What do you think?
Rate this book
The House of Lost Souls
Just weeks after four students cross the threshold of the derelict Fischer House, one of them has committed suicide and the other three are descending into madness. Nick Mason's sister is one of them. To save her, Nick must join ranks with Paul Seaton—the only person to have visited the house and survive. But Paul is a troubled man, haunted by otherworldly visions that even now threaten his sanity. Desperate, Nick forces Paul to go back into the past, to the secret journal of beautiful photographer Pandora Gibson-Hoare and a debauched gathering in the 1920s, and to the dark legacy of Klaus Fischer—master of the unspeakable crime and demonic proceedings that have haunted the mansion for decades. Because now, the Fischer House is beckoning, and some old friends have gathered to welcome Paul back. . . .
353 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2007
50 people are currently reading
5052 people want to read
About the author
F.G. Cottam
19 books479 followersReading is a cheap and totally effective way of being transported to another world. The same is true of writing. Mundane concerns only afflict your characters if you decide you want them to.
University was where I first thought seriously about fiction; hearing about Hemingway's iceberg theory and Eliot's objective correlative and having the luxury of time to ponder on the mechanics of the novel.
My first writing was journalism and pieces for I-D, Arena and The Face brought me to the attention of mainstream magazine publishers. In the '90's I edited FHM when it still majored on sport and fashion rather than Hollyoaks starlets and weather girls. Then I launch-edited the UK edition of Men's Health magazine and then came to the conclusion that if I didn't try to write some fiction it was never going to happen.
I read all kinds of fiction, but write stories with a paranormal element I think really because history fascinates me and ghosts allow the past to resonate shockingly, scarily and I hope convincingly, into the present.
I got off to an encouraging start but have suffered a few disappointments since then. I wouldn't in honesty want to do anything else, though. If I write a terrible novel it's my fault entirely. If I write a good novel, it's entirely my achievement.
University was where I first thought seriously about fiction; hearing about Hemingway's iceberg theory and Eliot's objective correlative and having the luxury of time to ponder on the mechanics of the novel.
My first writing was journalism and pieces for I-D, Arena and The Face brought me to the attention of mainstream magazine publishers. In the '90's I edited FHM when it still majored on sport and fashion rather than Hollyoaks starlets and weather girls. Then I launch-edited the UK edition of Men's Health magazine and then came to the conclusion that if I didn't try to write some fiction it was never going to happen.
I read all kinds of fiction, but write stories with a paranormal element I think really because history fascinates me and ghosts allow the past to resonate shockingly, scarily and I hope convincingly, into the present.
I got off to an encouraging start but have suffered a few disappointments since then. I wouldn't in honesty want to do anything else, though. If I write a terrible novel it's my fault entirely. If I write a good novel, it's entirely my achievement.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 247 reviews
September 13, 2013
first off, although there is an Evil House at its center, this is not a haunted house story, not really. it is rather the tale of two men pitted against ghosts of the distant past and the evils those ghosts have conjured up. and a rather starry set of ghosts they are, as they feature such celebrities as Aleister Crowley and Dennis Wheatley. the narrative moves all over place, through various locales and backwards in time as well. but outside of the climax, very little time is actually spent within the house in question, at least in its modern and ghost-ridden incarnation.
Cottam is an effective writer and the novel is a good one. he's also a classy writer, one who puts characterization before special effects, so I was spared a lot of eye-rolling. the novel recovers from a rather risible start (sorry, the image of a soldier dressed in his camouflage gear as he spies on a funeral made me snort a little) but other issues come in to play. mainly minor: a tiring over-reliance on dropping the names of oh so many songs and a tendency to include details that have nothing to do with anything whatsoever. one major issue: he leaves a couple very important scenes out - scenes that would have strengthened the novel. I suppose I understand why we don't get to witness the 4 girls and their prof's experience at the scary Fisher House that drive the narrative forward (but gosh that would have been awesome); I am more perplexed at why we don't see a very important confrontation and death happen at the end - it's like the author didn't care enough about that character.
but despite the flaws, I still liked this one. several reviewers did not appreciate how the novel jumped all over the place, but I thought that was one of the novel's strengths. I would have loved to have read a story about people stuck in a haunted house - but that's just not this novel and it is certainly not the novel's fault that it wanted to be something else! demon-hunting in Africa, a sad visit to a Welsh village, flashbacks to college life in 80s London... I enjoyed all of that and thought it was well-executed. I especially liked the very lengthy flashbacks to the 20s (I think that was the era). the story of photographer Pandora Gibson-Hoare's misadventures with a group of dastardly satanists were my favorite parts. poor, brave Pandora!
______________________________
musical accompaniment
Alice Coltrane: Journey in Satchidananda
talkdemonic: mutinysunshine
Jimmy Scott: All the Way
Cottam is an effective writer and the novel is a good one. he's also a classy writer, one who puts characterization before special effects, so I was spared a lot of eye-rolling. the novel recovers from a rather risible start (sorry, the image of a soldier dressed in his camouflage gear as he spies on a funeral made me snort a little) but other issues come in to play. mainly minor: a tiring over-reliance on dropping the names of oh so many songs and a tendency to include details that have nothing to do with anything whatsoever. one major issue: he leaves a couple very important scenes out - scenes that would have strengthened the novel. I suppose I understand why we don't get to witness the 4 girls and their prof's experience at the scary Fisher House that drive the narrative forward (but gosh that would have been awesome); I am more perplexed at why we don't see a very important confrontation and death happen at the end - it's like the author didn't care enough about that character.
but despite the flaws, I still liked this one. several reviewers did not appreciate how the novel jumped all over the place, but I thought that was one of the novel's strengths. I would have loved to have read a story about people stuck in a haunted house - but that's just not this novel and it is certainly not the novel's fault that it wanted to be something else! demon-hunting in Africa, a sad visit to a Welsh village, flashbacks to college life in 80s London... I enjoyed all of that and thought it was well-executed. I especially liked the very lengthy flashbacks to the 20s (I think that was the era). the story of photographer Pandora Gibson-Hoare's misadventures with a group of dastardly satanists were my favorite parts. poor, brave Pandora!
______________________________
musical accompaniment
Alice Coltrane: Journey in Satchidananda
talkdemonic: mutinysunshine
Jimmy Scott: All the Way
October 20, 2009
When I was a kid reading a good book meant immersing myself in the story so deeply that often coming back to the "real world" was like waking up from a dream. That rarely happens now that I'm an adult, there's a part of my brain that always remains distant from the story and never really stops thinking about things like groceries and whether the dog needs a bath. I miss that feeling of really losing myself in a book and am always on the lookout for a book that can help me recreate it. I am happy to say that F.G. Cottam's The House of Lost Souls is that kind of a book.
I find myself wanting to use the word "atmosphere" to describe Cottam's book. Many times while reading I'll find myself skimming over the descriptions because they never stop being words on a page, but Cottam can describe the way the afternoon light slants in through a window, or the sound of a neighbor's stereo, in a way that you can see - and almost feel - the reality of the scene. Not only does this give his characters and story more depth, but it makes the scary parts much, much scarier. I found myself haunted by some of the scary images in Cottam's book the way I hadn't been since I first read The Shining. And not necessarily even the climactic scenes, in fact one of the scariest moments for me was when Paul Seaton notices a shopkeeper looking at him through a store window. Paul is across the street in a phone booth, the details are indistinct and they don't exchange a word, but the scene is terrifying.
