Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Sceptre (2016), Edition: 01, 240 pages
Description
Follows the narrative of five different people who disappear through a mysterious door in an unassuming alleyway that leads to Slade House, owned by a peculiar brother and sister, and vanish completely from the outside world. Down the road from a working-class British pub, along the brick wall of a narrow alley, if the conditions are exactly right, you'll find the entrance to Slade House: a surreal place where visitors see what they want to see, including some things that should be impossible. Every nine years, the house's residents--an odd brother and sister--extend a unique invitation to someone who's different or lonely: a precocious teenager, a divorced policeman, a shy college student. But what really goes on inside Slade House? For those who find out, it's already too late.… (more)
Media reviews
The Guardian
“Tonight feels like a board game co-designed by MC Escher on a bender and Stephen King in a fever,” observes a spooked member of a university’s paranormal society in David Mitchell’s manically ingenious new novel, Slade House. It’s hard not to read the assessment as the author’s
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compressed verdict on his own Halloween-timed offering, but the book is much more besides.
Each fresh product of Mitchell’s soaring imagination functions as an echo chamber for both his previous ideas and his oeuvre to come, components in the grand project he calls his “uber-novel”. But while entire doctoral theses, complete with Venn diagrams, are being written about Mitchellian intertextuality, readers anticipating the heft of his earlier multi-narratives Ghostwritten, Cloud Atlas and most recently The Bone Clocks can step off the ghost train right here.
If this faux-scary, read-in-one-sitting crowd-pleaser has a single mission, it is to enjoy itself. Think The Bone Clocks’s naughty little sister in a fright wig, brandishing a sparkler, yelling “Boo!” – and highlighting an element of Mitchell’s talent that has been present but underexploited from the beginning of the writer’s award-studded career: a rich seam of comedy.
Only one year has elapsed since The Bone Clocks was published. The fact that Slade House germinated from a Twitter short story and blossomed into a work of just over 200 pages with such speed is evidence that time flies when you’re having a good time in a Wonderland of your own creation. Down Mitchell’s rabbit hole, the warren’s Supernatural Wing has expanded.
The good-versus-evil spirit war enacted in The Bone Clocks was its most overwrought and frustrating element, but there have always been ghosts in the Mitchell machine. Now, in a fresh riff on an old theme, the writer parodies his phantoms. Faustian pacts, shape-shifters, “psychovoltage”, soul-theft, reality bubbles, a liquid called banjax (a name almost as cheesy as Avatar’s Unobtanium), and characters who say, “I’d lay off the particle physics, doc, if I were you”: they’re all at the fun house party, flexing their similes and tooting their paper whistles.
While time separates the novel’s five stories, set at nine-year intervals from 1979 to the present day, place unites them. It is to Slade House, accessed via a tiny iron door in an alley, that twin soul-vampires Norah and Jonah Grayer lure their living prey. Will the deftly sketched characters we come so swiftly to care about, sometimes despite ourselves, ever emerge from the Tardis-like space they innocently enter?
“Our scoutmaster told me to get lost, so I did, and it took the Snowdonia mountain rescue service two days to find my shelter,” declares Nathan Bishop, 13 years old, and clearly on the autistic spectrum. He and his mother have been invited to a musical soiree at Slade House. Is the Valium he popped to blame for his hallucinations there, or is something more chilling at work?
Fast-forward to 1988, where sleazy, racist CID man Gordon Edmonds is researching a lead on the Bishops’ unexplained disappearance and romancing a fragrant widow. Nine years later, students from a Paranormal Society field trip enter the equation and, to add more grit to the Vaseline, as the now-vanished Edmonds would phrase it, they become fatally imperilled too. In 2006, the sister of one of them circles the same drain.
As the novellas merge and climax in the present day with the re-emergence of a key character from Mitchell’s back catalogue, familiar shadows – from Harry Potter, Tom’s Midnight Garden, The Matrix, Les Enfants Terribles, The Truman Show, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, The Turn of the Screw and The Rocky Horror Picture Show – dance on the wall. To re cast one of Nathan Bishop’s observations: if I had 50p for every cultural nod, wink and meta-reference I’d have to get out my calculator.
“When something is two-dimensional and hackneyed, this is how to fix it: identify an improbable opposite and mix it, implausibly, into the brew,” Mitchell once told the Paris Review. Vending-machine horror tropes, believable characters, wild farce, existential jeopardy, meta-fictional jokes: into the cauldron they go. Mitchell is at home in this kitchen. Along with the movie industry, he knows that playing goosebumps for laughs is a winning formula. Horror says aloud what religious doctrine often prefers to sidestep: if you believe in cosmic good, you cannot ignore the notion of cosmic evil. Supplement fear with hilarity, and the unbearable becomes bearable. In the gathering darkness, David Mitchell’s illuminated pumpkin lamp is smiling a huge, crazed smile.
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New York Times
David Mitchell’s novels are flecked with meaningful coincidences, to borrow Carl Jung’s description of synchronicity. Characters recur from one of his books to the next. So do images and ideas.
Mr. Mitchell’s best-known and most ambitious novel is “Cloud Atlas” (2004), a suite of
His most recent novel, “The Bone Clocks” (2014), was nearly as ambitious but felt like a misfire. His gifts were put in service of a plot — there were psychic powers, creepy villains, an epic showdown between good and evil — that felt soft and formulaic.
This was a pastiche of second-rate fantasy fiction that actually read, quite often, like second-rate fantasy fiction. Mr. Mitchell’s intertextual gamesmanship — the recurring characters and so on — began to seem, as a friend said to me, “less like Yoknapatawpha and more like Marvel.”
Mr. Mitchell’s slim new novel, “Slade House,” is a sequel of sorts to “The Bone Clocks,” although it’s closer to being a sly footnote. It first came to life as a short story, “The Right Sort,” which the author published in 140-character snippets on Twitter. It’s grown into something more.
On a macro level, “Slade House” plunges us again into a battle between two blocs of immortals. One group consists of soul vampires; humans must die for them to live. The other is vastly more pleasant.
