The Sins of Rachel Ellis

by Philip Caveney

1st Berkley edition paperback fine

Genres: Horror, Paranormal

219 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Philip Caveney was born in North Wales in 1951. The son of an RAF officer, he spent much of his childhood travelling the length and breadth of Britain and spent several years in Malaysia and Singapore.

He attended the Kelsterton College Of Art where he obtained a diploma in Graphic Design. Whilst there, he became drummer (and latterly vocalist) with rock band, Hieronymus Bosch.

After leaving college, he worked extensively in theatre both in London and Wales and wrote the lyrics for rock adaptations of The Workhouse Donkey and Oscar Wilde’s Salome.

His first novel, The Sins Of Rachel Ellis, was published in 1976.

Published Works for Adults

The Sins Of Rachel Ellis: St Martin’s Press/ Robert Hale/Berkeley Press. ‘a spine chilling debut.’ – Doubleday Book Club magazine
Tiger Tiger – ‘ St Martin’s Press/Granada ‘…an intriguing tale of rivalry and honour ‘– Flintshire Chronicle
The Tarantula Stone – Granada - ‘breathtaking action.’ Kirkus
Cursery Rhymes Cornerhouse Books– ‘wickedly funny’ – City Life
Speak No Evil – Headline/Headline Review/ ‘cracking summer reading.’ City Life
Black Wolf – Headline/ Headline Review/ nominated for WH Smith Thumping Good Read award.
Strip Jack Naked – Headline/Headline Review - ‘a triumphant thriller’ - Evening Post
Slayground – Headline/Headline Review ‘,,, breakneck pace’ – Daily Mirror
Skin Flicks – Headline/headline Review – ‘Caveney uses the central image with considerable skill’ – Sunday Times
Burn Down Easy – Headline/Headline Review – ‘the fiction equivalent of standing on Semtex’ – Pure Fiction
Bad To The Bone – Headline/ Headline Review ’10 little Indians on speed!’ Tangled web
1999 – Headline/Headline Review ‘more than just a return to form.’ City Life
Love Bites – Xlibris – ‘a frighteningly funny read!’ Tregolwyn reviews.

Published works for Children

Cursery Rhymes(with Bob Seal) (Cornerhouse Books)
Sebastian Darke - Prince Of Fools (2007) (Random House)
Sebastian Darke: Prince of Pirates (2008) (Random House)

Coming soon…

Sebastian Dark: Prince of Explorers (2009) (Random House)
Alec Devlin: The Eye of The Serpent (2008) (Random House)
Alec Devlin: The Kingdom of the Skull (2009) (Random House)

He wrote the screenplay for the short film Dream Factory, directed by Philip Davenport and has recently written his first full-length screenplay The Sick House for director Curtis Radclyffe.

He is also an advertising copywriter and has been the co-ordinator for the Manchester Writers Workshop for over twenty five years.

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in the 7th grade and it scared the crap out of me.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this paperback up in Goodwill and I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't like the ending though. Pandora, a young (12) girl visits her old aunt Rachel, whom she finds to look very young for her age (she's supposed to be in her 80's) and being the inquisitive curious girl that she is she knows that strange things are happening at Savannah ( name of of the aunts Manor). It has some fantasy feel as well as mystery and thriller aspects to the story. I was bothered by some things.
trigger Pedophilia for sure and sexualization of a twelve-year-old. The book was published in 1978 and i guess it was easy to get away with this plot line then. Not saying it's a bad book though I guess it just my sensibilities that made me uncomfortable with that subject matter. Ignoring all that If you can it's a decent read.

[Chris M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first book I read with truly adult themes (lust, treachery, sin, loss). I was 13 at the time. This was the only book I ever had take away from me by the nuns based solely on the title. While my parents were good Catholics, they were also appalled at the censorship. This was the first time anyone ever had a negative reaction to something I was reading.

[shaggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The memory of reading this book haunts me (in a good wtfery way).

I keep forgetting to look for it in my childhood home. I must still own the mass market ... I hope I do.

[Mopple · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this in one sitting! I finished his recent trilogy, and decided I wanted more-this is anold book, his debut novel..and I was super impressed!
I absolutely loved this book, I was indeed shocked at two scenes inthis, especially given theage of the child, but somehow it has slippedthrough the cracks without being edited out-brilliant.
Just awesome, a scary, bold and shamelessly indulgent story! Brilliant.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book kind of fit into the folk horror genre which I really do enjoy. With a little sophistication mixed in with the trash so it was an enjoyable read for me. Possibly would fit well with fans of Hammer or Amicus films

[Mauoijenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a chore. No thank you.

