Book Review: THE KNOCKING

Title: The Knocking

Author: Laura Lee Bahr

Publisher: Little A

Pages: 288

My GoodReads Rating: 

EA (Edith Ann) Howe, a budding newspaperwoman, travels to the home of Horace Greeley of the New York Daily Tribune to show him the editorial she has written on the Congressional Compromise. She finds Greeley’s house a massive and dark mansion, with a reputation for being haunted. Mr and Mrs Greeley have buried four children. Only three-yo Charlotte is still alive.

At the mansion, EA meets Mary Greeley, who seems deranged, Cathie Fox, an 11-yo ward of Mr Greeley, and Jessica Elliott, Cathie’s beautiful English governess. Cathie is a medium and can channel and talk to spirits. Mrs Greeley uses Cathie’s services to connect with her dead children, especially Arthur, the child she loved the most.

All EA wants to do is to get Greeley to print the editorial she has written in favour of the liberty of the former slaves and against the Congressional Compromise which revokes the freedom of the emancipated slaves. But her views are too radical for Mr Greeley. He gives her a test to prove her worth; she must write an article on Cathie’s abilities. In fulfilling her new assignment, she gets caught up in the middle of danger.

 

The story is written in the first-person present tense of EA.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

I liked the character of EA, her passion and pluck. Her backstory gives her the demons and vulnerability that come out to haunt her in a home that is supposedly haunted. Her heart is in the right place, and she cares for issues related to women and former slaves. She is sensitive to the pain of others and aspires to be America’s third newspaperwoman. Her experience with publication tells us how hard it is for women to get ahead in male professions.

 

There’s a thread of humour that is woven through her self-deprecation and even her interaction with Jane Swisshelm, her mentor, and Mr Greeley.

 

I especially liked the line in her editorial where she questions what kind of world is it when one cannot discuss what is moral, what is good and evil… To compromise with evil is to be complicit in it. She believes that the world is leaning towards authoritarianism, and that there is too much power in too few hands. I liked this about EA, that she has convictions and is willing to speak up for them.

After Greely insults her for having morals and ethics like a schoolgirl, she thinks, May the schoolgirls take over this earth if they are the only ones who will speak the plain truth.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

When EA comes to know about Jessica’s intentions, she does nothing about it. For someone who has ranted on about justice, she refrains from taking the smallest step towards the cause. When it really mattered, it appeared that her quest for justice wasn’t real. Her unwillingness to pursue justice made her weak, physically and morally, after establishing her as a strong character for the greater part of the book.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

There was much scope to make the story about EA and her own relationship with her mother. Instead, she is one good protagonist around whom the story happens, mostly to other characters. The plot events concern Cathie, Mary Greeley and Jessica Elliot, Cathie’s governess.

We don’t hear enough about the mother who tried to kill her and killed her older brother. That would have made a far more interesting story than that of Cathie and Jessica.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE:

I didn’t like the way this story turned out. Even the aura of the haunted house failed to materialize. It was a dank, dark place, but the menace of the haunted house wasn’t evident.

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)