The Haunting of Silver Hollow
The Haunting of Silver Hollow
By Vincent Valentean
The Sexton’s musings (spoilers are likely):
Believe it or not I did not get worked up during this one. I did get a little frustrated at Ev a bit there in the middle but nothing overly anger inducing. The first 60% of the book is the setup story for the introduction of Michael Merlyn. Okay okay maybe not 150 pages of setup but I’m always looking for the entrance of Michael. He is more of a supporting character in this one but once he gets involved the book moves very quickly.
The main characters are actually worth the paper they are printed on. So many of the books in this “Riveting Haunted House Mystery” have characters that deny their own eyes and spend half the book in disbelief that there is anything going on. It’s really annoying! Many of them are also similar in set up. But Valentean is different. His books have engaging characters and decent development. The Michael Merlyn books build on one another in a way that makes you hunger for the next one. Now Ryan and Evelyn in and of themselves are decent characters. At first you are not sure that you can really empathize with Evelyn. She is very much a stern and systematic but as things move forward she warms on you. Ryan is a smidge one note, BUT this is common for your typical love interest hero type in stories. I’m not saying he is a bad character, just that he is not a complex character.
Then we have the house. Yes indeed! The house is its own character. And a good one at that. If anyone has ever read “The Haunting of Hill House”, this house is so much better. Better, to the point where you actually develop empathy for the house during the final battle. It’s like the poor thing has been sick for two centuries with an infection that just won’t go away. Oh sometimes it lays dormant until someone comes and wakes it up, much like herpes. Luckily this infection is NOT forever!
The final battle does have some repetitive parts however I think that it speaks to how difficult it is to defeat this foe. If it had only been a couple of chapters it may have not been believable. I mean we are dealing with an inhuman entity after all. The first one that Michael Merlyn has ever encountered. Which is saying something because he gets around.
I was surprised that Michael was so open about having Evelyn and Ryan help with the ritual. I mean it makes sense in this case but he’s always very cautious about involving others. Not only does he welcome their involvement with open arms but he tells them about his passenger and how that came about. He is definitely less of an asshole in this one. Dare I say he is uncharacteristically open. I think it suites him. Not that I don’t enjoy his sarcasm and quips but this shows just how truly complex a character he is. Another dimension if you will.
Closing thoughts:
Overall a very good story. It has a nice build to it. The entity is unique in that we have never seen an in-human entity in any of these stories thus far. Not in Valentean’s nor in the series itself. I warn that there is an interesting tid bit at the end that has so much more meaning if you have read the previous book to this one “Whispers in the Wings”. Often there are spoilers in the books of things that have happened previously so it just makes sense to start at the beginning and go in order.
