The Grief Hole
- Author: K. Warren
- Title: The Grief Hole
- Published: 2016
- Trivia: (ACT) #AusReadingMonth @Brona’s Books
- Trivia: #AWW2017 @AusWomenWriters
- Trivia: List of Challenges 2017
- Trivia: Won Best Horror/Paranormal Novel 2016 Aurealis Awards
- Introduction:
- Theresa helps to place abused clients in a safe house.
- She can see ghosts around the clients
- ….and the clients will probably die by their hands.
- She watches the ghosts...and she sometimes intervenes.
- Sometimes she does NOT intervene .
- …but makes small choices, small changes…..hoping it was enough.
- After an intervention Theresa
- ….suffers physical pain, headaches, boils, vomiting.
- Style: Novel’s most frightening elements remain
- unspoken…they lay beneath the surface.
- This is similar to the style of Shirley Jackson.
- Jackson said:
- “A story must have a surface tension which can be stretched
- ….but not shattered.” ( pg 483, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life)
- Cover: One of Amber’s sketches is the book’s cover
- …what secrets does it contain?
- I see eyelashes (stripe lines) = sketch is Amber’s vision….what she sees.
- I stared long and hard….with a little extra distance and I saw
- Amber’s face!
- long open door in middle = bridge of her nose
- left: sweeping lines = eyelashes
- right: if you look there is a short white band that resembles an underlid of the eye
- pupils: use your imagination to visualize the white spaces about lids….as eye pupils
- black shadows = are coloring for eye sockets
- ….and the shadows take human forms
- …. as menacing ghosts tormenting Amber.
- …and IF YOU TURN THE COVER UPSIDE DOWN
- …do you see what I see?
- Fish: small fish can be seen in the ‘open space’ in bridge of the nose
- …this must be a connection to the sea, beach or drowning.
- This is just a guess ….!
- Questions: Warren uses the classic technique to
- …keep the reader gripping the book….a page turner.
- Warren drops clues…and we MUST know the answers.
- Warren makes us ask questions…
- Paranormal skills….is this a family ‘curse’ ? (Amber, Theresa, Prudence)
- …and the paranormal world
- Amber’s paintings changed radically a year ago
- …after Aunt Prudence has contact with Amber.
- …what happened to Amber?
- Clues: Aunt Prudence uses cryptic messages
- ….to make Theresa and the reader think and
- ….try to solve the puzzle.
- — Each monster has one way to die
- — Not all death can be seen
- — I see the victims…you see the monsters…her mother sees the shadows.
- — Every killing lays a curse
- Symbol: Balloons....what does Prudence mean to do with them?
- Aunt Prudence has grey ash….on her cheek….on her balloon
- …what does this mean?
- Sol Evictus ( Sun latin…or homonym for ‘soul’ )
- (Evictus = latin conquered)
- ….has something to do with the strange things in this book.
- Art Collection done by Amber….disappears!
Conclusion:
- I am not going to write more about this book
- ….you must discover it yourself.
- What I can say is…
- …this book is very good and the ‘bloody horror’ is NOT
- …over emphasized.
- Thank goodness from this faint-at-heart reader!
- The book is good enough to convince me
- to read more paranormal/horror fiction!
- That in itself is an achievement!
- I never gave this genre a chance.
- Kaaron Warren has a ‘position’ in paranormal/horror writing world.
- But I must admit Shirley Jackson still has a ‘presence’.
- Jackson is still queen of ‘shivers down your spine’
- Kaaron Warren won Best Novella Shirley Jackson Awards 2012
- …she is definitely a rising star!
Last thoughts:
- I’m not very much into junior fiction or YA or paranormal...but I just finished
- The Grief Hole (K. Warren) and am tempted to read more.
- At the moment I’m starting (…really going out of my comfort zone)
- Controlling the Elements (The Manipulator Series Book 1) by N.R. Spratlin.
- What does this book have that sends its readers into list of superlatives and ‘wow’s’?
- I aim to find out!
- #TakeAChance
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My niece & nephew gave me 2 fantasy books for my b-day. I surprised myself (but not them) when I liked them so well. Paranormal would not be such a leap… maybe later…
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I read your reviews on GR about your ‘b-day presents’…..and the books do look interesting!
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What an amazing story Nancy. I love your deliberations on the cover art too – this book obviously has layers to peel back one by one.
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The cover was just a coincidence. I sat here staring at the cover….while eating the morning bowl of oatmeal. I moved the IPAD further and further away….and used my powers to imagine a face….I concentrated on the left side…the sweeping lines as eye-lashes …and suddenly the pupil of the eye registered on my own eye just above the lashes! It was spooky.
Thanks for you comment…and #AusReadingMonth is so much fun!
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