[Bob Box · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read in 1979. Horror novel about a young girl in jeopardy.

[Diane DeMasi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Sins of Rachel Ellis is a middle-grade? YA? I have no idea. It was published in 1978 and the main character is 12 years old, speaks like an adult, and acts like someone in her late teens/ early twenties.

I found this book at a library book sale with no dust jacket to give me a heads-up as to what I was diving into.

Pandora (fun fact: my dog's name is Pandora, probably why I bought the book, haha) decides to go visit her Great-Aunt Rachel. No one seems to have met her before, but it makes sense that you would send your tween child to go visit some random relative. It was the seventies, so I'll give some slack, we did roam around unattended back then.

Once Pandora arrives at her aunt's we discover that the aunt who is in her 80s, looks like she is only 40. But she has health issues that keep her from eating much and her legs give out. So Pandora is left to explore the nearby woods alone. She meets a 14-year-old boy from the nearby village and they begin to take note of all the weird stories and events surrounding Great-Aunt Rachel's domicile. The mystery consists of; why does Rachel look so young? Why did Rachel look like she was aging before Pandora's eyes when Rachel wasn't feeling well one evening? What are the weird sounds on the upper floors? What is the weird Goblin tree/ hole and how does it tie in? Who is the ghost boy?

The book was just okay. The writing was good. I'd like to say that I would've enjoyed it if I were of the intended age group, but I can't even recommend it to the intended audience. We tend to read characters that are older than us, especially when it comes to kids. So, the intended audience would be approximately 10 years old. The problem here is that the main character - who is twelve - is off in the woods with the village boy where "we explored each other's bodies." And later, while waiting for the sun to rise high enough for the village boy to show her something cool, they have sex to kill the time. And later still, the child is raped, but she enjoys it, and "wishes that it might go on forever." Let me be clear, it's not explicit - thank heavens, but WTH?! And not everything is tidily tied up at the end.

The reason the book gets two stars is that I should have researched the title and then maybe I'd have known what I was getting into and not bought it. So plus one star because I didn't do the due diligence of researching.

[Joanna Hazelden · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book with a child as a main character, but definitely for adults. Written in the 1970s, it has that whole vague "the horror is in the house" feel of Thomas Tryon and John Saul. The premise begins fair, with 12-year old Pandora visiting a mysteriously too young Great-Great Aunt in the middle of the Welsh countryside. There's some folklore mixed black arts, but none of the characters are well-developed and even Pandora feels more like an adult in her realizations and insights. I don't think it would be printed today because there's some pre-teen sexualization and sexual assault that's disturbing. The Aunt does meet her just desserts in a horrifying way and Pandora escapes, but the ending is strange and haunting.

[Emerald Lavere · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, so there were good things about this book. The pace, the tension, the interesting characters, and the premise. BUT... near the start of the story when the author describes the breasts of a twelve-year-old girl I was super creeped out. It got much worse from there. I kept reading because I wanted to know how things turned out, but I also wanted to get it over with, because this book has some serious pedo sh**. For that reason, I wanted to give it zero stars. but because it would have been a really good book without that aspect, I'll give it 2. I still feel a little sick giving it any.

[Kris Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sins of Rachel Ellis - a Critique:

I read this book as a child, then somehow lost it. I've thought about it always and was happy and delighted to find it once more.
I liked Pandora and Geraint, I thought they made a nice couple; far more so than she and Ewen.
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves original, Gothic horror stories.

[Peggy Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally read this book in 1979, and liked it quite a lot. Reading it 45 years later, I was shocked by the sexualization of the 12 year old, female main character, by an adult male. If you can get by the creepiness of that, it's a captivating story.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was the first book I actually read for fun and not for school. I think it was good and it had a very good sense of suspense and mystery involved.

[Bryce McEnrue · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning was a little bit slow, but holy cow! When things began kicking into action, I was amazed! There were parts when my stomach churned from the thrill! Great Book Definately reccomend!!!

[Grady Hendrix · Rating 1 out of 5]

What's haunting Wales is the inappropriate sexualization of 12-year-old girls.

[Darcy Cudmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another spooky season read!

This one wasn't bad at all. I can't even remember where I bought it, but it had some good stuff in there. Worth a read for sure.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first love of the "scary" book.

