(no subject)

[skygiants]

The Haunting of Maddy Clare is a book with a lot of elements I really enjoyed, slapped together in a way that doesn't really create a concrete whole. I still more or less enjoyed reading it because I like all the ingredients, but I wouldn't necessarily vote for it to win on Master Chef, you know?

(ETA: ...I wrote this booklog and this sentence and then immediately afterwards found out that the book won several RITA awards. Uh, that was not an intentional reference! But I'm still a little surprised!)

The ingredient list:

- veterans with PTSD who met during WWI and are driven to investigate the paranormal by the empty lack of ghosts on the battlefield
- a drab, struggling stenographer heroine who gets hired out to assist the ghost hunters by her temp agency
- the angry ghost of a servant girl out for revenge, much to the dismay of the elderly lady who employed her, who was fond of her and is very sad that she's dead but also wishes she'd stop throwing undead temper tantrums in the barn
- a romance between two people haunted metaphorically by their past traumas and literally by this actual completely unrelated ghost

Setting ghost stories amid the Lost Generation is a very evocative idea for obvious reasons, and telling ghost stories about the scars left by the patriarchy and the abuses of the class system is a good idea for obvious reasons, and having your characters fall in love while they investigate a ghost is a fun idea for tropey reasons, but it felt a bit like Simone St. James got to that point and didn't do much of the rest of the work to connect any of the dots together. Everyone in the book is haunted by one thing or another, but none of those things actually resonate with each other -- and that might be OK if it felt like that was the point, you can tell an interesting story about the individuality and loneliness of trauma, but the book doesn't quite get there either.

(Also I did have to stop and laugh when our heroine Sarah Piper, who's been crushing on Ghost Hunter A -- a charming rich eccentric -- accidentally walks in on Ghost Hunter B -- his broody scarred technician -- in the bathroom with his shirt off and is immediately like "OH WAIT NO HE'S THE ONE." It's okay, Sarah, it doesn't have to be an immediate true unspoken connection, it can just be thirst.)

Anyway if someone knows of a book that uses similar ingredients to make a more coherent dish, please let me know, I would love to read some more good 1920s ghost stories.

Comments

[lirazel]

I totally agree with you about Simone St. James's books. They should be much better than they are because she's working with such strong elements, but none of them have satisfied me. I actually thinks he'd be better at writing straightforward mysteries since I think that would play to her strengths. She's by no means a bad writer, but maybe she's out of her depth?

And also definitely wanting a more coherent dish. The premise of post-war ghost stories is so good!!!!

[skygiants]

Yeah, it's like, she throws all this very meaty stuff in and then she just doesn't excavate it! So I think it would be less frustrating if the initial elements were less ... meaty ..... this metaphor is getting away from me and also I'm a vegetarian but in short, I agree.

[aella_irene]

I really love The Other Side of Midnight, featuring a medium investigating the death of her also a medium frenemy, along with the guy who exposed her mother as a fraud and declared second medium The Only True Medium In Britain, and The Broken Girls featuring Boarding School Horror out of St James's novels. The Broken Girls was the first one I read, and also my undying favourite.

[skygiants]

The medium one does sound like fun, I'll give it a try and see if I like it better!

[lirazel]

I seem to remember liking The Other Side of Midnight quite a bit more than I did The Haunting of Maddy Clare. The Broken Girls wasn't really for me, but that's probably because I don't enjoy split present/past narratives. I know a lot of people love that one!

[sovay]

Setting ghost stories amid the Lost Generation is a very evocative idea for obvious reasons, and telling ghost stories about the scars left by the patriarchy and the abuses of the class system is a good idea for obvious reasons, and having your characters fall in love while they investigate a ghost is a fun idea for tropey reasons, but it felt a bit like Simone St. James got to that point and didn't do much of the rest of the work to connect any of the dots together.

I AM SECONDHAND EXTREMELY DISAPPOINT

[edit] Anyway if someone knows of a book that uses similar ingredients to make a more coherent dish, please let me know, I would love to read some more good 1920s ghost stories.