On a micro level, this can make for malevolent fun. A pair of immortal twins, Jonah and Norah, occupy — or appear to occupy — a grand old pile in downtown London, accessible only through a small metal door in an alleyway. It opens very rarely, and when it does, it admits a victim.
Once they’ve found an acceptable soul to suck, the twins share it as if it were a milkshake into which two straws have been sunk. We’re given tasting notes. “A sprinkle of last-minute despair,” Jonah comments, “gives a soul an agreeably earthy aftertaste.”
After killing and inhaling the soul of a loutish cop, “The twins gasp and let out soft groans like junkies shooting up when the drug hits the bloodstream.” By the time the officer saw something, it was too late to say anything.
“Slade House” is told in five chapters, spaced nine years apart. The first takes place in 1979, the last in 2015. In each chapter, a victim enters the compound. Muggles will not do. The twins need “engifted” humans with potent “psychovoltage.”
Mr. Mitchell tips this book into some dark corners. One character is made to viscerally understand how suffering is much worse if someone you love disappears rather than simply dies.
“Grief is an amputation,” this woman says, “but hope is incurable hemophilia: You bleed and bleed and bleed. Like Schrödinger’s cat inside a box you can never ever open.”
Mr. Mitchell remains a fluent and, when he wishes to be, witty writer. It is hard to disapprove of a novel in which one of the most likable characters is a young woman named Sally Timms, clearly in homage to a lead singer in the venerable British punk band the Mekons.
As this book moves deeper into the fripperies of its ghost story, Mr. Mitchell is savvy enough to have his characters, every so often, blow raspberries at the expense of all the solemnity. “This is all sounding a bit ‘Da Vinci Code’ for me,” one says. And: “What I see is the wackometer needle climbing.”
Alas, the wackometer needle does climb. Characters deliver big chunks of artless exposition so readers can keep up with metaphysical nuances. The dialogue often has a Lovecraft-meets-Hardy Boys flavor: “Something bad’s happening in this house, Sal. We need to get out.”
“Slade House” is Mr. Mitchell’s shortest and most accessible novel to date, and you don’t have to have read “The Bone Clocks” to comprehend it. Readers who come to this book first, however, will get only a slivery glimpse of this writer’s talent. Our seats are the intellectual version of “obstructed view,” as cheap theater tickets sometimes say.
The biggest drawback of “Slade House” might that it simply isn’t very scary. These characters aren’t alive enough for us to fear for them when they’re in peril. With the possible exception of Sally Timms, we’re not invested in them.
As it happens, I read this novel alone and mostly at night in a fairly remote cabin in upstate New York. There’s no cellphone reception here.
I’m as susceptible to scary stories as the next person. After seeing “The Blair Witch Project,” I wouldn’t go on my back porch alone at night, even to smoke, for two months. But “Slade House” slid right off me, even as the wind howled outside.
In “Cloud Atlas,” Mr. Mitchell wrote: “Power, time, gravity, love. The forces that really kick ass are all invisible.” Fear belongs on that list, too.
Mr. Mitchell’s best-known and most ambitious novel is “Cloud Atlas” (2004), a suite of
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interfolded novellas that skip purposefully between eras and temperaments. It seemed, in that novel, that there was nothing this writer could not do. Intellect, feeling, narrative brawn — his kit bag opened and both the Johnstown flood and a rescue skiff poured out.His most recent novel, “The Bone Clocks” (2014), was nearly as ambitious but felt like a misfire. His gifts were put in service of a plot — there were psychic powers, creepy villains, an epic showdown between good and evil — that felt soft and formulaic.
This was a pastiche of second-rate fantasy fiction that actually read, quite often, like second-rate fantasy fiction. Mr. Mitchell’s intertextual gamesmanship — the recurring characters and so on — began to seem, as a friend said to me, “less like Yoknapatawpha and more like Marvel.”
Mr. Mitchell’s slim new novel, “Slade House,” is a sequel of sorts to “The Bone Clocks,” although it’s closer to being a sly footnote. It first came to life as a short story, “The Right Sort,” which the author published in 140-character snippets on Twitter. It’s grown into something more.
On a macro level, “Slade House” plunges us again into a battle between two blocs of immortals. One group consists of soul vampires; humans must die for them to live. The other is vastly more pleasant.
On a micro level, this can make for malevolent fun. A pair of immortal twins, Jonah and Norah, occupy — or appear to occupy — a grand old pile in downtown London, accessible only through a small metal door in an alleyway. It opens very rarely, and when it does, it admits a victim.
Once they’ve found an acceptable soul to suck, the twins share it as if it were a milkshake into which two straws have been sunk. We’re given tasting notes. “A sprinkle of last-minute despair,” Jonah comments, “gives a soul an agreeably earthy aftertaste.”
After killing and inhaling the soul of a loutish cop, “The twins gasp and let out soft groans like junkies shooting up when the drug hits the bloodstream.” By the time the officer saw something, it was too late to say anything.
“Slade House” is told in five chapters, spaced nine years apart. The first takes place in 1979, the last in 2015. In each chapter, a victim enters the compound. Muggles will not do. The twins need “engifted” humans with potent “psychovoltage.”
Mr. Mitchell tips this book into some dark corners. One character is made to viscerally understand how suffering is much worse if someone you love disappears rather than simply dies.
“Grief is an amputation,” this woman says, “but hope is incurable hemophilia: You bleed and bleed and bleed. Like Schrödinger’s cat inside a box you can never ever open.”
Mr. Mitchell remains a fluent and, when he wishes to be, witty writer. It is hard to disapprove of a novel in which one of the most likable characters is a young woman named Sally Timms, clearly in homage to a lead singer in the venerable British punk band the Mekons.
As this book moves deeper into the fripperies of its ghost story, Mr. Mitchell is savvy enough to have his characters, every so often, blow raspberries at the expense of all the solemnity. “This is all sounding a bit ‘Da Vinci Code’ for me,” one says. And: “What I see is the wackometer needle climbing.”
Alas, the wackometer needle does climb. Characters deliver big chunks of artless exposition so readers can keep up with metaphysical nuances. The dialogue often has a Lovecraft-meets-Hardy Boys flavor: “Something bad’s happening in this house, Sal. We need to get out.”
