Book Review: THE CASE FILES OF GG MICHAELS: PARANORMAL INVESTIGATOR

Title: The Case Files of GG Michaels: Paranormal Investigator

Author: JL Meredith

Publisher: Self-published

Pages: 213

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Guenevere ‘Guen’ Grace Michaels, the GG of the title, first encounters the paranormal when Hannah Schaeffer, a dead 16yo schoolgirl, appears to her as a vampire in 'The Face in the Window'. Guen is only 12 years old at this time.

Her second brush with the paranormal, 'The Padded Cell', takes place in college on Halloween night when she espies a ghost, who has not been able to move on. This Halloween party is being held in an abandoned asylum for the mentally ill. The asylum is not haunted by just one spirit. Something far more ancient and evil lurks in the dark. This is her roommate and best friend, Janet Yamashita’s, first experience of the paranormal. This is also where we meet Izaak Washington, a strapping footballer who saves Guen from the asylum and becomes her boyfriend.

In 'Ouroboros Charm', Izaak is away but Guen and Janet have been invited to a spring festival being held in a quaint town called Ouroboros Charm. Guen has been chosen as a princess of sorts for the main festivities. But the truth is that this is a dangerous cult, in thrall of a 100-yard worm. Will Guen and Janet get out of there alive?

In 'Beldam and the Belle', Janet and Izaak are both away meeting their respective families. Guen takes up what promises to be a quick assignment. A black businessman, Xavier Fox, wants to buy a defunct old ship called the Belle, and convert it into a hotel. He wants Guen to check out the ship and get rid of the ghosts that haunt it. The townsfolk are not pleased with his intention. One woman, in particular, Mrs Eunice Beldam, who runs a derelict charm store and operates as a witch, enchants both Fox and Guen through a powerful spell. Will Guen be able to resist the spell and release the ghosts? And what will happen when Eunice Beldam invokes a zombie?

In 'What Lies Beneath', Guen and Janet are called to the nearly 200-year-old Monahan House to release the ghosts reported to be haunting the place. There they discover something far more frightening than a few lost ghosts.

 

The book is written as several connected short stories, which describe a series of encounters that Guen has with the paranormal at various stages of her life.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

The author did a fine job with the descriptions, filling them with active imagery that helped me picture the scenes.

The paranormal creatures featured in each story are depicted by well-drawn black and white sketches at the end of each story.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

There were parts in at least two of the stories, where the writing seemed to aspire to become some kind of erotica writing. Not something I want to read.

The book needed better editing. There were many grammatical errors. A character’s ‘imposing’ strength is described as ‘interposing’.

The dialogue between Guen and Janet in Ouroboros’ Charm could have been edited better. It was hard to follow exactly who was speaking.

I found it odd that the 3^rd person PoV omniscient narrator referred to Guen as a blonde several times in the story. There was no need to objectify her like that. It’s the sort of thing a man writing a female character would do. The frequent references to her movie-star looks and calling her the blonde immediately got me out of the story.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK:

Guen was too focused on growing her showbiz career. Her previous successes seemed to have made her blasé about the danger posed by the paranormal. In the last story, she was fixated on the episode she was recording than on what should have been her calling.

Also, she is a Catholic, but her faith seems to be a mere peg on which to hang the premise. Throw in a few Hail Marys, carry a rosary in her purse, say the prayer to the Archangel Michael to prove that she’s a good Catholic. But then the moment she’s given a charm necklace, she takes off her chain which has a cross without a second thought. Not a smart move for someone who is Catholic and aware of the Evil One’s power. Also, not a smart move to insist on wearing heels while out on the job.

In the last story, she has the arrogance to wonder "if He put her into these situations to foil His enemy."

Why introduce a new character, the boyfriend, Izaak, and never let him feature in any of the remaining stories?

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: The book had its moments, but there were sections that didn’t quite work.

 

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

Book Review: THE DOLL'S HOUSE

Title: The Doll's House

Author: Lisa Unger

Publisher: Amazon Original Stories

Pages: 98

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Jules, aged 37, and her 17yo daughter, Scout, are moving into Winslow House, the mansion owned by her boyfriend, Kirin, a handsome, wealthy and famous doll and puppet maker. Scout not only resents the move and the forced separation from her best friend, she is also upset that her mother has moved on from her dad, Doug, a best-selling horror novelist, who died just a year ago. Naturally Scout dislikes Kirin.

When they reach the house, the women discover that the house, though old-fashioned in appearance, has been rigged with smart technology. Then Scout finds a doll that Kirin says belonged to his late sister. But even as Scout makes an attempt to forge a connection with Kirin, she fears that something dangerous is happening at the house.

Then there’s a mysterious girl that both women have sighted on the grounds of Winslow House. Who is she?

The story is written in the first-person present tense PoV of both Jules and Scout.

WHAT I LIKED:

Parts of the story were extremely high on menace and felt super creepy. The story was spooky enough. The AI-type of smart voice and the descriptions of the dolls added further layers of dread to the story.

The writing was good. Here’s a quote I liked:

A good mother is only as happy as her unhappiest child.

The book ends on an interesting cliffhanger.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

One of the characters writes a book called The Doll’s House, literally the book title. That’s a done-and-overdone trope.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: This was a good paranormal short story.

 

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

Book Review: THE KEEPER OF THE KEY

Title: The Keeper of the Key

Author: Nicole Willson

Publisher: Parliament House Press

Pages: 286

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

Heed the Dead or Join Them, said the warning on the cover, and I braced myself for a good read.