The only problem I had with House of Lost Souls was that when I was done reading it I couldn't settle down to read anything else. Nothing else was as well written, as atmospheric and most of all as frightening as Cottam's book. In the end the only way I could solve the problem was by going to bookdepository.com and ordering both his other books. I may still be dissatisfied with other books, but at least that gives me something to look forward to.
I find myself wanting to use the word "atmosphere" to describe Cottam's book. Many times while reading I'll find myself skimming over the descriptions because they never stop being words on a page, but Cottam can describe the way the afternoon light slants in through a window, or the sound of a neighbor's stereo, in a way that you can see - and almost feel - the reality of the scene. Not only does this give his characters and story more depth, but it makes the scary parts much, much scarier. I found myself haunted by some of the scary images in Cottam's book the way I hadn't been since I first read The Shining. And not necessarily even the climactic scenes, in fact one of the scariest moments for me was when Paul Seaton notices a shopkeeper looking at him through a store window. Paul is across the street in a phone booth, the details are indistinct and they don't exchange a word, but the scene is terrifying.
The only problem I had with House of Lost Souls was that when I was done reading it I couldn't settle down to read anything else. Nothing else was as well written, as atmospheric and most of all as frightening as Cottam's book. In the end the only way I could solve the problem was by going to bookdepository.com and ordering both his other books. I may still be dissatisfied with other books, but at least that gives me something to look forward to.
September 17, 2023
(First read in 2009; reread July 2023.) I’d always intended to revisit more of Cottam’s work than just Dark Echo, which I’ve read a bunch of times over the years, but never got round to it until now. It’s been fourteen years (!) since my first read of The House of Lost Souls, and it turns out I’d forgotten almost everything about it, so this was a well-timed reread. In the (excellent) main story, young journalist Paul promises to help his girlfriend research 1920s photographer Pandora Gibson-Hoare, and both are drawn to the cursed Fischer house. The book’s weakness is a framing narrative in which ex-soldier Nick, whose sister has also suffered the effects of the house, seeks Paul out. This makes for a more dramatic opening than Paul and Lucinda’s tale, but the latter is effortlessly gripping, rich with historical detail and investigative subplots. Being a similar combination of ghost story and mystery with historical flashbacks, The House of Lost Souls will (perhaps a little unfairly) always feel like a practice run for Dark Echo to me. But it’s still a juicy and involving horror story.
February 10, 2012
I hope for Cottam's sake that this haunted house novel didn't take long to produce, since it reads as a half-formed premise converted into a novel over a weekend, an approaching deadline leaving no time for editing or re-writes.
Summary: The novel introduces a protagonist, Nick Mason, an ex-soldier, using his military training to spy on his sister as she attends a funeral, for no reason that is apparent. He is then almost immediately abandoned for the second protagonist, Paul Seaton, whose defining characteristic is being Irish. We know he is Irish because every other character refers to it on every individual occasion on which they meet him. Also, he randomly uses a selection of cod-Irish phrases, which his companion of the moment never fails to react to with bemusement and confusion.
The bulk of the novel consists of a backstory stretched across more pages than it deserves and randomly parcelled out to the reader using such well-worn techniques as old diaries discovered at opportune moments and the appearance of decrepit old friends and relations of the key characters of the past, who recall just enough information to be sinister, but not sufficient to explain clearly what's happening. All these characters and long-lost diaries are written in exactly the same style, lacking almost any character-distinction whatsoever. We do however learn the motivation of our two protagonists: Seaton learnt of the supposedly evil Fischer House whilst researching the life of long-dead photographer Pandora Gibson-Hoare, an idealised glamorous flapper, in order to allow his girlfriend, an even more idealised gorgeous fashion student, to complete her degree paper on said dead photographer. This girlfriend then left him, apparently because he was spending too much time helping her cheat at her degree. Meanwhile Paul Mason is involved in order to help his sister, glimpsed at a distance in the first chapter and thereafter absent, who was exposed to the house during a rather unlikely field-trip for her own degree course and immediately and inconveniently commenced to run mad. Several other students and their professor also visited the house and lost their minds, but they are quickly relegated to collateral damage and removed from the story. None of these events seem to make particular sense, and no part of what is described obviously leads to the two characters’ assumption that they are destined to destroy the evil the house contains via some gung-ho stupidity and essentially no plan whatsoever. None-the-less, this is indeed the conclusion of the book, and a very weak conclusion at that.
Basically, a trite Satanist plot featuring two macho cipher characters performing a series of random actions in order to save a trio of female plot-devices from the machinations of some famous occultists from history, thrown in to the mix in the hope that some of their supposed glamour will rub off on the text. It doesn’t. Nor does it distract from the fact that there is no underlying logic to most of the characters’ actions beyond the need to further the story. There is no real reason for any of them to visit the house. There is no justification for Seaton and Mason’s belief that they can destroy the evil. The conclusion is reached through no apparent pattern or rationality and is thus devoid of meaning; plus, it is dull, anticlimactic and oddly places a heavy emphasis on a boxer who has had nothing to do with the novel up to this point.
In conclusion, I would ask that if Cottam indeed has neither the time nor the inclination to write horror stories, as evinced by this text, that he avoid any financial temptations and refrain from producing them regardless of ability and temperament, thus avoiding wasting any more hours of my life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 14, 2019
Excellent book, and I can't for the life of me understand some of the low ratings. I think when you choose a book like this one to read, you kind of know what to expect? Maybe. It's about a haunted house...or is it more about a group of haunted people?
It starts with a man watching a burial with a funeral party standing by. He's a short distance off in a camouflage blind, watching one of the mourners, his sister. Odd thing is, he notices that there's one 'extra' mourner - the girl being buried. Yep, it's there, but it's subtle. Everything about this book is subtle, laid on in thin layers until you're finally smothered in six layers of too-sweet, too-delectable, and highly addictive, chocolate cream frosting. It sort of creeeeps up on you.
This is no spoiler; it starts out the book in the first pages. Then we jump to the MC, Paul Seaton, who's been haunted by a series of events for the last ten years or so. It seems he's been asked to revisit a house which he last was in years ago. The problem: a second group who have gone to this particular 'haunted' house are all suffering from dreams, nightmares, visions, etc. One of the group even committed suicide. Can Paul help?
Well, he takes us back to where it all started for him, and then forward (to the present) as he tries to sort it all out. Some of the images in this book will last with me forever. What Paul sees, and hears, and thinks as a series of horrific events play out like a reflection from a warped mirror. (Ever see one of those in an old house? Where if you move up and down or back and forth the backing of the mirror, which has slipped and slid down, makes you look all fuzzy or wiggly? Yeah, it's like a haunted house mirror in a fairground, except you don't expect it in an ordinary house.)
Anyhow, this book did give me the shivers and glad I was to be reading it in my own cozy, well-lit house with three other family members nearby. I read some of it in bed one night and usually I set the book on a nearby table when done. However, I didn't want the darn book in the same room with me while I slept.
No Kidding. It's got ritual and sacrifice, creepy house and creepy ghosts and references to a lot of 1980's-era music as well as historical background from the 1920's and 30's. But overall, it's a rare gem of a vastly intricate and well-plotted story.
I loved it. I borrowed this copy from my library, but I want to own it.
Five stars.
It starts with a man watching a burial with a funeral party standing by. He's a short distance off in a camouflage blind, watching one of the mourners, his sister. Odd thing is, he notices that there's one 'extra' mourner - the girl being buried. Yep, it's there, but it's subtle. Everything about this book is subtle, laid on in thin layers until you're finally smothered in six layers of too-sweet, too-delectable, and highly addictive, chocolate cream frosting. It sort of creeeeps up on you.
