Book Review
Oct. 25th, 2022 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariBurnt Offerings
by Robert Marasco
In this slow-burn haunted house novel, Marian, her husband Ben and son David, plus Ben's elderly Aunt Elizabeth escape their Brooklyn apartments by renting an old Long Island mansion for an absurdly cheap rate over the summer. The only stipulation is that Marian prepare and serve three meals a day for the owners' reclusive old mother who lives in a small upper wing of the house. The house, however, starts having an odd and sinister effect on the family. Marian becomes increasingly obsessed with fixing up and caring for the house and the beautiful antiques it holds. Ben becomes oddly aggressive and starts having severe headaches, David turns timid, and Elizabeth starts really showing her age. As the house's grip tightens, things get worse for the family.
Burnt Offerings was wonderfully creepy, and fairly subtle. The horror builds gradually and through small details such as a framed photo or a closet full of gorgeous silverware. Nothing much seems to happen while the horror threads itself through mundane daily life and seemingly innocuous actions. Things seem normal until they are not. The build-up of creeping dread and tension was terrific, and I really enjoyed it all.
by Robert Marasco
In this slow-burn haunted house novel, Marian, her husband Ben and son David, plus Ben's elderly Aunt Elizabeth escape their Brooklyn apartments by renting an old Long Island mansion for an absurdly cheap rate over the summer. The only stipulation is that Marian prepare and serve three meals a day for the owners' reclusive old mother who lives in a small upper wing of the house. The house, however, starts having an odd and sinister effect on the family. Marian becomes increasingly obsessed with fixing up and caring for the house and the beautiful antiques it holds. Ben becomes oddly aggressive and starts having severe headaches, David turns timid, and Elizabeth starts really showing her age. As the house's grip tightens, things get worse for the family.
Burnt Offerings was wonderfully creepy, and fairly subtle. The horror builds gradually and through small details such as a framed photo or a closet full of gorgeous silverware. Nothing much seems to happen while the horror threads itself through mundane daily life and seemingly innocuous actions. Things seem normal until they are not. The build-up of creeping dread and tension was terrific, and I really enjoyed it all.
