Title: The Dead Pennies
Author: Robert Ford
Publisher: Cemetery Dance
Publications
Pages: 342
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐
I’ve recently begun to enjoy reading horror and
judging by the cover, I thought this one would be good. Sadly, it had potential
that wasn’t realized.
Abby, running away from an abusive relationship
with Nick, stops to meet an old school friend, Hayden. When Hayden offers Abby
the chance to live in a building being renovated by his Uncle Jack, it seems
too good to be true. Mired in legal issues, the building contains one renovated
and fully furnished apartment where Abby can stay free of cost, while serving
as a caretaker of sorts. What she doesn’t know is that the building, known as
the Lofts, is the site of the old Harper’s Grove facility for children, a place
where terrible things once occurred.
But otherworldly horrors are not the only evil that
beset her life. Nick is looking for her, and when he finds her, there’ll be
hell to pay.
The story, divided into Books One and Two, took a
while to grab me. While most of the chapters were short and a quick read, the
first few chapters were mostly fluff. The opening chapter with the homeless
man, Denny, did a better job of pulling me into the story, but then the focus
shifted to Abby, and I found myself losing interest.
Until page 36, the book still hadn’t sunk its teeth
into the plot. It was only at page 40 that we got within touching distance of
the plot, and page 54 when things began to get interesting.
The author was good at descriptions, but the
characters weren’t convincing or even likeable. There was no real character
development.
The main character Abby was rather stupid. Running
away with a mannequin makes no sense. Also, I’ll never understand why
characters drink so much, especially when they are all alone in a creepy
building.
Abby’s thoughts were very self-consicous. The
chemistry between Abby and Hayden was tepid. I’m not talking about sexual
chemistry. Even as friends, their conversations were tepid. I cringed each time
she addressed him as Hayseed.
The dialogue was tedious. The humour was not only
not funny, it was also rather crass, and centred on distasteful and horrible
subjects such as paedophilia, child abuse and pornography.
As horror goes, the real horror awaits us in Book
Two, which takes us to 1964, when the most unwanted children of the town face
further abuse at the hands of the system in Harper’s Grove, particularly at the
hands of Dr Ray Dobsen, the doctor, and Carl, the attendant. These kids are the
dead pennies of the title.
It appears that the author has a major beef with
the Catholic Church. The priest at the seminary, Fr Walker, uses disrespectful
language like “tossing around some holy water”. Such dismissal of his own faith
and beliefs by a Catholic priest is unbelievable.
Another time Fr Walker tells Abby, “Sometimes you
need some evil shit to fight evil shit.” What on earth is that supposed to
mean?
When Fr Walker prays over Abby’s building, the
prayer is written in lower case, reflecting the beliefs of the author, it
appears, rather than those of a Catholic priest.
The writing wasn’t bad, but the book would have
benefited from the services of a good editor. Hayden gets a pair of forks, when
two forks would have worked just fine. Forks don’t come in pairs.
At one point, Hayden addressed Abby as Lucy.
It was also rather coincidental that Cora Jean
Myers who worked as an aide at Harper’s Grove in 1964 should be a Myers, the
same surname as her supervisor, Miss Myers, even though they aren’t related.
Why not come up with two different surnames?
Abby is running away from Philadelphia, so I
couldn’t understand the constant references to Australia and Aussies.
The conclusion left me feeling dissatisfied. The
focus shifted from the tragedy of the children to the two men in Abby’s life.
We don’t get closure on any of the children or Dr Dobsen or Miss Myers or
Diane. We don’t even know how Cora Jean managed her family’s financial problems
after the facility closes downThe issue of Dr Dobsen and Carl needed deeper
resolution. Uncle Jack received short shrift.
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