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“It wasn’t no yuman being. There’s yuman things, and there’s things that isn’t yuman.” She paused. “Don’t ask me how I knowed, for there’s things as I couldn’t put into words..."

“A dog is a good friend, is he not? Men—one cannot make friends with them. They misunderstand—always they misunderstand, and wish to play the lover. A dog is the safer friend.”

This is the 1st book I've read about one of Ed and Lorraine's cases.

"October came, with its nights of full harvest moons and foggy moors. For no reason he could understand, Bill found himself waking in the middle of the night, and going to the window to look out. He stared for long periods at the moon. It was almost as if the moon held a secret for him, a secret he was trying to understand by staring."

The first two-thirds of this book held my attention, but the final third left me feeling lost. I went back and listened to parts of it again, and things started to make more sense, but I still feel like this is a book I'll need to revisit. Some passages really resonated with me; bringing back memories of being the MC's age, with all of those emotions, uncertainties, and insecurities at that time of life.

“Ghosts? Nonsense, humbug, nerves! But put me at midnight in a lonely country house, with the rain coming down, black panelling on the walls, damp under the floors, and a fine smell of mildew in the air, and I don’t say that I mightn’t see ghosts with the best of ’em. That’s the mischief of it.”

I bought this for my nieces (11 and 9) and read it after they'd both finished. Very enjoyable! Fun read for kiddos who like spooky reads but not too spooky.

Adding this to my list of favorite haunted house books!

I absolutely loved the eerie atmosphere and steadily building tension. It gave me strong The Haunting of Hill House vibes, especially since we experience everything through the protagonist’s perspective and are left wondering just how reliable she really is. The quirky characters and unusual situations also brought J. B. Priestley’s Benighted to mind. I’m looking forward to reading more by Ethel Lina White!

“Amabel sat very still, while the fire died and the lamplight began to fail. When at last she moved, it was to go to the window, open the shutter, and lean out. The rain had ceased. There was a damp mist rising from the ground, thin, and white, and cold; a faint shaft of moonlight silvered it. The trees rose out of the mist like the cliffs of some black, unknown shore. The stillness and the silence were grateful.”

“Helen went down to the kitchen, by the back way—a spiral of steep steps, broken up into flights at each floor, by a small landing, where a door connected it with the main staircase.”

“There's something wrong about this house, tonight.”

Re-reading. It's really putting me in the mood to rewatch The Haunting of Bly Manor!

"Was there a ‘secret’ at Bly – a mystery of Udolpho or an insane, an unmentionable relative kept in unsuspected confinement? I can’t say how long I turned it over, or how long, in a confusion of curiosity and dread, I remained where I had had my collision; I only recall that when I re-entered the house darkness had quite closed in."

The atmosphere! The tension intensifies with each chapter. Best read at night. In the dark. If only it were storming outside like in the book!

“Helen thrilled to the intangible hint of danger. It seemed to be everywhere—floating in the air—inside the house, as well as outside in the dark, tree–dripping valley.”

I’d already watched a BBC adaptation awhile back, but the ending was just as chilling.

I’d already watched a BBC adaptation awhile back, but the ending was just as chilling.

"It was incredible! The curious thing was that it had a strange air of being distorted—and I thought I knew why. It was the type, really, of a cottage, it was a cottage swollen out of all proportion. It was like looking at a country cottage through a gigantic magnifying-glass. The slant-wise beams, the half-timbering, the gables—it was a little crooked house that had grown like a mushroom in the night!"

Loved this little book so much! I'll be buying paperback copies for myself and my nieces.

"They knew that if you find some person or creature in desperate need of help which you can supply, you have a human duty to supply it, even if it could inconvenience or even hurt you to do so. This, after all, is how the greatest and best deeds in the world have been done."

What do you mean Mary Stewart wrote a Children's Fantasy book set in Germany's Black Forest featuring a werewolf, and I'm just finding out?!

"Don't you remember, when Daddy was planning the picnic, they were looking at the map, and he said that this wood was called Wolfenwald? It means Wolf Wood."

I love the beginning of this but temporarily pausing because vintage gothic novels are still calling to me. I've gotta follow my reading mood.

I waited until after I watched PM2 so I wouldn't be comparing the book and movie the entire time. And I love them both so much! The changes they made for the movie made sense and it captured the spirit of the book.

"Harm no one.
Know that what you give to the world will come back to you threefold.
Fall in love whenever you can."

Another Vintage Gothic Romance I absolutely loved and didn't want to end. I can't wait to read more Dorothy Eden!

"Winterwood at last. She hadn’t expected it to stand stark and austere on the crest of the low hill. There were some trees, to be sure, great oaks and elms that were giving up their leaves to the tearing wind... But the overwhelming impression was one of bleakness."

This is my first Dorothy Eden read and it pulled me right in. I love the writing and dialogue.

"Lavinia was only twenty-two and her recent harrowing experience had not ruined her beauty."

“And don’t call me ‘darling’ if you’re going to desert me. That is simply the height of treachery.”

"“If that happened, we would rescue you and carry you off to Winterwood. Winterwood is our favorite place in the whole world.”"

I really enjoyed this one too. Great atmosphere. Intriguing plot. I look forward to reading more Florence Engel Randall if I can track them down.

So glad I finally read this. I loved it and can't wait to read more Daphne du Maurier.

I don't remember if I ever read this when I was younger or watched the movie. But I occasionally see it pop up on lists of spooky 80s books so I finally ordered a copy. I love the writing and atmosphere from the first pages and excited to see where this takes. It's exactly a book I would've love when I was younger so I don't know how I missed it!

"There were a million small towns like this all over the world. Each as dark, as lonely, each as removed, as full of shuddering and wonder. Oh, the vast swelling loneliness of them. The secret damp ravines of them. Life was a horror lived in them at night, when at all sides sanity, marriage, children, happiness, were threatened by an ogre called Death."