“Slade House” is Mr. Mitchell’s shortest and most accessible novel to date, and you don’t have to have read “The Bone Clocks” to comprehend it. Readers who come to this book first, however, will get only a slivery glimpse of this writer’s talent. Our seats are the intellectual version of “obstructed view,” as cheap theater tickets sometimes say.
The biggest drawback of “Slade House” might that it simply isn’t very scary. These characters aren’t alive enough for us to fear for them when they’re in peril. With the possible exception of Sally Timms, we’re not invested in them.
As it happens, I read this novel alone and mostly at night in a fairly remote cabin in upstate New York. There’s no cellphone reception here.
I’m as susceptible to scary stories as the next person. After seeing “The Blair Witch Project,” I wouldn’t go on my back porch alone at night, even to smoke, for two months. But “Slade House” slid right off me, even as the wind howled outside.
In “Cloud Atlas,” Mr. Mitchell wrote: “Power, time, gravity, love. The forces that really kick ass are all invisible.” Fear belongs on that list, too.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member elenchus
Slade House ushers the reader into a Palladian story cycle: evidently this approach is a David Mitchell trademark. The design is intricate and clever, and while initially the situation is Weird and odd, the further along I read, the clearer became the rational design. The unfolding story is both
And yet! --were the uncanny elements coddled / amplified / multiplied, I'd likely be confused as to the larger tale, likely not grasp the design or overall consistency, and that understanding is central to a full appreciation of the denouement. Mitchell perhaps sacrificed effect for the larger meaning of his tale, effectively creating a lasting weight that simply wouldn't be there for me had the Weird distorted the structure.
This reading prompted as a Hallowe'en indulgence, somewhat on a whim and enabled by readily available copies on my local's shelves. Cloud Atlas already had a place on my recon list. Think now I'll prioritise other books in the Horologists series.
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satisfying and anticlimactic ... so very clever how well the nested pieces fit, but anticlimactic in that the oddness of the tale is undercut by so rational an account. And yet! --were the uncanny elements coddled / amplified / multiplied, I'd likely be confused as to the larger tale, likely not grasp the design or overall consistency, and that understanding is central to a full appreciation of the denouement. Mitchell perhaps sacrificed effect for the larger meaning of his tale, effectively creating a lasting weight that simply wouldn't be there for me had the Weird distorted the structure.
This reading prompted as a Hallowe'en indulgence, somewhat on a whim and enabled by readily available copies on my local's shelves. Cloud Atlas already had a place on my recon list. Think now I'll prioritise other books in the Horologists series.
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LibraryThing member browner56
Here is some unsolicited advice: If you find yourself in a small English working class village on the last Saturday of October, do not stop off for a pint at a pub called The Fox and Hounds. Or, if you do have that pint, do not then go looking for a narrow passageway nearby called Slade Alley.
In Slade House, author David Mitchell tells the tale of Norah and Jonah Grayer, twin siblings who were born at the end of the nineteenth century and keep themselves alive by periodically consuming the souls of the unlucky few who did not have the benefit of the preceding warning. Fated by the need to recharge their earthly bodies once every nine years, the twins lure their prey into their artificial domain through an elaborate system of cunning, supernatural artifice, and blatant emotional appeals. Structured as a series of five vignettes spaced nine years apart starting on Halloween 1979 and ending on Halloween 2015, the novel is everything that a good ghost story should be: always creepy and occasionally terrifying, with sufficient compassion for its myriad protagonists to compel the reader to care what happens.
It is tempting to think of this book as a slimmed-down sequel to the author’s more massive The Bone Clocks, but that is accurate only up to a point. Certainly, in both volumes Mitchell embraces the science fiction and fantasy genres and the final section of this newest effort could easily have been part of that earlier work. However, the first four vignettes of Slade House stand completely on their own and the ultimate chapter still makes perfect sense for those readers without any prior exposure to the on-going battle for atemporal supremacy between the Anchorites and Horologists. The author is simply marvelous at crafting a great story and no one who has enjoyed the inventiveness, wit, and warmth of his past novels should be disappointed in the slightest with this one.
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However, if you do find yourself in that alley and you see an oddly shaped black iron door built into a high brick wall, under no circumstances should you go through that door. But if you do walk through the door into a beautiful garden looking at a stately old mansion, you really should stay well clear of the house. Of course, if you do enter Slade House, then good luck; there is no more advice that anyone can offer you.In Slade House, author David Mitchell tells the tale of Norah and Jonah Grayer, twin siblings who were born at the end of the nineteenth century and keep themselves alive by periodically consuming the souls of the unlucky few who did not have the benefit of the preceding warning. Fated by the need to recharge their earthly bodies once every nine years, the twins lure their prey into their artificial domain through an elaborate system of cunning, supernatural artifice, and blatant emotional appeals. Structured as a series of five vignettes spaced nine years apart starting on Halloween 1979 and ending on Halloween 2015, the novel is everything that a good ghost story should be: always creepy and occasionally terrifying, with sufficient compassion for its myriad protagonists to compel the reader to care what happens.
It is tempting to think of this book as a slimmed-down sequel to the author’s more massive The Bone Clocks, but that is accurate only up to a point. Certainly, in both volumes Mitchell embraces the science fiction and fantasy genres and the final section of this newest effort could easily have been part of that earlier work. However, the first four vignettes of Slade House stand completely on their own and the ultimate chapter still makes perfect sense for those readers without any prior exposure to the on-going battle for atemporal supremacy between the Anchorites and Horologists. The author is simply marvelous at crafting a great story and no one who has enjoyed the inventiveness, wit, and warmth of his past novels should be disappointed in the slightest with this one.
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LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
This is a book set in the same world as "The Bone Clock", which is good - but too long and involved. This is a short book, easy to read, but fun - its a ghost story, but the ghosts are not what they seem. Its a book of 4 short stories, connected by an invitation to Slade House, which seems to
Each story is set in a different decade, with different characters (although connected to someone from the previous story). Each story explains a bit more about the what is Slade House.
The book is well written - interesting, and keeps a reader's interest. This book is standalone from Bone Clock - I highly recommended it if you like skewed ghost stories, or like stories told at different times.