The book that's coming to mind is KJ Charles' Spectred Isle (2017), whose promised f/f sequel I and the rest of the internet are still impatiently waiting for. On film and het, I really loved Stephen Volk and Nick Murphy's The Awakening (2011).

[skygiants]

This is great timing because I literally just checked the ebook of Spectred Isle out of the library for an upcoming trip, so I will consider The Haunting of Maddy Clare an appetizer!

[sovay]

This is great timing because I literally just checked the ebook of Spectred Isle out of the library for an upcoming trip, so I will consider The Haunting of Maddy Clare an appetizer!

Good call, past you!

[davidgillon]

driven to investigate the paranormal by the empty lack of ghosts on the battlefield

That's possibly taking "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" further than logic really supports ;)

[skygiants]

A BIT. Though I do actually quite like the idea that WWI would drive veterans to investigate the paranormal in the hope of finding some kind of meaning where none appears to exist -- there's one line in the book that I really did like, about modern war killing ghosts. I highlighted it but my Kobo is another room so I'm too lazy to get it and quote it. >.>

[copperfyre]

That ingredient list does sound so good! I’m sad the finished product doesn’t live up to it, because now I really want to read post WWI ghost stories that do make it work.

[skygiants]

ME TOO, and surely there must be several? It feels like such a natural link!

not 1920s, but

[allchildren]

Have you read Affinity by Sarah Waters?

Re: not 1920s, but

[skygiants]

Oh hey, I have not! The only Sarah Waters I've read actually are Fingersmith and The Little Friend - I've had a vague sense of "saving up" her others but I really don't know what I'm saving them for ...

[cinaed]

Okay, I cannot help with book suggestions.

But between this book review and this tumblr post I am straight up craving a story/novel where a woman agrees to marry five men who propose to her before going off to war, and then the lone survivor and one very stubborn ghost try to fight for her hand after the war.

[skygiants]

omg that's amazing, PLEASE WRITE THIS

[cinaed]

I have no idea how it would end, but it would be fun! This poor woman, haha.

[genarti]

I SECOND BECCA'S URGING, omg *__*

[alias_sqbr]

It's been a few years since I read it, and from what I recall it was sad and kind of confusing for me as someone with little interest or knowledge of the US Civil War, but your description kinda reminds me of Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis.

[skygiants]

I last read Lincoln's Dreams when I was fifteen or so and I also remember it being mostly sad and confusing, even as someone with a reasonable working knowledge of the Civil War (but at that age I think I was also largely annoyed that it wasn't funny because I expected Connie Willis to be funny.)

[alias_sqbr]

Yes I had that reaction too. I think the next Connie Willis I read was Doomsday Book, by which point I learned to adjust my expectations.

[coffeeandink]

It's been a while since ai read it, but I think _Lincoln's Dreams_ is probably too invested in the Myth of Robert E. Lee and the suffering of Confederate soldiers to suit.

[alias_sqbr]

Ah, ok! I vaguely recall having the feeling there was a lot of political subtext going over my head.

[evewithanapple]

It's interesting, how St. James's books are categorized - I read The Broken Girls for a class assignment to learn more about mystery novels (because it was shortlisted for the RUSA award in the mystery category) even though it also has ghosts. Meanwhile Maddy Clare is also about ghosts, and it's a romance? She has the range, apparently!

[skygiants]

This may be another example of her attempting, as lirazel said, to do All Of The Things in each book! ... I say, having only read one of her books, but I'm now curious to see how that plays out in others!

(Admittedly one of the awards it won was Novel With Strong Romantic Elements -- I don't really know how that category works. Best Romance That Isn't Technically A Romance?)

[ambyr]

The WWI ghost story book that I'm most familiar with is Cat Winters' In the Shadow of Blackbirds, but I am afraid I also did not love it.

[skygiants]

THERE MUST BE A GOOD ONE SOMEWHERE (she said, shaking the library hopefully.) I think what I really want is Pat Barker's Regeneration but with actual ghosts.

[taelle]

Mary Robinette Kowal has a novel called Ghost Talkers which is about ghosts and WWI, though it is not exactly what you want - it's mostly about the military use of ghosts and the resulting spy and murder troubles.