Month: July 2018

book review · books · historical fiction

Mrs. Zant and the Ghost

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28262527Mrs. Zant and the Ghost by Wilkie Collins

I read it as an: audiobook

Narrator: Gillian Anderson

Source: my own collection

Length: 01:37:00

Publisher: Audible Studios

Year: 2015

Mrs. Zant and the Ghost starts off with a chance encounter in Kensington Park between Mrs Zant and Mr Rayburn and his daughter. Mrs Zant appears to be mad to young Lucy Rayburn and she is initially frightened by her. When Mr Rayburn approaches her, he realizes she might perhaps be ill and takes it upon himself to find where she lives so he might make sure she is being cared for. He becomes swept up in Mrs Zant’s drama, trapped in the clutches of her brother in law, who took over her care after his brother died just weeks after marrying Mrs Zant. She is convinced, and rightfully so, that the ghost of her husband is guiding her and protecting her. Ultimately, Mr Rayburn and Mrs Zant uncover the truth about her visions and her BIL’s motives.

A good old fashioned Gothic ghost story, told with the lovely, overblown language I expect from Victorian literature. I have to say that I do not understand Victorian mannerisms; Mr Rayburn would be a stalker today if he had followed some random woman home, no matter what his motives. To modern sensibilities, he seems pushy and nosy, but of course times change and we can’t judge another time by our own standards. Maybe it was better then since he is obviously concerned for her and acts upon it. Today, people ignore each other or hurt each other.

For sure, the best part was Gillian Anderson narrating this. I cheerfully admit I only got this because she was the narrator, but I enjoyed the story anyway. Her voice adds to the overall otherworldliness of the book’s tone. I don’t know if that’s a lingering effect of her being Scully or if it’s just because she has a nice voice but it worked. It is also fun to hear her natural British accent since she has been classified as bi-dialectical. I used to think first of Scully when I think of her, but more and more I’m thinking of her as DSI Stella Gibson than Dana Scully.

Overall, this was an interesting and fast read. Listen. Whatever. I was in the mood for a Victorian story and this scratched that itch quite nicely.

book review · books

Coraline

kristen1 Comment

13634292Coraline by Neil Gaiman

I read it as an: audiobook

Narrator: Neil Gaiman

Source: public library, though I own a paperback copy that I flipped through as he read it to me

Length: 3:36:00

Publisher: Harper Audio

Year: 2003

Coraline Jones’s new flat has 13 doors that open and close. The 14th door is locked, and when Coraline’s mother uses the key to it, it opens onto a brick wall. She assumes it would have adjoined the empty flat next door but when Coraline goes exploring, she finds a hallway to another flat mirroring her own. In it are another mother and another father and all the same things Coraline is familiar with, only they are altered in a fundamental way. Everything is darker and more sinister. Her other mother wants to keep Coraline with her forever. To force Coraline to stay, the other mother steals Coraline’s real parents and hides them. Coraline, with the help of a very special cat, engages the other mother in a battle of wits to find the souls of three children she encountered while exploring the other world in exchange for her and her parents’ freedom.

I’ve read this many times before but don’t think I’ve ever actually reviewed it. Huh. Naturally, I loved it. In true Gaiman style, Coraline is a study in darkness and strangeness and creepy-crawly feelings that the things you thought you knew are just a little bit off somehow. It is just scary enough to be horrifying to younger readers but delightful to adults. Button eyes ought to be terrifying to anyone. I love the themes of liminal space, which Gaiman always includes in his writing and which he handles so beautifully. It is also an interesting thought exercise on what happens if you can get different parents, which is surely a thought that every child has had at one point or other. Who hasn’t thought at least once that they wish they could have parents that let them have everything they wanted? Coraline’s other mother tried it, though darkly, and Coraline herself came to the conclusion that nobody actually wants everything they want, they want to want everything they want. There’s a big difference, and it is an important lesson to learn the distinction between the two.

It was funny because I chose to listen to it on audiobook this time and one night around midnight, my phone randomly turned itself on and started playing this book. Normally, it would have scared the bejesus out of me to hear a voice talking in the middle of the night. However, I recognized Neil’s voice and it didn’t scare me at all. I thought it was lovely. Instead, it worked itself into my dreams and I had an anxiety dream because I was in the middle of replacing my floors and my house was a mess and my furniture was all over the house and covered in tile dust and my overriding worry was, “Where am I going to have Neil Gaiman sit?? I don’t have anywhere for him to sit that’s clean!” And then I woke up and realized that he wasn’t actually at my house, though that would have made my entire life, it was just my phone reading to me in the middle of the night in his voice.