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appear every nine years. Each story is set in a different decade, with different characters (although connected to someone from the previous story). Each story explains a bit more about the what is Slade House.
The book is well written - interesting, and keeps a reader's interest. This book is standalone from Bone Clock - I highly recommended it if you like skewed ghost stories, or like stories told at different times.
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LibraryThing member pgmcc
Slade House works as an OK scary book but it is nothing special. It is listed as Book 3 in David Mitchell’s “Horologists” series. Books 1 and 2 are The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet and The Bone Clocks respectively. In those two books Mitchell introduced the Horologists, body jumping
His third Horologists novel appears to me as his attempt to fill out the back story of Horology and to establish some of the rules, mythology and methods of the Horologists. Someone described it as a collection of the discarded elements of the other two books. I would not be as harsh as that but do see it as an attempt to establish a framework to Horology that I suspect Mitchell intends to use in subsequent novels.
I was disappointed in Slade House as it is not as clever as his other novels. Slade House feels like the story he rushed together to explain some of the background to the supernatural elements of The Thousand Autumns and The Bone Clocks. The story lacked the sophistication and complexity of his other stories and this is the main reason I was disappointed in it.
Mitchell obviously sees the lives and works of the Horologists as his source of inspiration for future novels. While three books are described as being in the Horologists series, David Mitchell has attempted to retrospectively throw strands of Horology into at least one other novel, namely Black Swan Green. He does this in The Bone Clocks by having a character claim to have been possessing one of the characters in Black Swan Green.
In summary, the book was a disappointment when compared to the standard of other David Mitchell novels but it is still a reasonably scary book as a standalone story. Not a book I would suggest anyone to rush out and read but not a bad read if you have nothing else to hand.
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souls, some with doing good on their minds, others with more selfish motives.His third Horologists novel appears to me as his attempt to fill out the back story of Horology and to establish some of the rules, mythology and methods of the Horologists. Someone described it as a collection of the discarded elements of the other two books. I would not be as harsh as that but do see it as an attempt to establish a framework to Horology that I suspect Mitchell intends to use in subsequent novels.
I was disappointed in Slade House as it is not as clever as his other novels. Slade House feels like the story he rushed together to explain some of the background to the supernatural elements of The Thousand Autumns and The Bone Clocks. The story lacked the sophistication and complexity of his other stories and this is the main reason I was disappointed in it.
Mitchell obviously sees the lives and works of the Horologists as his source of inspiration for future novels. While three books are described as being in the Horologists series, David Mitchell has attempted to retrospectively throw strands of Horology into at least one other novel, namely Black Swan Green. He does this in The Bone Clocks by having a character claim to have been possessing one of the characters in Black Swan Green.
In summary, the book was a disappointment when compared to the standard of other David Mitchell novels but it is still a reasonably scary book as a standalone story. Not a book I would suggest anyone to rush out and read but not a bad read if you have nothing else to hand.
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LibraryThing member John_Warner
This horror novel, like a lethal Brigadoon, is told in nine year increments in London between 1979 and 2015 when the occupants of the veiled Slade House, the immortal twins Jonah and and Norah, cause the residence to appear to the world accessible only be a small black iron door in Slade Alley. The
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twins are soul vampires who must feed every nine years to sustain their immortality. Victims are lured into Slade House and like the Eagles' Hotel California, "you can check in but you can never leave." This novel is your traditional good vs evil; however, one begins to wonder which will be the victor. Although it is not necessary to read Mitchell's sort-of prequel The Bone Clocks because I did, I predicted the end when a character makes a reappearance in this book. This was definitely a "things that go bump in the night" scary story. I almost found myself yelling at the characters not to enter Slade House. Show Less
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
Since Slade House was conveniently available at my local public library, I read it hot on the heels of The Bone Clocks, to which it is a supplement with many points of plot and character contact. It is structured similarly, taking place over the course of five decades, with a distinct section
The chronological structure is determined by the nine-year cycle involved with the renewal of Slade House, a sort of sinister TARDIS stationed in an urban alley and operated by sorcerers who depend on destroying human souls for their sustenance. The overall genre tendency in this book is toward supernatural horror, although at one point Mitchell makes the political allegory of his Horologist stories quite plain, as the villains are indicted as "same old, same old ... from feudal lords to slave traders to oligarchs to neocons to predators like you" (235), also tying this book to the social concerns of his wider work.
Slade House is relatively short and reads quickly. I enjoyed it as an epilogue to The Bone Clocks, but I think it would work equally well as an introduction.
Some notes on "psychosoteric" and related neologisms: At first "psychosoteric" struck me as a reprehensible portmanteau of "psychic" and "esoteric." However, further and more charitable reflection suggests that it might signify the techniques associated with the "soul" (psycho-) "saving" (soteric) efforts of various Atemporals. The term "Atemporal" doesn't seem all that well-chosen either, though. And I bristled at "the operandi" for well over a hundred pages until Mitchell made it clear that it was a contraction of the phrase modus operandi. Most psychosoteric terms of art are fairly blameless (aperture, lacuna, orison, redaction, suasion, etc.), although they do straddle the stylistic divide between parapsychological and occultist terminology -- probably by design.
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dedicated to each. As in The Bone Clocks, narrator duties revolve among principal characters, and the default narrative voice is in present tense. This book does not, however, go into the future, wrapping up its larger story in 2015, the year of its publication. The chronological structure is determined by the nine-year cycle involved with the renewal of Slade House, a sort of sinister TARDIS stationed in an urban alley and operated by sorcerers who depend on destroying human souls for their sustenance. The overall genre tendency in this book is toward supernatural horror, although at one point Mitchell makes the political allegory of his Horologist stories quite plain, as the villains are indicted as "same old, same old ... from feudal lords to slave traders to oligarchs to neocons to predators like you" (235), also tying this book to the social concerns of his wider work.
Slade House is relatively short and reads quickly. I enjoyed it as an epilogue to The Bone Clocks, but I think it would work equally well as an introduction.