This is no spoiler; it starts out the book in the first pages. Then we jump to the MC, Paul Seaton, who's been haunted by a series of events for the last ten years or so. It seems he's been asked to revisit a house which he last was in years ago. The problem: a second group who have gone to this particular 'haunted' house are all suffering from dreams, nightmares, visions, etc. One of the group even committed suicide. Can Paul help?
Well, he takes us back to where it all started for him, and then forward (to the present) as he tries to sort it all out. Some of the images in this book will last with me forever. What Paul sees, and hears, and thinks as a series of horrific events play out like a reflection from a warped mirror. (Ever see one of those in an old house? Where if you move up and down or back and forth the backing of the mirror, which has slipped and slid down, makes you look all fuzzy or wiggly? Yeah, it's like a haunted house mirror in a fairground, except you don't expect it in an ordinary house.)
Anyhow, this book did give me the shivers and glad I was to be reading it in my own cozy, well-lit house with three other family members nearby. I read some of it in bed one night and usually I set the book on a nearby table when done. However, I didn't want the darn book in the same room with me while I slept.
No Kidding. It's got ritual and sacrifice, creepy house and creepy ghosts and references to a lot of 1980's-era music as well as historical background from the 1920's and 30's. But overall, it's a rare gem of a vastly intricate and well-plotted story.
I loved it. I borrowed this copy from my library, but I want to own it.
Five stars.
October 30, 2015
For starters, this book is wildly, unnecessarily wordy. Cottam never uses one word if he can possibly find three to use instead or just repeat himself. Take these two examples which occur on the same page, in a minor scene of our main character Paul chatting with his friend Mike:
You get painfully boring, three-line-long train itineraries (I did not read this book to learn which trains I would have needed, in 1995, to get from London to Wales), but then only vague allusions to the details of the actual story. Entering the titular house is supposed to be sanity-shattering, leaving people so haunted they inevitably kill themselves. But... instead we're told survivors hear sourceless music (oh, and get ready for endless musician name-dropping) and see ghosts, but we don't experience with the characters the seeing of ghosts the way we do, say, experience every detail of picking up a fucking rental car. (Not a joke.)
Things pick up a bit on page 300 of 343, when some actual action and actual, specific horror starts happening. But then the fucking ending:
"It's not for me. It's for my girlfriend. It's for Lucinda." Lucinda owned a good camera. Mike knew she did.Mike also already knows Paul has a girlfriend named Lucinda, so why are you making such a fucking point of telling him? And, same scene:
"Thanks," he said to Mike, in Arthur's cafe, the June heat sending a trickle of sweat between his shoulder blades. He looked at their plates. "I'll get this one. This one's on me."JESUS CHRIST PICK ONE WAY TO SAY IT. And, we know it's in Arthur's cafe (a place that is not relevant to the story at this or any later time but which we got a whole fucking page describing), because the author said so at the top of the scene, and we know it's June and hot out, because the author has mentioned it fifteen million times already. My favorite example, which I wish I had marked because I can't find it now, is when one character "almost vomits with nausea." Just... pick one.
You get painfully boring, three-line-long train itineraries (I did not read this book to learn which trains I would have needed, in 1995, to get from London to Wales), but then only vague allusions to the details of the actual story. Entering the titular house is supposed to be sanity-shattering, leaving people so haunted they inevitably kill themselves. But... instead we're told survivors hear sourceless music (oh, and get ready for endless musician name-dropping) and see ghosts, but we don't experience with the characters the seeing of ghosts the way we do, say, experience every detail of picking up a fucking rental car. (Not a joke.)
Things pick up a bit on page 300 of 343, when some actual action and actual, specific horror starts happening. But then the fucking ending:
August 15, 2009
I truly savored the last few pages of this book ... I could have finished it MUCH SOONER, but I just couldn't bear to say goodbye to it. it kind of reminds me of how I felt reading December, a book I
was very sad to see end. I CANNOT wait to read this author's new books!!! I think Dark Echo & Magdalena's Curse are the other titles.
Such intricate orchestration of multiple timelines leading to a present-day conclusion. I love that theme, in films as well as books. Such poetry of prose. The English (especially, the King's English --- or should I say Queen's?) never looked or sounded as good as it does as you read (& hear in your mind)this book!
The impending doom mixed with horror --- but there's no overindulgence or gratuitous violence – even the book cover is un-nerving --- a photo of a 20s girl with her face scratched out (looks like with an exacto-knife!), entering the gates of a gloomy English country house.
Contains my favorite themes --- 1920s-1930s, the UK, haunted people and places, multiple time periods, secret rituals, real people as characters, and ALL the characterizations are realistic in portrayal.
The use of music as another theme of menace --- ragtime, modern songs (“Imagine”, the Fairport Convention songs) given a ragtime kilt gives so much more depth to the story. This is by far THE BEST BOOK I HAVE READ this year, and I have been SO Lucky in my choices.
If you like atmospheric, edge-of-your-seat psychological suspense (that's not to say that there are some very sedate, almost pleasant scenes within), READ THIS BOOK!!!!
July 7, 2010
An ethics class inquiring into the nature of evil visits the Fischer House, an ancient mansion on the Isle of Wight. Now one of the girls is dead and the others are deteriorating. The enigmatic Malcolm Covey asks Paul Seaton to help them. Paul visited the Fischer House twelve years ago and, while it destroyed his world, he still survived it. Will the Fischer House let him survive a second time?
The set-up of House of Lost Souls describes a haunted house story, but the bulk of the narrative concerns the events leading up to Paul's first visit. Lucinda Grey, Paul's love interest, is working on a dissertation about little known Flapper Era photographer Pandora Gibson-Hoare. Unfortunately, Pandora's early death by suicide presents a dead end in Lucinda's research. Paul, with his crime beat reporter background, agrees to take up the hunt.
Paul's discovery of lost diary reveals that Pandora was involved with notorious occult figures Aleister Crowley, Hermann Göring, Dennis Wheatley and Klaus Fischer. Pandora grows uncomfortable with their practices leading up to a dark event at the Fischer House where her diary abruptly ends.
F.G. Cottam is a strong writer, but a more experienced writer could better handle the levels of narrative found in House of Lost Souls. The driving action should be in the present day, where Paul must once again face the Fischer House, but we spend too much time dwelling on the flashback of a flashback.
Cottam further muddies the waters with Nick Mason, brother of one of the afflicted students, who reminisces on an occult experience in Africa. Then, when it seems like the plot is finally moving forward, we take a detour to France and Wales.
The problems in the novel's structure could be forgiven by a strong ending, but the inevitable showdown ends on a disappointing note -- a cheat really. It's a shame because the parts that work in the novel, work really well. Lost Souls is never scary, but it is unsettling and its tortuous route would otherwise warrant a re-read.
The set-up of House of Lost Souls describes a haunted house story, but the bulk of the narrative concerns the events leading up to Paul's first visit. Lucinda Grey, Paul's love interest, is working on a dissertation about little known Flapper Era photographer Pandora Gibson-Hoare. Unfortunately, Pandora's early death by suicide presents a dead end in Lucinda's research. Paul, with his crime beat reporter background, agrees to take up the hunt.
Paul's discovery of lost diary reveals that Pandora was involved with notorious occult figures Aleister Crowley, Hermann Göring, Dennis Wheatley and Klaus Fischer. Pandora grows uncomfortable with their practices leading up to a dark event at the Fischer House where her diary abruptly ends.
F.G. Cottam is a strong writer, but a more experienced writer could better handle the levels of narrative found in House of Lost Souls. The driving action should be in the present day, where Paul must once again face the Fischer House, but we spend too much time dwelling on the flashback of a flashback.
