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

For fans of classic Gothic horror, HUSH has all the ingredients you could want: a medium who can (or maybe can't?) talk to the dead; manipulative siblings; creepy friends; and a vulnerable, anxious female protagonist who's constantly being told she can't trust her own perceptions and mental stability. Put them all together in an abandoned orphanage collapsing under its own physical and moral decay.......I'm in! And I'm terrified. Loved this book from start to finish.

[Ryan Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Hush" is a gripping ghost story, full of vivid imagery, believable characters, and eye-opening scares. Angela, the main protagonist, is a distinctive and sympathetic lead, and her encounters with the supernatural are dramatic and punchy. Her supporting cast, with its well-detailed quirks, flaws, and relationships, is good company throughout the story. At 150 pages, Hush is also a quick read, and for those who like to devour books quickly, it's a tasty and satisfying meal.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrifying! Hush begins as an intimate portrait of a young woman struggling with her grief over the loss of her mother to suicide, the apparent mental illness she inherited, and the guilt she feels over exploiting her own and others' tragedies for profit. It quickly escalates, however, to a fast-paced fight for survival amongst supernatural forces and a more familiar evil. The imagery is haunting; I can't wait to see this adapted for the screen!

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super creepy read for the Halloween season! I'm not one for creepy books-in fact it took me two weeks to read it even though it's only 65 pages or so, because I'd only read it when it was light out and there were other people around! I am way more of a wimp than most people, but the fact that I couldn't stop reading attests to how enthralling this story was!

[Patricia Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the story. Very creepy 😊

[Theo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fine ghost story. Have you seen the various horror movies wherein we have a psychic girlie and the crew of other vic-… uh, characters, and a sus house with some ghosties? Did you enjoy them? If yes, you will enjoy this. It is as they are. That is not a complaint, I’ve watched seventy-hundred.

I was hoping for a bit more depth or some kind of surprise, but I mean… there’s only so many ways the story can go, and when you’ve watched seventy-hundred, you’ve probably seen them all. And it is only a novella, after all. Save authors from jerks like me who purposefully read a short book and go “there wasn’t enough depth! there wasn’t enough detail!”.

Anyway, if I may drag over my dusty soapbox, I would like to preach a moment. If you have character A who is an asshole, and then character B who is a “nice guy” and is besties with A, B is not a nice guy. I’m tired of this notion that there’s this guy with a heart of gold, good-naturedly tsk tsking while his friend tromps over morality and ethics. If you are close friends with an asshole, you are an asshole.

So, yeah. Had a bit of a bee in my bonnet about that. And also the very end strained credibility more than ghosts. Didn’t like that. But I guess it was better than the way every horror movie ends these days with a nonsensical fake out. I guess.

[Andrea M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Watched the movie first Malevolent then realized there was a book. I was hoping the book would go deeper into Mrs. Greene, Herman and the girls but it didn’t. Surprise if there was not much of a difference between the book and movie. I probably would have liked the book more if I didn’t see the movie first.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an intense read! My heart was racing and I was totally absorbed! I can’t wait to see how they adapt it for the screen. I hope everything is as creepy as I imagined in my head while reading it.

[Brianna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sigh. I just…really disliked this. I think the plot had so much potential but the way it was written threw it off for me. There were moments in the latter chapters that felt a little more authentic but ultimately not a fan. Thankfully an extremely fast read.

[Miette · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Netflix film “Malevolent” is based on this book, I liked the film and I liked the book, both three stars. Neither is particularly scary though.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Hush" is a gripping novel, taking hold of you right from the beginning and making it impossible to put down until the end. The pace is fast, and this book is genuinely scary (as well as well-written). I believed in the characters and the story, and I will probably have trouble sleeping tonight now that I have finished it! A great read from start to finish.