The Harrowing (edition 2007)

Rating: 3.5 of 5

Enjoyable tale of the supernatural with some Jewish lore. Very cinematic though in its teen slasher-ish vibe. ( )

I grew up on a steady diet of horror films. I read horror. I am not easily frightened. This book scared the living crap out of me. But when you introduce a Ouija board and a restless spirit and then throw in a little Jewish mysticism... how could it induce anything besides the heebee jeebees? Hey, I have a history with a Ouija board and say what you will (that the experience was not mystical but psychological and that I did not witness a possession but only the breakdown of someone already on the edge of psychosis) but those things terrify me.

Basic plot: five college students find themselves to be the only ones in the dormitory for Thanksgiving break. They don't know each other well. Of course, the lights go out. They all congregate in the dorm lounge and light candles. The quiet studious fellow sits alone with his psychology books spread around him. The jock has a bottle of booze. The law student-slash-musician is bored by them all. The invisible girl simply hovers. So when the flirty girl in the alternate universe horror variety of the College Breakfast Club pulls a box out of a cabinet and utters the famous words "hey, look what I found! Who wants to play?", I should have tossed the book in a dumpster on the other side of town and started a Lemony Snicket. But I didn't.

This book is dark and there is a sense of foreboding from the first page. As things progress and the reader is left to decipher what is actually happening, the pace quickens and this baby moves like lightning. The psychology student asks "Do our demons come from within or without?" It's a frightening question. I couldn't put the book down and raced to finish it before the sun went down. It scared me that much.

Seriously. If my horror group has not read The Harrowing, I am going to make a recommendation. This book is the stuff of nightmares. ( )

Eh, reminds me why I gave up horror when I was in my 20s. It never scared me anyway and this was such a rehash of old plots and congealed thrills that I skimmed more than I read. It was like The Breakfast Club meets Hell House drizzled with a splash of The Exorcist at the end. Overall it gelled, but some things clanged like a college kid wearing aftershave. Really? And everyone was freaked all the time; aren't there other words? And the feeling...everyone felt everything; people's presences, their bodies shifting, their eyes on them - ugh. Oh and I guess Google is nobody's friend in this since someone called directory assistance and went to a temple to talk to a rabbi...oh and steal from their library. And that epilogue. Thud.

Not everything was terrible; comparing Martin to The White Rabbit was pretty nice. The atmosphere was well drawn. I liked the use of Jewish mysticism as well although I have no idea how or why the kids got so adept at reading translated Yiddish or performing basically unknown rituals. Again, I'm back to meh. Teenage angst and hokey spirits from the abyss just don't do it for me anymore. ( )

Calling THE HARROWING a typical ghost story does a disservice to Sokoloff for writing it. However, to a strong degree, the story is very much a typical ghost story. A group of people play with a Ouija board, discover a spirit and then are haunted by the spirit for the rest of the story. In this case the group of people are five students at college who don't want to go back to their dysfunctional families over Thanksgiving break. The spirit awakened is presented as a student who died on campus in a fire. And they are still haunted for the rest of the story.

I found the story to be very entertaining and fun to read. It was maybe a tad formulaic in its approach but at the same time, it was tasteful and respectful in that approach. The characters were rich and three dimensional. The story held true to the genre. And while the ending was maybe a little rushed and predictable, it was also satisfying. This book probably won't be amongst my top ten for the year but it won't be on the worst of the year list either. ( )

Strangely enough, I’ve never crossed my love of reading with my love of horror…I just don’t read a lot of horror books…until I started reading books by Alexandra Sokoloff. The first book I read by Alexandra Sokoloff was called The Unseen. It was about a couple of researchers from the Duke Parapsychology Lab who were doing experiments about ESP and psychic energy. I liked it a lot and found myself thinking “Hey, this would make a great movie!” So when I came across The Harrowing at a book sale, I immediately snatched it up.

The Harrowing is about a group of 5 college students who stay in their creepy, deserted dorm instead of going home over the Thanksgiving long weekend. At its heart, it’s a ghost story, but it’s not the typical ghost story. It incorporates a lot of myth into the ghost, you need to read the book to understand what I mean. The ghost isn’t a ghost, but an evil being. Obviously, there was quite a bit of research done for this book, and I appreciated that, but that’s not what stood out for me.

Each of the characters are really well developed and I found myself empathizing with all of them. They all start out as such stereotypical versions of college kids and totally evolve into somebody different (and better) by the end. All of them find their courage and strength in different ways.

Overall, I’d say this book was pretty good and I’d recommend it. It’s short so it’s perfect for a couple of nights of creepy reading right before bedtime. Enjoy. ( )