Some notes on "psychosoteric" and related neologisms: At first "psychosoteric" struck me as a reprehensible portmanteau of "psychic" and "esoteric." However, further and more charitable reflection suggests that it might signify the techniques associated with the "soul" (psycho-) "saving" (soteric) efforts of various Atemporals. The term "Atemporal" doesn't seem all that well-chosen either, though. And I bristled at "the operandi" for well over a hundred pages until Mitchell made it clear that it was a contraction of the phrase modus operandi. Most psychosoteric terms of art are fairly blameless (aperture, lacuna, orison, redaction, suasion, etc.), although they do straddle the stylistic divide between parapsychological and occultist terminology -- probably by design.
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LibraryThing member PrairieProgressive
Immortality -- and its consequences -- have been on author David Mitchell's mind. His 2014 novel, The Bone Clocks, involved two groups of immortals, the Horologists and the Anchorites, who battle over the proper way to remain immortal, through reincarnation or by "decanting" human souls. The next
To a great extent, Slade House is a ghost or haunted house story about five different days in nine year intervals from 1979 to 2015. The mansion is owned by twins Norah and Jonah Grayer and seems impossibly situated between two ordinary houses on Westwood Road in London. It is accessible only through a small metal door in an alleyway that leads into a large garden on the property. The tale is about what happens to those who enter the house.
Like any accomplished haunted house or ghost story, detail becomes spoiler. Suffice it to say that when guests enter Slade House things are not as they appear. The hosts admittedly "pass ourselves off as normal, or anything we want to be." And a substance called banjax will put souls in peril in the twins' quest for "pscyhovoltage."
Perhaps because it grew from a short story Mitchell published on Twitter, Slade House is the shortest of his works. It can easily be read in one sitting. And as is Mitchell's tendency, characters from earlier books become role players. This time it's Dr. Iris Marinus-Fenby, Slade House's guest in 2015. She was the male Dr. Marinus in Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, a 2009 novel set in Japan at the advent of the 19th Century, and reincarnated as a woman psychiatrist from Canada in The Bone Clocks. Mitchell has said he plans for Marinus to appear in future works.
Despite Marinus-Fenby's prior appearances, it is not necessary to read The Bone Clocks, which won the World Fantasy Award in 2015 and was longlisted for The Man Booker Prize in 2014. In fact, while Mitchell says Slade House is an independent work, it is a kind of "dessert" to The Bone Clocks, something reinforced by the fact it's about 35 percent shorter.
From my standpoint, though, Slade House is a more enjoyable and far less complicated approach to the world of the Horologists and the Anchorites and their tactics and goals. Besides, aren't there times when all you really want is dessert?
(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie)
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year brought Slade House, a stand alone work about twin brother and sister Anchorites.To a great extent, Slade House is a ghost or haunted house story about five different days in nine year intervals from 1979 to 2015. The mansion is owned by twins Norah and Jonah Grayer and seems impossibly situated between two ordinary houses on Westwood Road in London. It is accessible only through a small metal door in an alleyway that leads into a large garden on the property. The tale is about what happens to those who enter the house.
Like any accomplished haunted house or ghost story, detail becomes spoiler. Suffice it to say that when guests enter Slade House things are not as they appear. The hosts admittedly "pass ourselves off as normal, or anything we want to be." And a substance called banjax will put souls in peril in the twins' quest for "pscyhovoltage."
Perhaps because it grew from a short story Mitchell published on Twitter, Slade House is the shortest of his works. It can easily be read in one sitting. And as is Mitchell's tendency, characters from earlier books become role players. This time it's Dr. Iris Marinus-Fenby, Slade House's guest in 2015. She was the male Dr. Marinus in Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, a 2009 novel set in Japan at the advent of the 19th Century, and reincarnated as a woman psychiatrist from Canada in The Bone Clocks. Mitchell has said he plans for Marinus to appear in future works.
Despite Marinus-Fenby's prior appearances, it is not necessary to read The Bone Clocks, which won the World Fantasy Award in 2015 and was longlisted for The Man Booker Prize in 2014. In fact, while Mitchell says Slade House is an independent work, it is a kind of "dessert" to The Bone Clocks, something reinforced by the fact it's about 35 percent shorter.
From my standpoint, though, Slade House is a more enjoyable and far less complicated approach to the world of the Horologists and the Anchorites and their tactics and goals. Besides, aren't there times when all you really want is dessert?
(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie)
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LibraryThing member Bostonseanachie
From the author of “Cloud Atlas” comes short, this highly imaginative and unconventional ghost story. Spanning approximately 36 years and five narrators (a miniature for this gifted writer), Slade House tells the story of a haunted house, the entrance to which appears only every five years on
Mitchell’s particular talent is telling the same story essentially five times and having it each time be made new by the powerful voices of the separate narrators. That most narrators are the victims leaves him with the challenge of exposition, so we can better understand our villains. Occasionally, exposition becomes clunky (this is a fault not uncommon in Mitchell’s work, which is so imaginatively complex that much exposition is needed), but Mitchell rescues it in the end because his clunky exposition actually becomes part of the plot.
Highly recommended.
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the last Saturday in October. The two living residents of the house lure in innocents to feast on their souls. Those lured in become paintings on the house’s walls. The novel traces five of these luring episodes during which the ghosts (for lack of a better word) of those lured in become progressively stronger and disrupt the residents’ soul feasting. Mitchell’s particular talent is telling the same story essentially five times and having it each time be made new by the powerful voices of the separate narrators. That most narrators are the victims leaves him with the challenge of exposition, so we can better understand our villains. Occasionally, exposition becomes clunky (this is a fault not uncommon in Mitchell’s work, which is so imaginatively complex that much exposition is needed), but Mitchell rescues it in the end because his clunky exposition actually becomes part of the plot.
Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member sturlington
Every nine years on the last Saturday in October, a mysterious iron door appears in the wall of Slade Alley. If you open it--and you should hope you don't--you'll find yourself in an impossible garden looking at the back of Slade House at a place where it absolutely cannot be. And if you venture
This is a short book, structured like a set of Chinese nesting boxes. Each story, set nine years apart, repeats and builds on the previous one. Mitchell has made an agreeably creepy contribution to the haunted house genre with Slade House, which began as a story told in a series of tweets. There are quite a lot of nice touches that startle and make us feel uneasy, the portraits on the walls being one of my favorite. Even more unsettling is how Mitchell plays with reality, keeping both his characters and us readers feeling off kilter, unable to trust what we are reading. I raced through the first three sections, wanting to know what came next. And here is where I feel Mitchell may have let us down somewhat. The fourth section, although it keeps up the pattern, explains perhaps too much what is going on in Slade House, at least for this reader, who prefers her ghost stories to remain uncomfortably ambiguous. And if you have already read The Bone Clocks, you will know as soon as the final section starts how things are going to go down. (I think Slade House would be more enjoyable if you read it before The Bone Clocks.) Uber-fans of the Horologists may not mind that, but I was wishing Mitchell had taken us somewhere less expected, instead of revisiting old territory. Despite these disappointments, Mitchell's writing is as good as ever, and fans of haunted house stories probably should not miss this one.
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further in, you'll soon realize that Slade House is not at all what it seems.This is a short book, structured like a set of Chinese nesting boxes. Each story, set nine years apart, repeats and builds on the previous one. Mitchell has made an agreeably creepy contribution to the haunted house genre with Slade House, which began as a story told in a series of tweets. There are quite a lot of nice touches that startle and make us feel uneasy, the portraits on the walls being one of my favorite. Even more unsettling is how Mitchell plays with reality, keeping both his characters and us readers feeling off kilter, unable to trust what we are reading. I raced through the first three sections, wanting to know what came next. And here is where I feel Mitchell may have let us down somewhat. The fourth section, although it keeps up the pattern, explains perhaps too much what is going on in Slade House, at least for this reader, who prefers her ghost stories to remain uncomfortably ambiguous. And if you have already read The Bone Clocks, you will know as soon as the final section starts how things are going to go down. (I think Slade House would be more enjoyable if you read it before The Bone Clocks.) Uber-fans of the Horologists may not mind that, but I was wishing Mitchell had taken us somewhere less expected, instead of revisiting old territory. Despite these disappointments, Mitchell's writing is as good as ever, and fans of haunted house stories probably should not miss this one.
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LibraryThing member AdonisGuilfoyle
Well, I didn't think much to The Bone Clocks, now that I look back, but I had forgotten I'd even read the previous novel in David Mitchell's Horologists series by the time I bought this. Initially, I was captivated by the premise lot of Slade House - a 'ghost house' which reappears down a dark
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alleyway every nine years, to admit one new 'guest' who is then never seen again - and the individual narratives initially worked better than in Bone Clocks, but when the King-esque expositional dialogue kicked in (too early), my disbelief was straining against the required suspension. Personally, I don't long for eternal life, so even that subplot bored me silly, and the mystical backstory completely ruined the story for me. So yeah, no - at least I didn't pay for my disappointment, though! Show Less
LibraryThing member gbill
David Mitchell continues to delight with his latest novel. It’s a bit hard to review without spoiling the plot, so I’ll just say that it’s a companion novel to Bone Clocks, but brings the fantasy element more to the foreground, with soul-sucking twins inhabiting a horror of a haunted house.
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As always, his writing and narration with multiple characters is just fantastic, with depth and real truth. While his books all have a connection as he continues to build his universe, you don’t need to have read anything else by him to understand and appreciate this story. It may also be a great introduction into this gifted author, since it’s much shorter than his usual fare. Show Less
LibraryThing member kerryelizabeth
Thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
"Turn down Slade Alley - narrow, dank and easy to miss, even when you're looking for it. Find the small black iron door set into the right-hand wall. No handle, no keyhole, but
A stranger greets you by name and invites you inside. At first, you won't want to leave. Later, you'll find that you can't."
This is the first David Mitchell book I have read, and I probably wouldn't have read it if it wasn't on NetGalley because, for some reason, I don't tend to purchase horror books. I love them so much, I just don't tend to reach for them. Who knows why. Nevertheless, I had heard wonderful things about this author so decided to give it a go. And boy am I glad I did.
It's written wonderfully. This book was so easy to read, it was almost as if the pages were turning themselves. Spooky thought, given the story ;) Seriously, though, Mitchell has a way with words that just seems to flow beautifully. Nothing about his writing is smug or pretentious, and despite being incredibly detailed it isn't overly verbose. Every single word or every single sentence has a point within this book. Nothing is there just to fill the pages, it's all so precise and cleverly thought out.
The characters. Well you don't see much of any of the characters. This is a book that revolves around a variety of characters, none of which has a long part in the book. It is more about the plot and the mystery, and the house, than the characters themselves so obviously there wasn't much character development. And yet each character is only in a few short pages and I managed to feel for each and every one of them. It's a strange feeling, feeling for a character you literally only meet for 5 pages of the book... Who knows how he does it. Magic, I tell you.
Plot wise, this book is incredible. It's unique, it's thrilling, it's mysterious and I could not wait to find out what happened next. In fact, this book was so wonderful that I have since bought The Bone Clocks because I want to be in this same world again. I could not wait to read on, and I finished this book in literally a few hours. Obviously this is due in part to it being a short story, but mostly because the plot was unique and interesting, and truly kept me on the edge of my seat. Absolutely wonderful.
An easy 5/5 stars. Well done, David Mitchell, you've found your newest fan.
"Turn down Slade Alley - narrow, dank and easy to miss, even when you're looking for it. Find the small black iron door set into the right-hand wall. No handle, no keyhole, but
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at your touch it swings open. Enter the sunlit garden of an old house that doesn't quite make sense; too grand for the shabby neighbourhood, too large for the space it occupies.A stranger greets you by name and invites you inside. At first, you won't want to leave. Later, you'll find that you can't."
This is the first David Mitchell book I have read, and I probably wouldn't have read it if it wasn't on NetGalley because, for some reason, I don't tend to purchase horror books. I love them so much, I just don't tend to reach for them. Who knows why. Nevertheless, I had heard wonderful things about this author so decided to give it a go. And boy am I glad I did.
