Familiar Spirit

A young woman has recently split up from her boyfriend with whom she's still very much infatuated. She felt that the break-up was a mistake on her part, and what one thing had to do with the other I don't know...but she then moves into a haunted house. It's really difficult to explain just why the story feels rather pointless and empty without giving too many things away... but on some level the young woman seems to never learn anything throughout the story. I didn't find any of the characters likeable or anyone I could root for. The young woman could have been likeable, if her eventual fate had been the result of the spirit's twisting her desires and her character, but it wasn't. How she ends up is 100% her own fault, a result of the show more self-obsession and tiresome infatuation that she demonstrated from the start of the story, and before she ever set foot anywhere near the haunted house. The ending isn't shocking or satisfying either. It just felt inevitable...you knew it was going to happen like it did taking away a lot of the mystery and most of the horror. This is the second "Paperbacks from Hell" series that I've read. It's a collection of 80s and 90s horror that has been re-released. I think I may have been spoiled by the first one that I read, When Darkness Loves Us. I felt that even though this book was well enough written and I'm sure the author is talented... it missed something...or maybe I missed something. It lacked the "something" that I needed and wanted from a ghostly, spooky tale of possession, loss, regret and obsession. If you're after a story that will leave you feeling that you have been sufficiently scared and had your "dose" of horror...this, isn't it. show less

It starts strong with a fight in the mirror with a demon and a cat. The ending is excellent, the last paragraph in particular. The low quantity of characters makes it especially easy to follow. And I never realized how important severed demon penises were to a story until I read this.

Average horror about a woman who moves into a new home, only to come under the thrall of its resident spirit. Familiar, indeed. Not too bad but I've read much better from this author.