On the HahaFiction shelf
The Twisted Ones
Audiobook available
Mouse agrees to clear out her dead grandmother's North Carolina house, bringing her coonhound Bongo along. The hoarded belongings conceal her stepgrandfather's journal. Its strange accounts become harder to dismiss when she encounters the things he described.
From the publisher’s blurb
“sometimes the things that go bump in the night are real”Read the full description at Simon & Schuster publisher description
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What makes it funny?
Mouse surveys the accumulated junk as though her grandmother had been building fortifications against a siege. An editor by trade, she also brings a droll professional eye to the unsettling notebook she's found.
The comedy at work
Her practical observations give the narration a steady comic voice even as the woods grow threatening. Reading and picking apart someone else's prose becomes a way into the horror.
Try this if…
A talkative, witty guide leads this trip into ominous woods and old folklore. It suits readers who like a recognizable everyday voice recounting events that become increasingly difficult to explain.
Good to know
Arthur Machen's short story The White People is the starting point. This novel stands alone, though familiarity with Machen adds references and connections to notice.
A few distinguishing details
- An editor investigates an ominous family notebook
- A house clearance leads into folk horror
More funny horror
Sources & further reading
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