It's written wonderfully. This book was so easy to read, it was almost as if the pages were turning themselves. Spooky thought, given the story ;) Seriously, though, Mitchell has a way with words that just seems to flow beautifully. Nothing about his writing is smug or pretentious, and despite being incredibly detailed it isn't overly verbose. Every single word or every single sentence has a point within this book. Nothing is there just to fill the pages, it's all so precise and cleverly thought out.
The characters. Well you don't see much of any of the characters. This is a book that revolves around a variety of characters, none of which has a long part in the book. It is more about the plot and the mystery, and the house, than the characters themselves so obviously there wasn't much character development. And yet each character is only in a few short pages and I managed to feel for each and every one of them. It's a strange feeling, feeling for a character you literally only meet for 5 pages of the book... Who knows how he does it. Magic, I tell you.
Plot wise, this book is incredible. It's unique, it's thrilling, it's mysterious and I could not wait to find out what happened next. In fact, this book was so wonderful that I have since bought The Bone Clocks because I want to be in this same world again. I could not wait to read on, and I finished this book in literally a few hours. Obviously this is due in part to it being a short story, but mostly because the plot was unique and interesting, and truly kept me on the edge of my seat. Absolutely wonderful.
An easy 5/5 stars. Well done, David Mitchell, you've found your newest fan.
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LibraryThing member ijustgetbored
I went from putting my hot little hands on this one to finishing it in a lukewarm state. I wasn't a tremendous fan of The Bone Clocks, but I thought that an offshoot like this might duck some of the things that bothered me about that one: after all, this is a nice, small dose of the overall
Part of my reception might be due to my own faulty expectations: this was released around Halloween, and "house" books (The Haunting of Hill House, for example) tend to make me expect a good psychological creeper. Mitchell's book will not keep you up at night, clutching the covers, and it didn't even keep me turning pages past bedtime.
Maybe Mitchell just wears me down, but I've often had the sense that his novels start out strong and begin to fizzle toward the end, and that was my sense about this one as well. I was captivated by the first section, but, by the final one, I was just marking time to wind up the story (an inevitable conclusion; the foreshadowing is not at all subtle). The sections told in different voices, like linked short stories, vary in execution (much like you'd expect with a book of collected short pieces).
Mitchell's themes of the cyclical, etc., have a great deal of brain-bending dazzle and flash, but I'm not sure how much substance comes through in this particular work. Stripped of metaphysics, there's really not much here except a not-particular-scary haunted house story. Perhaps the themes seemed too familiar to me, old ideas in new words, but they're not enough to sustain an otherwise pallid narrative.
Overall, I'm not impressed by this emperor's clothes.
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concept.Part of my reception might be due to my own faulty expectations: this was released around Halloween, and "house" books (The Haunting of Hill House, for example) tend to make me expect a good psychological creeper. Mitchell's book will not keep you up at night, clutching the covers, and it didn't even keep me turning pages past bedtime.
Maybe Mitchell just wears me down, but I've often had the sense that his novels start out strong and begin to fizzle toward the end, and that was my sense about this one as well. I was captivated by the first section, but, by the final one, I was just marking time to wind up the story (an inevitable conclusion; the foreshadowing is not at all subtle). The sections told in different voices, like linked short stories, vary in execution (much like you'd expect with a book of collected short pieces).
Mitchell's themes of the cyclical, etc., have a great deal of brain-bending dazzle and flash, but I'm not sure how much substance comes through in this particular work. Stripped of metaphysics, there's really not much here except a not-particular-scary haunted house story. Perhaps the themes seemed too familiar to me, old ideas in new words, but they're not enough to sustain an otherwise pallid narrative.
Overall, I'm not impressed by this emperor's clothes.
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LibraryThing member Menagerie
I kept waiting for this book to get better or at least for something different to happen, but I was disappointed on both counts. Mitchell repeats the same scenario over and over, teasing the reader with the expectation that this time the ending will be different or that something significantly
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different will happen with each new victim. Unfortunately the only change comes far too late to save this story and is entirely predictable and lukewarm. Show Less
LibraryThing member Morphidae
Mitchell is good author and, therefore, the writing kept me reading. However, the characterization was lacking and the story was boring. A few of the characters were more fleshed out than others, but most, especially Marinus, were paper-thin. And while Mitchell tried to make each story different,
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they were too much the same and I found myself often putting the book down, bored. It's a shame because I really loved Mitchell's other books. I still gave it 3.5 stars because I simply love Mitchell's writing style. Show Less
LibraryThing member bodachliath
I hate to be wholly negative but for me this book is further evidence that Mitchell has lost the plot. I was willing to give The Bone Clocks a curate's egg (good in parts) review because it did at least have quite lengthy sections which showed some insight into reality and had echoes of his best
Perhaps Mitchell finds the real world too depressing to write about in straighter ways, but I just can't swallow this stuff. To be fair the human characters are quite sympathetic and there is plenty of humour here, and it may well have been fun to write - perhaps I am just not the right audience for this...
To put this rant into context - I have read all of Mitchell's novels, in the order they were written. Ghostwritten, Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green are still among my favourite books, though all of his linked story novels have some strong sections and some weaker ones, and there was always an element of fantasy there. As I have said several times on other threads, for me Mitchell's writing works best when it is most grounded in the real world.
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work, but this one (like the penultimate part of The Bone Clocks) is just too obsessed with the risible fantasy nonsense about immortal souls and psychic superpowers. Perhaps Mitchell finds the real world too depressing to write about in straighter ways, but I just can't swallow this stuff. To be fair the human characters are quite sympathetic and there is plenty of humour here, and it may well have been fun to write - perhaps I am just not the right audience for this...
To put this rant into context - I have read all of Mitchell's novels, in the order they were written. Ghostwritten, Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green are still among my favourite books, though all of his linked story novels have some strong sections and some weaker ones, and there was always an element of fantasy there. As I have said several times on other threads, for me Mitchell's writing works best when it is most grounded in the real world.
