I can’t think of a way to talk about this without having to block out every second line for spoilers, so we’ll just do it this way.
Although this is a ghost story and would normally fall under my ‘horror’ category, it felt like a regular mystery/thriller to me….just some of the characters happened to be dead.
I love the books in this series all the way to about the last 20%, and then things seem to fall apart, and this entry is no exception. The true climax of the plot is always waiting in the last 20-15% of the book, and then it’s over quickly, to leave room for an afterword of where everyone ended up afterwards. No matter how exciting, or tense, or ‘riveting’ the story has been to that point, it suddenly has to rush to a conclusion. That conclusion is invariably neat and tidy, with a (relatively) happy ending for all involved, or at least closure. The happy ending for this one wasn’t the one I expected, but it still tried to tie up everything in a neat little bow.
I’m not saying that I want them those ridiculous non-endings that seem to be considered ~edgy~ these days—I want a plot with a beginning, middle, and end. But the end should make sense and fit with the rest of the book, instead of feeling like the author suddenly realized she was reaching the end of her word limit and had to hurry everything up. In this case, a murder-suicide being replayed by the dead through the living is resolved through a conversation, an apology, and the help of some local spirits that apparently think possession is unseemly. After all the build up, I expected a more epic confrontation. The material was there, but it just seemed to fizzle out.
Also, someone who is drunk is vulnerable to possession, but someone who is high isn’t? That….I don’t even know where to start with that.
Although at the end we acted like the majority of the questions were answered, I still had so many, especially about Wilhelm. Why did Wilhelm let the townspeople think that he hid and abandoned his guests to their fate, when he actually risked his own life to try to save them? Why did he let the townspeople think that he uprooted and moved their dead relatives and built on a cemetery, when he actually built next to it, and didn’t disturb anyone’s rest? And really, really, why did he not answer Jules when she called him originally, making her have to track him down? He seemed genuinely concerned when she arrived and contrite over misleading her, so why did he ignore her and leave her in danger until she literally showed up on his doorstep? I know I had others, but you get the point.
This may sound like I didn’t enjoy the book, but I did—I just wish there had been more meat on the bone, so to speak. I will say that I really enjoy the way that the author showed ghost influence and then possession. Depressions and anxiety can put thoughts in your head, and you may recognize that they’re not yours and you want them to go away, but they stay there and try to convince you that they’re your own thoughts. Having a ghost attempt influence in the same way made sense to me, especially when dealing with a sensitive with no training or ability to protect herself.
Finally, I would read the shit out of a series focused just on Simone.