(no subject)

[skygiants]

Last weekend I was up in Maine, and I loaded up my Kindle with Barbara Michaels Gothics on e-book for the trip (since it turns out my library has a TREASURE TROVE'S WORTH.) But I wasn't necessarily expecting to read all that much on the trip.

Then I started Someone in the House.

THE SCENE: *a companionable cottage in Maine filled with companionable silence*
SUDDENLY: *WILD LAUGHTER*

BECCA: OMG, so the grad student protagonist and her research partner and his nice old aunt are all living together in the house the research partner's parents just inherited, and the plot is that the aunt heard her nephew having invisible sex and is REALLY WEIRDED OUT and I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING

[HALF AN HOUR LATER]

BECCA: now they're all having an argument over what the invisible sex might be! The aunt's boyfriend thinks it's psychic energy but the aunt thinks it's a medieval ghost!

[HALF AN HOUR LATER]

BECCA: THEY'VE CALLED IN THE PRIEST TO CONSULT ON KEVIN'S INVISIBLE SEX ISSUE

A LONG-SUFFERING COMPANION: Has anybody asked Kevin what he's having invisible sex with?

BECCA: NOPE. Every so often someone suggests that they could, like, just ask the dude, and then they're like "....we have a vague sense that something terrible would happen if he did!" LIKE MAYBE THAT HE'D BE CREEPED OUT THAT EVERYONE IS STANDING AROUND HIS DOOR LISTENING TO HIS INVISIBLE SEX MARATHONS.

[HALF AN HOUR LATER]

BECCA: I'm pretty sure the whole plot of this book is just various characters running around trying to prove their pet theory about the invisible sex.

So: Someone in the House! It's an amazing Gothic about a bunch of people running hilariously around trying to prove their pet theory about why Kevin is having noisy invisible sex and making everyone else feel really awkward in the middle of the night.

....but then the ending got, like, really legitimately creepy and I was impressed, so I stopped verbally liveblogging for my long-suffering companions on the chance any of them were going to read it, because it's actually worth not being spoiled for. Say thank you to Barbara Michaels, long-suffering companions! By virtue of her talent, you were spared. THIS TIME.

Comments

[thewickedlady]

I felt it was a fair thing to ask! I mean, maybe he just has very vivid yet naughty night terrors!

[skygiants]

IT'S A VERY FAIR QUESTION. It's just made all the funnier by the fact that literally every chapter someone's like "well, I mean ... maybe we should ... just ask Kevin about it?" and everyone else is like "NO WE CAN'T, I JUST HAVE THIS FEELING."

[percysowner]

I love Barbara Michaels and her stuff does often get legitimately creepy, which is one of the reasons I love her work. I hope you enjoy the rest of what you downloaded. My library didn't have her in e-format for the longest time, but your review made me check and Yes! They have most of her books. So thanks, I'd stopped checking.

[skygiants]

I suspect I will! I'd read one of hers before, The Sea King's Daughter ("it's all a sinister plot to make us have sex on the beach!") and I read another one on this trip, but I look forward to many more in my future.

[jothra]

I was wondering why you ceased narrating!

[skygiants]

If you want to find out why .... you'll just have to read the book!

*floats off in a cloud of Reading Rainbow theme*

[jinian]

What, no one else had the "having invisible sex" course requirement in grad school? Maybe it's a STEM thing.

[skygiants]

Unfortunately everyone involved was English majors and no one had training in scientific methods to deal with invisible sex. :( An unfortunate flaw in our educational system.

[brownbetty]

How they know it's invisible sex if they've only heard it? I mean, obviously, you can only hear it, if it's invisible, but mightn't he have snuck someone visible up the trellis and be having perfectly visible sex behind closed doors?

(This is obviously tangential, but it seems like a major stumbling block, to me.)

[skygiants]

This is Aunt Hypothesis A, pre-ghost! When she awkwardly mentions to the protagonist that she wishes she and Kevin would stop having sex so loudly. Then when protagonist confirms that she is not the one having loud sex with Kevin, they lurk stealthily outside his room and see him saying an affectionate goodbye to an invisible person. INVISIBLE SEX CONFIRMED.