Cottam further muddies the waters with Nick Mason, brother of one of the afflicted students, who reminisces on an occult experience in Africa. Then, when it seems like the plot is finally moving forward, we take a detour to France and Wales.
The problems in the novel's structure could be forgiven by a strong ending, but the inevitable showdown ends on a disappointing note -- a cheat really. It's a shame because the parts that work in the novel, work really well. Lost Souls is never scary, but it is unsettling and its tortuous route would otherwise warrant a re-read.
July 12, 2012
I should have liked this book. After all, it's about the paranormal, the occult, 1920s flappers, and has a pretty cover to show for it. And yet, it wasn't as good as I expected at all.
Some of the detailed descriptions in this book were amazing, and there were some interesting moments as well.
However, for the most part I found it to be extremeley confusing, for one thing. After having read it, I'm not quite sure I'd understood everything. The first two chapters of the book were quite difficult to get through. So I'm not much of a fan of the writing style. Or perhaps I just can't read through a novel about the paranormal without getting confused.
Sure it's 'atmospheric' and maybe you could consider it 'well-written' but to me, nothing in this book explained why it got such good reviews everywhere.
Some of the detailed descriptions in this book were amazing, and there were some interesting moments as well.
However, for the most part I found it to be extremeley confusing, for one thing. After having read it, I'm not quite sure I'd understood everything. The first two chapters of the book were quite difficult to get through. So I'm not much of a fan of the writing style. Or perhaps I just can't read through a novel about the paranormal without getting confused.
Sure it's 'atmospheric' and maybe you could consider it 'well-written' but to me, nothing in this book explained why it got such good reviews everywhere.
May 26, 2017
2.5
I wish I could rate this higher but it wanders too much.
I wish I could rate this higher but it wanders too much.
December 13, 2009
A good supernatural thriller is a rare thing, and one doesn’t expect it of a writer in their first novel. But Cottam manages a story on his first time out that combines suspenseful horror with actual good writing.
Paul Seaton had a run in with horror at the deserted Fischer House several years before the story begins, but thinks he has put it behind him. Then four students enter the house. One commits suicide and the other three are edging into madness. Seaton must face Fischer House again to save their lives. This scares him worse than anything- as well it should. Because the builder of Fischer House was a Satanist, who, along with his friends, has made a deal with the devil. And the deal is still ‘alive’ in the house. Along with Nick Mason, the brother of one of the students, he must figure out the details of the deal and put an end to it.
The book switches from the present to the past numerous times- most of the book takes place in various past eras- and Cottam manages to hold this together well, better than many authors do. What I did find confusing was the large cast of characters, some of which I continually mixed up.
Creepy things happen continually along the way, both in the present and the backstory. New revelations occur at a rapid clip. Sadly, I thought that the ending happened in far too quick a manner- it could have been much more powerful- but it’s still well tied up. I’ll be waiting eagerly for future books by the author.
Paul Seaton had a run in with horror at the deserted Fischer House several years before the story begins, but thinks he has put it behind him. Then four students enter the house. One commits suicide and the other three are edging into madness. Seaton must face Fischer House again to save their lives. This scares him worse than anything- as well it should. Because the builder of Fischer House was a Satanist, who, along with his friends, has made a deal with the devil. And the deal is still ‘alive’ in the house. Along with Nick Mason, the brother of one of the students, he must figure out the details of the deal and put an end to it.
The book switches from the present to the past numerous times- most of the book takes place in various past eras- and Cottam manages to hold this together well, better than many authors do. What I did find confusing was the large cast of characters, some of which I continually mixed up.
Creepy things happen continually along the way, both in the present and the backstory. New revelations occur at a rapid clip. Sadly, I thought that the ending happened in far too quick a manner- it could have been much more powerful- but it’s still well tied up. I’ll be waiting eagerly for future books by the author.
June 13, 2015
i really liked this book the ending was a little anticlimatic but all in all it was good
September 29, 2018
Tinha tudo para ser um livro de terror assustador mas não esteve nem lá perto. Demasiada descrição das personagens em vez de descrição da casa e do que realmente aconteceu com as raparigas.
May 18, 2017
I've read a few other novels by this guy and one of them, The Colony, was outstanding. The Memory of Trees was slightly more hit and miss but still a great read, so I approached this with some anticipation and so far I've not been disappointed. The writing is dense and engaging, rich yet evocative and extremely readable. It entirely suits what is building to be an extremely unnerving story. Personally, I think scaring readers is one of the hardest things to pull off as an author. Grossing them out is easy, making them chuckle, also fairly straightforward, but actually terrifying someone in print is a genuine skill. Cottam got it just right in The Colony, so I have high hopes for this one. As ever, I'll update when done. As I barely have time to eat these days, reading is proving challenging, but, clearly, reading comes first...
I'm about 75% into this one and I'm finding it hard to put down. I actually took it on a plane with me the other day, and it's a hardback from the library, so you can see how engrossed I was. Brilliant storytelling. Great writing. Can't be beaten when it comes together.
Finished.
Ending supernatural stories is, apparently, very hard. Stephen King rarely got it right, in my opinion, which goes to show what a skill it is. I'm not entirely convinced by the ending of this but that aside, the journey to that slightly dodgy conclusion is fantastic. This is such a good read. It's curl up by the fire with red wine and snow outside and not a f***** interrupting you sort of book. I found it particularly fascinating because it recreated real life characters such as Alistair Crowley and Denis Wheatley. Even as a youngster, I felt something wasn't entirely right about Denis Wheatley. I read one book by him and swore off ever reading another.
Very high level of story telling skills. Great read. Spooky and fun. Recommended.
I'm about 75% into this one and I'm finding it hard to put down. I actually took it on a plane with me the other day, and it's a hardback from the library, so you can see how engrossed I was. Brilliant storytelling. Great writing. Can't be beaten when it comes together.
Finished.
Ending supernatural stories is, apparently, very hard. Stephen King rarely got it right, in my opinion, which goes to show what a skill it is. I'm not entirely convinced by the ending of this but that aside, the journey to that slightly dodgy conclusion is fantastic. This is such a good read. It's curl up by the fire with red wine and snow outside and not a f***** interrupting you sort of book. I found it particularly fascinating because it recreated real life characters such as Alistair Crowley and Denis Wheatley. Even as a youngster, I felt something wasn't entirely right about Denis Wheatley. I read one book by him and swore off ever reading another.
Very high level of story telling skills. Great read. Spooky and fun. Recommended.
February 27, 2012
What a superb book-and an author I am going to watch for! I was reminded throughout of the joy which reading John Harwood’s “The Ghost Writer“ brought to me. “House of Lost Souls” has that same slowed-down, gentle, “Between the Wars” pace, that same sense of barely-concealed secretiveness, the sense of mysteries piled in on themselves like matruska dolls. So many layers atop layers in this book, and every one a marvel. This is a book worth reading, buying, and keeping for reread.
“House of Lost Souls” is a tapestry in which no thread is left loose or unwoven. Ranging from the first decade of the 21st century, back to 1983, to 1937, 1983, 1927, and returning to the present day, Author F. G. Cottam teaches that time is indeed simultaneous, and what affects an earlier era also inevitably impinges on our contemporary period as well. Ghosts, evil, black magic, historical figures, demons from beyond, and much more revel throughout this wonderful novel. Not missing either are marvelous characterisations, interpersonal relations and conflicts, friendships, sibling amity (doubled!) and so much additional. This book is nearly perfect. Aleister Crowley and Hermann Goring frolic through the pages, against the backdrop of a charismatic German who builds an estate purposely to summon and capture a demonic being.