When 16-year-old Rachel Morley’s mother, Tara, decides to accept boyfriend Geoff’s invitation to move into his mansion, Morgan House, in St Mary’s, Rachel feels uprooted. When they get to Morgan House, Rachel gets the creeps. She can’t help feeling that someone is watching her. Soon strange things begin to happen.  She feels a strange presence in the house and hears odd noises.

Her mother, eager to build a future with Geoff, hopes Rachel will settle. But that won’t be easy as Geoff has lots of rules, the strangest of which is that Rachel is never to go into the basement.

Luckily what makes her new town bearable is the presence of Nick Alexander, a good-looking guy who takes Rachel to the cemetery on their first date. Suddenly, the town of St Mary doesn’t feel so unbearable. The only trouble is that Morgan House seems more dangerous than ever. Each night she has horrible dreams about something evil in the basement, and a strangely familiar man whose face she can’t see, then wakes up to find herself in the basement, even though she doesn’t remember having gone there.

The book is written in the 1^st person present tense PoV of Rachel. The author creates a sense of dread. The eerie atmosphere weighs us down. The writing evokes the right imagery. The pace is good. Even though I guessed the source of the mystery, I still continued reading.

 

Geoff is a pain from the beginning, at least to Rachel. But he comes across as one-dimensional. Initially, there is nothing to redeem him in Rachel’s eyes.

The mother’s character could have been a little stronger. She doesn’t seem to have any agency of her own. She tells Rachel to give Morgan House a shot, and that if she doesn’t like it, they will leave. But then when Rachel expresses her misgivings, she still won’t move.

Another time, she tells Rachel that if she is not happy with Geoff’s proposal, she will decline. But then, she accepts the proposal. In both instances, Rachel settles down and makes peace with her decision. Which is a letdown, given her fierce desire to leave.

They don’t decide to leave until the very end. They should have at least made an attempt to leave.

Overall, I felt that there should have been more scenes with Rachel and her mother together, without Geoff around. We don’t get to see the mother-daughter dynamic enough. Also, Rachel mentions her father initially, but then halfway through the book, she comes to know something about her dad that she hadn’t known and that detail seemed forced. Having come to know of that fact, Rachel stops stressing over it, and doesn’t mention it again. This is strange, given that relationships play a huge part in this book.  

There were some things that weren’t clear.

Why was Rachel targeted? Just because she lived in the house?

What was the deal about the key in the title? Why does that key show up so late?

Rachel talks about another kind of ghost, when friendships fizzle out. I found this very sad. She knows that best friend, Elena, will soon forget her. On the other hand, Rachel herself forgets about Elena, once she meets Nick. 

 

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

Book Review: THE DEVIL'S WHISPERS

Title: The Devil’s Whispers

Author: Lucas Hault

Publisher: TCK Publishing

Pages: 224

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐

 

Gerard Woodward, a young lawyer, is invited to Cardiff to the castle of Lord Ferdinand Elvin Mathers who is on his death bed. The old man wants to amend his will. Very soon, he realises that he is a prisoner, locked up in his room and not allowed to leave. Meanwhile, across London there are children being abducted. There’s an ape-like creature on the prowl. Can London be saved or will evil take over the land?

The book reminds us of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. All the details point in that direction. The adversaries acting in darkness, being afraid of sunlight, eating of rats, the bite marks. The only difference here is that the author has created a mythical creature of his own, called Xana, while borrowing heavily from folklore surrounding vampires.

The author has a grip on the action sequences, but my overall impression was that it was all rather unoriginal. The inspiration from Dracula is all too evident, and there is nothing to set this tale apart. It’s fine to create a mythical supernatural adversary, but making them like vampires while calling them Xana is unacceptable.

 

The author creates a sense of mystery that doesn’t always seep out of the pages. I couldn’t feel the sense of intrigue. There are strange things happening in the castle. Gerard has odd dreams of being hunted. There are strange beasts chained to rooms, and strange sounds are heard.

For the most part, it’s hard to tell what the fuss is about. Lord Mathers sometimes appears to be on his deathbed and sometimes in perfect health. Gerard has no clue what’s happening. Nor do we, but with much less patience and with no fear.

 

The book is written as a collection of letters and journal entries by various people. These include Gerard, his fiancée Raelyn Atherton, a doctor, his best friend, Ralph Brewer, her best friend, Jayda, a nun and a priest, Fr Malcolm Isaac Simpson. Unfortunately, there are so many perspectives that they begin to sound alike. There is nothing to distinguish one from another.

The journal and letters as a form of narrative technique can be limiting. Letters work best if there are only two correspondents. The more, the messier. I thought that the use of 3^rd person omniscient narration would have improved the story.

The writing consists of some words, now in disuse, and old-type sentence constructions. There were also some odd usage with regard to tenses. At one point, Raelyn’s eyes are described by Nathan, her cousin, as “savoury.” In Gerard’s journal entry, he refers to Mark Huddleston, as his ‘rival’. Adversary would have been the better word. It's not as if they are competing for the affections of the same woman.

None of the characters are developed. We get no backstory about them so it’s hard for us to care about them, and the sting of the horror falls short. The journal entries appear impersonal, and make it hard for us to relate to the characters.

In particular, Raelyn seemed totally unreal. Her anxiousness to learn the truth about a stranger, Mark Huddleston, is unbelievable. Also, she acts like a modern woman in 1903, which is unbelievable. She even uses curse words, which doesn’t fit her general persona at all. The author gives us the impression that men consulted female doctors back then as a matter of course.

The significance of the title was unclear, as was the reason for the abduction of children and the reason behind the house imprisonment of Gerard. We are not given any explanation about the Xana, their origin story, and why they exist.

All in all, not a book I’d recommend.

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