(no subject)
Jan. 3rd, 2024 10:28 pmKatherine Addison/Sarah Monette's works have been hit or miss for me in the past -- I wrote, confidently, and then realized that in fact I have only read The Goblin Emperor (which I found both pleasant and frustrating) and read enough about various of her other books to be fairly although possibly unjustly convinced that most of them are probably not for me.
However, a.) people have in the past told me that I might like the Kyle Murchison Booth stories and b.) A Theory of Haunting was one of my fellow Solaris Satellite novellas this year and I felt like I ought to at least purchase it in the spirit of solidarity.
And in fact I liked it quite a bit! It felt very Classic Victorian Ghost Story in a very pleasing way: there's a haunted house, there's an assortment of people ranging from awful to gullible who have set up shop in the haunted house, there's a sinister spiritualist, there's a fraught undercurrent of homoeroticism. The protagonist has been voluntold to be there for work reasons and does not want to be there and spends the whole book attempting not to be there, which I find pleasant, refreshing, and relatable in a protagonist; I too often feel this way about unavoidable work travel. Also he is a museum archivist and I went in fully expecting to want to fight with his portrayal as an MLIS professional and instead I thought it was quite reasonable! His cataloging priorities made sense to me!
I admit I have no idea what the book was trying to convey to me on its last page -- it felt like it thought it was either providing a shocking twist or a thematic coup de grace and I just ended up confused (though I am willing to accept![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
coffeeandink's explanation as making much more sense than anything I came up with on my own) -- but this didn't really detract from my reading experience very much and I may go on to read the other Kyle Murchison Booth stories on the strength of this, sometimes one does just want to experience a Classic Ghost Story.
However, a.) people have in the past told me that I might like the Kyle Murchison Booth stories and b.) A Theory of Haunting was one of my fellow Solaris Satellite novellas this year and I felt like I ought to at least purchase it in the spirit of solidarity.
And in fact I liked it quite a bit! It felt very Classic Victorian Ghost Story in a very pleasing way: there's a haunted house, there's an assortment of people ranging from awful to gullible who have set up shop in the haunted house, there's a sinister spiritualist, there's a fraught undercurrent of homoeroticism. The protagonist has been voluntold to be there for work reasons and does not want to be there and spends the whole book attempting not to be there, which I find pleasant, refreshing, and relatable in a protagonist; I too often feel this way about unavoidable work travel. Also he is a museum archivist and I went in fully expecting to want to fight with his portrayal as an MLIS professional and instead I thought it was quite reasonable! His cataloging priorities made sense to me!
I admit I have no idea what the book was trying to convey to me on its last page -- it felt like it thought it was either providing a shocking twist or a thematic coup de grace and I just ended up confused (though I am willing to accept
coffeeandink's explanation as making much more sense than anything I came up with on my own) -- but this didn't really detract from my reading experience very much and I may go on to read the other Kyle Murchison Booth stories on the strength of this, sometimes one does just want to experience a Classic Ghost Story.