I highly recommend this book, and am on to enjoy Mr. Cottam’s several other novels.
“House of Lost Souls” is a tapestry in which no thread is left loose or unwoven. Ranging from the first decade of the 21st century, back to 1983, to 1937, 1983, 1927, and returning to the present day, Author F. G. Cottam teaches that time is indeed simultaneous, and what affects an earlier era also inevitably impinges on our contemporary period as well. Ghosts, evil, black magic, historical figures, demons from beyond, and much more revel throughout this wonderful novel. Not missing either are marvelous characterisations, interpersonal relations and conflicts, friendships, sibling amity (doubled!) and so much additional. This book is nearly perfect. Aleister Crowley and Hermann Goring frolic through the pages, against the backdrop of a charismatic German who builds an estate purposely to summon and capture a demonic being.
I highly recommend this book, and am on to enjoy Mr. Cottam’s several other novels.
September 15, 2009
In my opinion, this is a nearly perfect spooky book. It certainly gives a lot of authors a run for their money. The Fischer House is haunted by a beast summoned from beyond and a cast of ghosts. It wreaks havoc on the lives of a group of female students of philosophy who are interested in the "problem" of evil incarnate. Nick Mason's sister is one of the girls and he is willing to sacrifice his own life to help her recover from her experience. This leads Nick to consult Paul Seaton, a survivor of Fischer House. How Paul came to Fischer House in the first place and how he survived his encounter with evil there is a large part of the story. Nick and Paul's assault on Fischer House is the second part. A creepy cast of characters moves back and forth in time through this book. It is definitely one of those books that may be hard to read on a dark, stormy night and yet too good to put down.
September 28, 2021
I believe this is Cottam’s first paranormal thriller. It is a slow burn, so that I found the middle section stalled a bit. But the descriptions and settings of the macabre story was filled with evil and creepy people and places. “But Mason was frightened now. And he was spooked. He looked up and through dim ripples of light, thought he saw a team of snorting, black-plumed horses crossing the cemetery pulling a glass coffin mounted on a carriage hearse. He blinked and the apparition was gone, but the ground still seemed to throb with horrible life underneath him….”
Cottam is a master at eerie prose: “And Crowley was suddenly in front of me, the vista darkened by his looming shape, his eyes on fire, the strange whirls and patterned stitching of his tunic like a maze through which my own eyes travelled and were lost. And I felt him take my injured thumb… and put my thumb into his mouth and sucked. He sucked the infection out of me.I felt the poison lifted from me.” Just yuck, creepy.
The house is haunted as ghosts are here and they aren’t nice. There are satanic rituals performed here in the past. Paul and Nick need to discover how to overcome these apparitions in order to save girls who visited here. It is very spooky when these two return to the Fischer House and find the menacing presences waiting for them.
This was quite the journey through the past lives from the 1920s and then how lives in the 1990s were affected. The letters helped tie actions together and resolve the different mysteries. Another very good Cottam novel!
Cottam is a master at eerie prose: “And Crowley was suddenly in front of me, the vista darkened by his looming shape, his eyes on fire, the strange whirls and patterned stitching of his tunic like a maze through which my own eyes travelled and were lost. And I felt him take my injured thumb… and put my thumb into his mouth and sucked. He sucked the infection out of me.I felt the poison lifted from me.” Just yuck, creepy.
The house is haunted as ghosts are here and they aren’t nice. There are satanic rituals performed here in the past. Paul and Nick need to discover how to overcome these apparitions in order to save girls who visited here. It is very spooky when these two return to the Fischer House and find the menacing presences waiting for them.
This was quite the journey through the past lives from the 1920s and then how lives in the 1990s were affected. The letters helped tie actions together and resolve the different mysteries. Another very good Cottam novel!
January 10, 2017
I intended to start the year with a good old romance novel. Instead, I ended up reading The House of Lost Souls. Why I did so? I believe it was the mention of a lost mystery circling around a woman that got my attention. Nevertheless, The House of Lost Souls is definitely a good and enjoyable read, and I don’t regret my decision of reading this book.
This book has a strange, alienated feeling about it. It is, in a lot many ways, like one of those rooms in my grandparents’ century-old house, which held a world full of amazement, fascinating objects such as old photographs and gramophone records, fear of the darkness and horrors of the ghosts embossed onto a child’s mind by her elder siblings. It is full of sounds as well. Once there was the sensuous and intoxicating Jazz, the other moment was of obnoxious silence. The descriptions are extraordinarily vivid. I could hear the chatters and laughter of Paul and Patrick Seaton and see Lucinda Grey working on her sewing machine. When Paul met Young Mr Breene I almost imagined myself seated in the office watching old man reminiscing his first meeting with his first crush. Another part of the novel took me to a beach with a poor helpless woman, holding the hands of a shivering, afraid and lost child. I even found myself repressing an urge of sob, silently and secretly. It’s not very adult to cry over some imaginary characters, is it?
Now, that is the magic of this novel. The ghosts and the demons are just what you have always heard of, or read in the books (no, there are no bloodsucking, raw-meat-eating demons are there); so the night creatures themselves do not instigate any fear or horror. It is the scenarios. Imagine yourself alone in a semi-dark, boxy room of a busy locality, but somehow away from all the noises the usual life makes. You are alert of the silence, your senses are to cautious of the tiniest movements of the air, a flicker of light, or the faint sound that feels like a sigh behind your back. You almost feel a warm breath on your skin and wonder what is coming next. And then comes the music—a sudden, mocking music that is takes you back to an uncomfortable memory. Can’t say about others, but I can easily lose my goodnight’s sleep over that feeling. And The House of Lost Souls is filled with that feeling.
However, that is not the singular factor that makes the novel interesting. There are others. The descriptions of London, for instance. For a person who has never gone out of her house, it is the cheapest way to get transported to London, I guess. The characters are interesting in their unique ways. I particularly loved Bob Halliwell for his inquisitiveness, Mike Whitehall for his enthusiasm and vocabulary, Arthur and his café for taking me back to the old days of my college, Lucinda Grey for being an enigmatic influence in Paul’s life, Patrick, for being just himself. I adored mason for being a loving and protective big brother. These are people you could be good friends with, share some good stories and chilled beer with. The end part of the story appeared a little rushed to me, but I didn’t actually mind it. just when I expected everything to come to an end, Cottam took me to another journey in an English village in search of another story. Peter Morgan appears for a brief time but he steals a lot of attention.
And then there was the woman herself, Pandora Gibson-Hoare. I wouldn’t dare to describe her, or even try. It is better that the others find them as I did, following Seaton and Edwin Poole and Young Mr Breene. In the end, when Seaton, and with him I, finally saw her, I realized something. The entire time, around 9-10 days, I kept thinking to myself, The House of Lost Souls could easily have been a romance novel. In the end when I finally realized that it was over, I recognized the novel as an actual romance novel. It was a romance of life. It was a romance of colours and beautiful women. It was a romance between Paul and Lucinda and Pandora, and it was a romance between the life and death.
Not all romance is a joyous, blissful one. Some romances are just tragically beautiful.
Would I read this book again?
Yes, I most certainly would.
