This House Is Haunted by John Coyne (Book Review)

(For those who have read my reviews in the past, I am changing the format. Hopefully it is an improvement. – Albert)
Story Summary –
In 1867, London, England, Eliza Cain and her ailing father attend a reading by Charles Dickens; her father’s literary favorite. It is a dreary and drizzling night, Eliza’s father falls seriously ill and perishes soon afterward.
Alone in the world for the first time Eliza leaves her teaching position and takes a job as a Governess at Gaudlin Hall in the township of Norfolk, England. The journey is filled with trepidation and hope until…
“…I stared at him in confusion and then looked back towards the place from which he had pulled me and sure enough the second train was screeching to a halt. Had I made another step forward I would have fallen beneath it and had been crushed to death. I felt faint at the idea.
“I didn’t mean to-” I began.
“Another moment and you would have been under it.”
“Someone pushed me,” I said, staring directly into his face. “A pair of hands. I felt them.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he said. “I was watching you. I could see which way you were going. There wasn’t anyone behind you…”
Arriving in Norfolk, Eliza is greeted by townspeople, but when they learn who she is and the position she is taking she cannot help but feel a chill building between them. The carriage takes her directly to Gaudlin Hall.
“…A moment later, the door opened and I turned, expecting at last to come face to face with my new employer, whoever he or she might be.
It was not a man or woman standing there, however, but a little girl. She was about twelve years old, I thought, older than my small girls, and very pale and pretty. Her hair was curled into ringlets that hung down to her shoulders and perhaps a little further. She was dressed in a white nightdress, fastened at the neck and hanging to her ankles, and as she stood there the candles in the hallway illuminating her from behind, she took on a spectral appearance that rather frightened me.
“Hello,” she said quietly.
“Good evening,” I replied, smiling, trying to put myself at ease by pretending that nothing was amiss. “I didn’t expect the door to be answered by the daughter of the house.”
“Oh no? Who did you expect to answer it then? The Prime Minister?”
“Well, the butler,” I said. “Or the maid.”
The little girl smiled. “We have fallen on diminished times,” she said after a long pause…
Eliza learns that beside herself, the home consists only of the two small children. The young girl, Isabella, who answered the door and her younger brother, Eustace. There is a cook who comes early in the morning to prepare the meals but leaves soon after they are prepared in the morning and the carriage driver who never enters the home. The parents of the home are nowhere to be seen.
Appalled at this arrangement, Eliza seeks out the solicitor who hired her. Then she learns of the truth of Gaudlin Hall. Of the deaths of the prior Governesses and the tragedy that befell the parents of young Isabella and Eustace. But what she learns more of, is that the townspeople of Norfolk do not know the true terror of Gaudlin Hall.
“…I don’t understand it, that’s the truth of it. Are we all animals under the skin, Miss Caine? Do we mask our baser instincts with fine words and clothes and decent behavior? They say that if we were to give way to our true desires we would, all of us, set upon each other with a lust for blood that has no equal in history…”
Eliza is left with a choice. Does she flee as the Governess before her? Does she stay and face the evil of Gaudlin Hall for the sake of the children? What does she do when all around no one will accept the malevolence that lives with her in Gaudlin Hall?
Book Review –
This House is Haunted by John Boyne is a admirable undertaking. There is no deception as to what this story is. The title alone makes it clear. Also beginning the tale with a Dickens reading set the tone and mood from the outset. Boyne lays all his literary cards on the table, face up, and still delivers an exceptionally well written ghost story.
Eliza Caine as the main character is perfect for her role. She is not a modern woman supplanted in the 1800s with a sense of independence and free thinking that makes her more than a match for all those around her. Instead Boyne has done the unthinkable. Eliza is actually a woman of her time. A woman who when faced with such evil finds the strength and fortitude to withstand the gale. When all around her, including other women, are putting her fears and witness down to overly sensitive reactions and exaggerations, she decided to act to protect the children left in her charge.
The story itself is powerful, with a sense of mood and foreboding that reminiscent of The House on Haunting Hill and The Woman In Black. Boyne is careful to maintain and create the setting of a dilapidated mansion in rural England falling down around itself. The sense of isolation is very strong even though Eliza makes several trips into Norfolk, you never get the sense she can go far. If not the ambience of being watched, then the knowledge that she cannot leave the children behind. The children themselves, though strong and willful, have an inherent vulnerability that is endearing. You want Eliza to free them from the hold of Gaudlin Hall. The townspeople, often well meaning, by their silence and fear feed the malevolence in Gaudlin Hall.
Boyne has written a ghost story with daring and simple honesty. It builds slowly until it plateaus, enveloping the reader, until there is only Gaudlin Hall and the darkness that thrives in it.
Final thought –
This House is Haunted is a chilling tale that harkens back to the ghost stories we grew up with. A very good read.

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