I have the hard-book original copy of this book that I read when I was a preteen and I remember it horrified me but I loved it. (As a side note it also began my journey into journaling as much of the book is written in that format.) It is a very easy read (I was twelve and I understood it) and I have reread it many times throughout my life and still find it an easy read but also mature enough to keep me reading as an adult.

I recently decided to see if they have an eBook version to have a digital copy of this book also. I saw that the age of Pandora was changed from twelve to sixteen which lead me to question this change so I searched and found many reviews upset about Pandora being twelve which I'm sure made the writer (or his people) kowtow to the pressure and change it. There are many reasons I found this troubling and why I have decided to write my own review.

1. Namely why this bothers me is that literature being altered in this way because of the masses (or the dozens in this case) is just reminisce of burning a book which is sad on every level and if you are a lover of books then you would understand without me going into the whys to the comparison of this statement.

2. I have thought overnight if why I was troubled was due to me first reading this book when I was twelve and the protagonist being twelve so I had immediately related, perhaps that is why I connected with the book and was also so scared, but I have read it again throughout the years and still am frightened so that couldn't explain fully why I was upset but now I realize it was because Pandora being twelve is what MADE the book so horrific. She was TWELVE and her aunt was going to do this terrible thing to her, she was TWELVE and Ewen did this to her, SHE WAS TWELVE and she thought these inappropriate for her age thoughts. It was terrifying. ...And more important to the storyline is that it gave the dynamic of "Oh poor Pandora and Ew disgusting Ewen, very clearly stating who was the princess and who was the villain" and then punching you later in the book when you begin to see who holds all the cards (or charm) in her hand and your equally proud of this child's strength and her feelings of triumph over her past and also shocked and scared of what was created in Pandora. Making Pandora sixteen (though still underage and just as ILLEGAL as twelve BTW so I don't know why the writer (or his people) did this in the first place) takes away much of her vulnerable innocent aura and one doesn't get the initial shock and ick feeling from Poor Pandora and Disgusting Ewen, instead you see Pandora as only manipulative which isn't how the book was meant to read at all.

3. I know this book is fiction (which in and of itself is another reason that people should not be judging this book harshly based on the age of Pandora at all) but changing the age of Pandora from twelve to sixteen based on sexual abuse is a slap in the face to anyone that has been abused. When did anyone that was abused get to change their age, get the right to declare this wrong and make it disappear until an appropriate age in the eyes of the masses??? Just wrong. ANY AGE IS WRONG. But in this book... Pandora was twelve... she was twelve, it is horrific. If you, reviewer, judge, and/or writer find it so abhorrent that you demand the change then how about actually making a difference in the REAL WORLD by putting your power to good and finding a cause that helps end abuse, supplies therapy for those abused or locks away forever those that do abuse instead of criticizing a work of fiction.

[Diana Long · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was one of the books I purchased from the Double Day book club back in the late 1970's and have finally read it. I have mixed thoughts about the book. The protagonist in the story is a 12 year old girl named Pandora and she is on an adventure which turns out to be both life threatening and sexually maturing. The thrilling or terror aspects of the novel were done very well and the story involved to hold my interest, however I have a problem with the sexual encounters and thoughts of the protagonist. I have never thought of myself as a prude but perhaps I am at that. The story for me would have been just as thrilling without the sexual encounters and desires of a 12 year old child. I know in ages past that girls of this age were married at 12 or even younger and in some cultures it's still happening. For me I look on a 12 year old as a child and this is not a historical novel, it's a work of fiction. Even in his work of changing facts to a fictional account of the Salem Witch Trials, Arthur Miller had the common sense and decency to make Abigail Williams 17 years of age when he wrote the Crucible. Abigail at 17 is more acceptable than having John Proctor having sexual relations with Abigail at 12. I do believe in freedom of speech and don't believe in book banning, but I think we as authors have some obligation to what is and what is not socially and morally acceptable. I just became aware that the age of the protagonist was advanced to 16 since I have purchased my copy so apparently I was not alone in my reservations.

[Jessica Jernigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just bought a used copy of this book that I first read when I was twelve or so because I wanted to see if it was as effed-up as I remembered. It totally is. At the level of craft, it’s a mess, but it’s the kind of mess that leaves a lasting impression.

[Angela Snapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it

[Sera · Rating 2 out of 5]

My first novel I ever read. Scary for someone who was in grade two (If I remember correctly)