This book has a strange, alienated feeling about it. It is, in a lot many ways, like one of those rooms in my grandparents’ century-old house, which held a world full of amazement, fascinating objects such as old photographs and gramophone records, fear of the darkness and horrors of the ghosts embossed onto a child’s mind by her elder siblings. It is full of sounds as well. Once there was the sensuous and intoxicating Jazz, the other moment was of obnoxious silence. The descriptions are extraordinarily vivid. I could hear the chatters and laughter of Paul and Patrick Seaton and see Lucinda Grey working on her sewing machine. When Paul met Young Mr Breene I almost imagined myself seated in the office watching old man reminiscing his first meeting with his first crush. Another part of the novel took me to a beach with a poor helpless woman, holding the hands of a shivering, afraid and lost child. I even found myself repressing an urge of sob, silently and secretly. It’s not very adult to cry over some imaginary characters, is it?
Now, that is the magic of this novel. The ghosts and the demons are just what you have always heard of, or read in the books (no, there are no bloodsucking, raw-meat-eating demons are there); so the night creatures themselves do not instigate any fear or horror. It is the scenarios. Imagine yourself alone in a semi-dark, boxy room of a busy locality, but somehow away from all the noises the usual life makes. You are alert of the silence, your senses are to cautious of the tiniest movements of the air, a flicker of light, or the faint sound that feels like a sigh behind your back. You almost feel a warm breath on your skin and wonder what is coming next. And then comes the music—a sudden, mocking music that is takes you back to an uncomfortable memory. Can’t say about others, but I can easily lose my goodnight’s sleep over that feeling. And The House of Lost Souls is filled with that feeling.
However, that is not the singular factor that makes the novel interesting. There are others. The descriptions of London, for instance. For a person who has never gone out of her house, it is the cheapest way to get transported to London, I guess. The characters are interesting in their unique ways. I particularly loved Bob Halliwell for his inquisitiveness, Mike Whitehall for his enthusiasm and vocabulary, Arthur and his café for taking me back to the old days of my college, Lucinda Grey for being an enigmatic influence in Paul’s life, Patrick, for being just himself. I adored mason for being a loving and protective big brother. These are people you could be good friends with, share some good stories and chilled beer with. The end part of the story appeared a little rushed to me, but I didn’t actually mind it. just when I expected everything to come to an end, Cottam took me to another journey in an English village in search of another story. Peter Morgan appears for a brief time but he steals a lot of attention.
And then there was the woman herself, Pandora Gibson-Hoare. I wouldn’t dare to describe her, or even try. It is better that the others find them as I did, following Seaton and Edwin Poole and Young Mr Breene. In the end, when Seaton, and with him I, finally saw her, I realized something. The entire time, around 9-10 days, I kept thinking to myself, The House of Lost Souls could easily have been a romance novel. In the end when I finally realized that it was over, I recognized the novel as an actual romance novel. It was a romance of life. It was a romance of colours and beautiful women. It was a romance between Paul and Lucinda and Pandora, and it was a romance between the life and death.
Not all romance is a joyous, blissful one. Some romances are just tragically beautiful.
Would I read this book again?
Yes, I most certainly would.
January 30, 2011
Sod it. I'm not giving it another 40 pages, I think 110 pages to give a book a chance is absolutely plenty! I am extremely disappointed, I picked this book up from the library excited, I thought what a great premise it has, maybe I've found another Peter James type of author to follow (pre crime fiction days-his horror was much better). Alas, it wasn't to be....because quite honestly I didn't like this at all. I really should have given it one stars but given the thought behind it having a good idea at the very least, I awarded it an extra one.
Initial impressions
I struggled with the book from the beginning if I'm honest, I had to keep rereading parts because quite honestly, some of it just made no sense, and the writing just didn't flow at all. Simply because of the good premise, I persevered hoping that when I became fully interested, the lack of brilliant writing wouldn't bother me, I'm a sucker for a good story even if the writing is just average. This didn't happen though unfortunately....the book just continued to move extremely slowly....
The first chapter puzzled me somewhat too, concerned Mason (ex soldier) spying on his sister at a funeral, erm why? No explanation is given about this and to be honest, it wasn't a great start to the book. I figured I may struggle from this point onwards. Also even when Seaton the next character is brought in, the way he and Mason talk are as though the author presumes you as the reader already know whats happened, this is very annoying because things therefore aren't explained, your expected to guess to a certain extent and this really annoyed me. No Mr Cottam, we are not psychic!
Plot
As I said previously, the premise of the book was interesting but its execution just didn't work unfortunately...It revolves around a place called the Fishcer House of which 4 students have entered as part of their degree course. Shortly afterwards, one has committed suicide and the others becoming gradually insane and losing their minds. Mason's sister is one of these and determined to save her, contacts Seaton, who has also entered the house, a decade previously and survived....
This part sounded fab and I thought a very interesting idea however.....
The story then involves Seaton telling Mason about how he ended up at the house in the first place, basically helping his girlfriend complete a dissertaion on a photographer called Pandora and allegedly this is linked to the whole mystery/supernatural event of the book (allegedly because I gave up and therefore wouldn't know)....I got as far as this bit where Seaton began explaining to Mason. It moved so so so slow! It just bored the pants of me to be honest and this is where I gave up.
Characterisation
To be honest, the characters came across all as very similar, hardly distinguishable from each other....and I felt indifferent towards them, didnt particularly like them, didn't particular dislike them which to me is worse than feeling extremes of either dislike or like towards them. Because quite simply you just don't give a shit what happens...and I didn't.
Overall
Seemed promising, turned out very disappointing. May give this author one more go as a few other of his books seem interesting also but in all likeliness will probably turn out the same way. Shame!
Initial impressions
I struggled with the book from the beginning if I'm honest, I had to keep rereading parts because quite honestly, some of it just made no sense, and the writing just didn't flow at all. Simply because of the good premise, I persevered hoping that when I became fully interested, the lack of brilliant writing wouldn't bother me, I'm a sucker for a good story even if the writing is just average. This didn't happen though unfortunately....the book just continued to move extremely slowly....
The first chapter puzzled me somewhat too, concerned Mason (ex soldier) spying on his sister at a funeral, erm why? No explanation is given about this and to be honest, it wasn't a great start to the book. I figured I may struggle from this point onwards. Also even when Seaton the next character is brought in, the way he and Mason talk are as though the author presumes you as the reader already know whats happened, this is very annoying because things therefore aren't explained, your expected to guess to a certain extent and this really annoyed me. No Mr Cottam, we are not psychic!
Plot
As I said previously, the premise of the book was interesting but its execution just didn't work unfortunately...It revolves around a place called the Fishcer House of which 4 students have entered as part of their degree course. Shortly afterwards, one has committed suicide and the others becoming gradually insane and losing their minds. Mason's sister is one of these and determined to save her, contacts Seaton, who has also entered the house, a decade previously and survived....
This part sounded fab and I thought a very interesting idea however.....
The story then involves Seaton telling Mason about how he ended up at the house in the first place, basically helping his girlfriend complete a dissertaion on a photographer called Pandora and allegedly this is linked to the whole mystery/supernatural event of the book (allegedly because I gave up and therefore wouldn't know)....I got as far as this bit where Seaton began explaining to Mason. It moved so so so slow! It just bored the pants of me to be honest and this is where I gave up.
Characterisation
To be honest, the characters came across all as very similar, hardly distinguishable from each other....and I felt indifferent towards them, didnt particularly like them, didn't particular dislike them which to me is worse than feeling extremes of either dislike or like towards them. Because quite simply you just don't give a shit what happens...and I didn't.
Overall
Seemed promising, turned out very disappointing. May give this author one more go as a few other of his books seem interesting also but in all likeliness will probably turn out the same way. Shame!
September 27, 2010
The House of Lost Souls is a creepy story with some truly spine tingling moments.
I was nervous when the story starts to unfold and learned that a group of students entered a long abandoned haunted mansion to study evil. I’ve seen a movie or two with a similar premise, a group entering a creepy mansion to do some sort of study (The Haunting and it’s spoof Scary Movie 2 come to mind right away).
Luckily, The House of Lost Souls doesn’t follow the same worn path as the films. In fact there is very little to do with the actual visit by the group of doomed students. Most of the story takes place in the past when the main character first visited the Fischer House. The reader jumps from present time to past experiences to entries in a journal. Following it all gets confusing at times. There are some secondary characters that I feel detract from the main story and some side stories and trips that simply dragged the story down.
Like others, I was disappointed by the ending! Overall I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I wanted to or could have.
I was nervous when the story starts to unfold and learned that a group of students entered a long abandoned haunted mansion to study evil. I’ve seen a movie or two with a similar premise, a group entering a creepy mansion to do some sort of study (The Haunting and it’s spoof Scary Movie 2 come to mind right away).
Luckily, The House of Lost Souls doesn’t follow the same worn path as the films. In fact there is very little to do with the actual visit by the group of doomed students. Most of the story takes place in the past when the main character first visited the Fischer House. The reader jumps from present time to past experiences to entries in a journal. Following it all gets confusing at times. There are some secondary characters that I feel detract from the main story and some side stories and trips that simply dragged the story down.
Like others, I was disappointed by the ending! Overall I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I wanted to or could have.
September 22, 2009
I just finished The House of Lost Souls and have not been able to stop thinking about it. This is one of the best books I have read this year, maybe even in the past few years.
This is horror of a different kind. The kind where your skin crawls, you jump at shadows and feel eyes watching always.
I can't say much without giving it away except to saay that if you are any kind of horror fan, you MUST read this book. You will not regret it. Except you might end up a little more jumpy.
This is horror of a different kind. The kind where your skin crawls, you jump at shadows and feel eyes watching always.
I can't say much without giving it away except to saay that if you are any kind of horror fan, you MUST read this book. You will not regret it. Except you might end up a little more jumpy.
September 28, 2015
Normally I'm not into this genre but I decided to give it a try for the Halloween spirit. It was chilling in a totally addictive way! Very well written with a psychological twist. I would love to see this as a movie.
April 17, 2019
Brilliant writing! F G Cottam is a true wordsmith and craftsman. Loved the sense of time and place he created in this tense exploration of black magic and a violent battle between good and evil.
November 29, 2016
In the 1920s - a decade known for its incredible decadence and opulence - Klaus Fischer built himself a residence that would soon come to rival all other homes of the period. Yet, such a magnificent house can still hide its own dark secrets. And, while many were certainly charmed by the Fischer House - and awed by its mysterious occupant - they would also come to realize that some doors are just too dangerous to open...
Seventy-five years later, the Fischer House has been reawakened to claim the innocent and unsuspecting souls who dare to unlock its door. In 1995, four university students and their professor cross the threshold of the derelict Fischer House. What starts out as a simple class field study and an in-depth discussion on the nature of true evil, soon turns into a waking nightmare for the participants.
Just weeks after the four philosophy students and their professor return home, one young woman has committed suicide and the other three are slowly descending into madness. Nicholas Mason's sister Sarah was one of the participants in that impromptu lecture-study at Fischer House. Determined to find a way to save her, Nick seeks help from Paul Seaton - the only person to have visited the house and to have survived. Yet Paul is also a deeply troubled man, haunted by otherworldly visions which even now threaten his sanity.
Although Paul is fearful of ever returning to Fischer House, Nick is desperate to protect his sister. He forces Paul to go back into his past - to try and recall his own dark memories of a time that Paul would much prefer remained buried. So in order to help Nick, Paul must return to Fischer House to fulfill an unfinished duty: he must find the secret journal of the tragically beautiful photographer Pandora Gibson-Hoare. Although not much is known of the young woman's life, Pandora's journal is rumored to have been kept during a particularly dark period in her life - when she became acquainted with Klaus Fischer.
Paul learns from Pandora's personal diary that Fischer House was a mansion created for debauchery - a decadent house that catered to every hedonistic desire. She describes a secretive gathering in the 1920s which was presided over by a malevolent figure. It was during this gathering of depravity where the dark legacy of Klaus Fischer was born - as the master of the unspeakable crime and diabolical proceedings that have haunted the mansion ever since. Now Fischer House is beckoning, and some old friends have gathered to welcome Paul back...
I must say that The House of Lost Souls was exactly the type of book that I have always enjoyed reading. The pacing of the story was just perfect - there was always something happening in the plot and to me, the horror never seemed forced. I thoroughly enjoy reading books about haunted houses and in my opinion, this book was actually quite brilliant. I give this book a definite A+!
Seventy-five years later, the Fischer House has been reawakened to claim the innocent and unsuspecting souls who dare to unlock its door. In 1995, four university students and their professor cross the threshold of the derelict Fischer House. What starts out as a simple class field study and an in-depth discussion on the nature of true evil, soon turns into a waking nightmare for the participants.
Just weeks after the four philosophy students and their professor return home, one young woman has committed suicide and the other three are slowly descending into madness. Nicholas Mason's sister Sarah was one of the participants in that impromptu lecture-study at Fischer House. Determined to find a way to save her, Nick seeks help from Paul Seaton - the only person to have visited the house and to have survived. Yet Paul is also a deeply troubled man, haunted by otherworldly visions which even now threaten his sanity.
Although Paul is fearful of ever returning to Fischer House, Nick is desperate to protect his sister. He forces Paul to go back into his past - to try and recall his own dark memories of a time that Paul would much prefer remained buried. So in order to help Nick, Paul must return to Fischer House to fulfill an unfinished duty: he must find the secret journal of the tragically beautiful photographer Pandora Gibson-Hoare. Although not much is known of the young woman's life, Pandora's journal is rumored to have been kept during a particularly dark period in her life - when she became acquainted with Klaus Fischer.
Paul learns from Pandora's personal diary that Fischer House was a mansion created for debauchery - a decadent house that catered to every hedonistic desire. She describes a secretive gathering in the 1920s which was presided over by a malevolent figure. It was during this gathering of depravity where the dark legacy of Klaus Fischer was born - as the master of the unspeakable crime and diabolical proceedings that have haunted the mansion ever since. Now Fischer House is beckoning, and some old friends have gathered to welcome Paul back...
I must say that The House of Lost Souls was exactly the type of book that I have always enjoyed reading. The pacing of the story was just perfect - there was always something happening in the plot and to me, the horror never seemed forced. I thoroughly enjoy reading books about haunted houses and in my opinion, this book was actually quite brilliant. I give this book a definite A+!
May 10, 2018
Ok. Disappointed by the ambiguity at the end. It really needed a much clearer conclusion to pull the narrative threads together and for the novel to make sense.
Gripping in its own way but a take it or leave it read.
Gripping in its own way but a take it or leave it read.
September 10, 2016
I really savored every page of this haunting novel. I especially enjoyed Cottam's multilayered story, his descriptions, characters, and his use of the English language to tell the story. The novel starts out at a funeral of a young girl who had committed suicide after visiting a house on the Isle of Wight with a group of other young women. The house was formerly owned and used by Klaus Fischer who was the head of a coven of spiritualists or witches. The funeral is attended by the brother of another of the young women who also attempts suicide. Cottam goes on to tell the story of the history of the house and the people who used it during the 1920's. He also tells the story of Paul Seton, who visited and was haunted by the house in the 1980's and the story of Pandora Gibson-Hoare, an obscure photographer who Seton is researching for his girlfriend. Seton finds a diary left by Gibson-Hoare that details the diabolical affairs at the Fischer house in 1927.
Members of the coven included actual historical figures such as Dennis Wheatley, Aleister Crowley, and Hermann Göring. Wheatley was a writer of occult fiction and Crowley was an occultist who was later considered "the wickedest man in the world." I had never heard of Wheatly but he was evidently a best-selling author in Britain for many years. I need to seek out and read some of his books. I would also like to read more about Crowley.
Overall, this novel really capture the imagination and has an overall tone of foreboding. I would highly recommend this one!
Members of the coven included actual historical figures such as Dennis Wheatley, Aleister Crowley, and Hermann Göring. Wheatley was a writer of occult fiction and Crowley was an occultist who was later considered "the wickedest man in the world." I had never heard of Wheatly but he was evidently a best-selling author in Britain for many years. I need to seek out and read some of his books. I would also like to read more about Crowley.
Overall, this novel really capture the imagination and has an overall tone of foreboding. I would highly recommend this one!
November 6, 2015
I was not a fan of this and I don't think it was well written at all.
A. I get very distracted when an author uses the same words or phrases repeatedly especially within the same page!! Also referring to characters by their last name, first name and full name intermittently is weird. AND whole paragraphs of names of songs and musicians served no purpose and felt a lot like just name dropping for it's own sake.
B. Every major event that happened in the book felt either really rushed when it was important OR too drawn out compared to the lack of significance. i.e. Why did I need to learn about that uncle who liked to golf and that whole room dedicated to golf?! No point. The main character is a reporter living with his girlfriend, ends up in an insane asylum, then moves around the world and travels for 10 years, was randomly a teacher...all of which lasted like 1 chapter. It felt as if the author had an idea, was able to get us there and then just sort of wanted it to be over with so we could move on to the next thing.
C. A lot of stuff was not resolved either. Like wtf all of a sudden the one chic has a random overdose?! What happened to the sister and those other girls?! He just left Nick's body there?!
D. I felt like the author just wanted to use Alister Crowley to give a sense of "get it...they're bad..." Create your own evil character, don't rely on what the reader may or may not know about a real person!!
A. I get very distracted when an author uses the same words or phrases repeatedly especially within the same page!! Also referring to characters by their last name, first name and full name intermittently is weird. AND whole paragraphs of names of songs and musicians served no purpose and felt a lot like just name dropping for it's own sake.
B. Every major event that happened in the book felt either really rushed when it was important OR too drawn out compared to the lack of significance. i.e. Why did I need to learn about that uncle who liked to golf and that whole room dedicated to golf?! No point. The main character is a reporter living with his girlfriend, ends up in an insane asylum, then moves around the world and travels for 10 years, was randomly a teacher...all of which lasted like 1 chapter. It felt as if the author had an idea, was able to get us there and then just sort of wanted it to be over with so we could move on to the next thing.
C. A lot of stuff was not resolved either. Like wtf all of a sudden the one chic has a random overdose?! What happened to the sister and those other girls?! He just left Nick's body there?!
D. I felt like the author just wanted to use Alister Crowley to give a sense of "get it...they're bad..." Create your own evil character, don't rely on what the reader may or may not know about a real person!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 20, 2014
A more effective story than Dark Echo, the first book of this author's that I read. Excellent characters, good atmosphere, fine writing, an intriguing storyline and a perfect length.
Others have described the story in more than sufficient depth so I'll just focus on the atmosphere or, more correctly, the atmosphere's impact on me. I actually felt myself living through the main protagonist's journey, downbeat when he was suffering, scared when he was scared. When he first stepped into the house, I was inwardly screaming at him to stay out - better the safety and security of the open than the danger of the house's interior.
One of the my main reasons for reading haunted house stories is the delicious feeling of sinking into a familiar comfort zone - my drug of choice. This book triggered that feeling in spades but it also stretched the envelope by just the right amount.
Three contrasting time periods were deftly differentiated: often I have trouble keeping time shifts straight in my head but not this time.
And lastly, I so want to meet Pandora Gibson-Hoare. She comes to me in dreams, still.
Mr C, was Louise Brooks the model for Pandora? 'Pandora's Box' and 'Diary of a Lost Girl' seem too much of a coincidence. BTW is this https://www.facebook.com/pandora.gibs... your doing?
Others have described the story in more than sufficient depth so I'll just focus on the atmosphere or, more correctly, the atmosphere's impact on me. I actually felt myself living through the main protagonist's journey, downbeat when he was suffering, scared when he was scared. When he first stepped into the house, I was inwardly screaming at him to stay out - better the safety and security of the open than the danger of the house's interior.
One of the my main reasons for reading haunted house stories is the delicious feeling of sinking into a familiar comfort zone - my drug of choice. This book triggered that feeling in spades but it also stretched the envelope by just the right amount.
Three contrasting time periods were deftly differentiated: often I have trouble keeping time shifts straight in my head but not this time.
And lastly, I so want to meet Pandora Gibson-Hoare. She comes to me in dreams, still.
Mr C, was Louise Brooks the model for Pandora? 'Pandora's Box' and 'Diary of a Lost Girl' seem too much of a coincidence. BTW is this https://www.facebook.com/pandora.gibs... your doing?
October 26, 2009
I love how reading and life collide. My obsession with "Twilight" then Edward- Rob Pattinson lead me to Dennis Wheatley, who is one of the supremely creepy haunts in this book. Through Paul's retelling of his harrowing experience and the diaries of Pandora Gibson-Hoare, we learn the details of an experiment in 1937 at Fischer House that has nearly destroyed Paul and threatens the remaining students. It is hard sometimes to separate the present from the past, Seaton's endeavors sprinkled with shimmering apparitions of sophisticated gentlemen in top hats and spats with soulless eyes and a thirst for depravity, or the creaky strains of 1920s cabaret songs, random visitations in the night, all hinting at an invitation,
a return to Fischer House.
What is evil? Is it something to be teased, bantered with, exploited? This is heady territory and Cottam never underestimates his subject or the dangerous psychological terrain he explores, coincidental deaths, a lost boy, the nurturing of generational evil, birthed by war, nourished by decadence. Madness flickers around the edges as one chapter leads to the next, deeper into an inevitable confrontation.
B+
a return to Fischer House.
What is evil? Is it something to be teased, bantered with, exploited? This is heady territory and Cottam never underestimates his subject or the dangerous psychological terrain he explores, coincidental deaths, a lost boy, the nurturing of generational evil, birthed by war, nourished by decadence. Madness flickers around the edges as one chapter leads to the next, deeper into an inevitable confrontation.
B+
September 12, 2008
Atmospheric chiller, this story unfolds with a mounting sense of uneasiness as its hero tries to confront the evil that has wrecked his life. It's a spooky story that relies on character and fine storytelling rather than guts and gross-out moments to draw the reader on. At its heart is a young reporter, Paul Seaton, who is enjoying an idyllic relationship in the flush of Eighties London. This central section of the book is evoked wonderfully with its clubs, pubs art-school fashionistas and music. But the wonderful time capsule is shattered when Seaton becomes obsessed with a long-dead photographer that his girlfriend is meant to be studying. So the story swings back to 1930s London and a devil-worshipping demi-monde of Dennis Wheatley, Aleister Crowley and others. FG Cottom loves spinning a yarn and this tale has stories within stories, veering from a creepy interlude in Africa, to the trenches of the Great War, to a Welsh village, to France – creating a texture of impending horror. Lost Souls is FG's fifth novel but his first in this genre. He's found his forte.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 247 reviews