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LibraryThing member skrouhan
I am a big David Mitchell fan, but I'll admit I was unimpressed with this one. I know it's merely a novella, but I guess too much time had passed since reading The Bone Clocks for me to really understand or care what was happening. This would probably be best read immediately following The Bone
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Clocks, if at all. Show Less
LibraryThing member ltcl
Jonas and Norah want to live forever and with this comes a set of problems. They must lure potential victims back to Slade House to suck out their souls. Each chapter is another victim and they are all tied together. Every eight years another soul is lured to Slade House and disappears within the
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ivy lined walls. The story is complicated and the reader feels a bit like we are following Alice down the rabbit hole. David Mitchell leads us willingly just as the twins lead their victims up to the attic because we are caught in disbelief. I will never look at a stately old London home the same way again. Show Less
LibraryThing member Sarah_Buckley
A very good book and a quick read! The stories of the Slade House were suitably creepy and I liked them a bunch.
About 2/3rds into the book it slightly changes and the last third isn't as engaging as the beginning.
About 2/3rds into the book it slightly changes and the last third isn't as engaging as the beginning.
LibraryThing member iansales
I was sent an ARC of this by Interzone to review (they also wanted to send me a copy of The Bone Clocks, but I’d already bought one – using a voucher given to me by my employer as a reward for five years of service). Overall, I don’t think Slade House is as successful as The Bone Clocks, and
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that’s not just a consequence of its significantly shorter length. Mitchell’s trademark ventriloquism is in fine, er, voice, but the fifth of its six sections is almost pure exposition, some of the tropes are a bit cheesy, and the whole thing doesn’t add anything of note to the mythology of The Bone Clocks. Which is not to say it’s a bad book – Mitchell is a fine writer and always worth reading – but it is a little disappointing after last year’s epic. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kelly_Mills
This is the first book I've read by David Mitchell. I liked the concept and the way the plot was executed via different stories set during different timeframes. However, I found that I just have a "meh" feeling about the novel. It's certainly not bad. I didn't have any specific problems with the
Note: I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
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story or writing style, but I was never really drawn in. I've subsequently leared that this book fits with one of the other novels by this author. Perhaps if I had also read that book, I might have different feelings towards this novel. Unfortunately, this book just wasn't my cup of tea. However, as my feelings are essentialy personal preference, I would say if the plot sounds interesting to you then go ahead and give it a try.Note: I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
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LibraryThing member thewanderingjew
Slade House: A Novel, David Mitchell, author; Thomas Judd, narrator
I love David Mitchell. He stretches credibility just far enough to force you to question it, but then he pulls you back into reality and grounds you again. I think that in order to fully appreciate this short novel you have to
As the mystery of Slade House reveals itself to the reader, it takes many shapes. There is a malevolent set of twins, of indeterminate age, living in Slade House. They will stop at nothing to become immortal even though they take innocent lives in the process. They absorb the energy they need to stay alive from their victims. The hero of this story has been condemned to a life that never ends, while the villains are trying to achieve that same end. One views immortality as a “life sentence”, while the other seeks it as a reward.
I, as a reader, wanted only to remain in the moment, reading on with anticipation, but the visitors to Slade House wanted only to escape that moment. Most often, they were too naïve to realize the danger they were in or too frightened to think rationally about what was happening to them until it was too late.
The story begins in 1979 and ends in the present day, 2015. It moves through five separate time periods, each 9 years apart. Each successive character or victim has some relationship or involvement with the prior victims and some connection to the preceding time periods. Each segment contains common elements. Some characters return from previous books. All of the victims have a connection to the pub, Fox and Hounds. In the search for Slade House, all of the victims experience the same out of time experience. The house and its surroundings seem to be ephemeral, but once it is entered it holds them and leaves them with a lasting impression.
This book is brief; there are no wasted words. The author has created an imaginative and exciting thriller with a mystery that seems unsolvable. It is the stuff of science fiction. It does not quite make the grade into the stuff of horror. There are shadowy figures, weird portraits, ghost sightings, changing landscapes, and strange sounds and voices, but these supernatural occurrences do not make you shut your eyes in fear, rather they make you want to keep your eyes open to read on and discover how the twins, Norah and Jonah lure their victims. What will be the fate of their victims, and what will be the eventual fate of the twins? Who will be able to stop them? Can anything stop them? When it ends, the reader will sense that there is a sequel coming, and the sequel will be good!
I love David Mitchell. He stretches credibility just far enough to force you to question it, but then he pulls you back into reality and grounds you again. I think that in order to fully appreciate this short novel you have to
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suspend disbelief, at times. It sometimes bordered on the sublime and then moved on to the ridiculous!As the mystery of Slade House reveals itself to the reader, it takes many shapes. There is a malevolent set of twins, of indeterminate age, living in Slade House. They will stop at nothing to become immortal even though they take innocent lives in the process. They absorb the energy they need to stay alive from their victims. The hero of this story has been condemned to a life that never ends, while the villains are trying to achieve that same end. One views immortality as a “life sentence”, while the other seeks it as a reward.
I, as a reader, wanted only to remain in the moment, reading on with anticipation, but the visitors to Slade House wanted only to escape that moment. Most often, they were too naïve to realize the danger they were in or too frightened to think rationally about what was happening to them until it was too late.
The story begins in 1979 and ends in the present day, 2015. It moves through five separate time periods, each 9 years apart. Each successive character or victim has some relationship or involvement with the prior victims and some connection to the preceding time periods. Each segment contains common elements. Some characters return from previous books. All of the victims have a connection to the pub, Fox and Hounds. In the search for Slade House, all of the victims experience the same out of time experience. The house and its surroundings seem to be ephemeral, but once it is entered it holds them and leaves them with a lasting impression.
This book is brief; there are no wasted words. The author has created an imaginative and exciting thriller with a mystery that seems unsolvable. It is the stuff of science fiction. It does not quite make the grade into the stuff of horror. There are shadowy figures, weird portraits, ghost sightings, changing landscapes, and strange sounds and voices, but these supernatural occurrences do not make you shut your eyes in fear, rather they make you want to keep your eyes open to read on and discover how the twins, Norah and Jonah lure their victims. What will be the fate of their victims, and what will be the eventual fate of the twins? Who will be able to stop them? Can anything stop them? When it ends, the reader will sense that there is a sequel coming, and the sequel will be good!
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LibraryThing member busyreadin
Odd book. Part haunted house story, part mystery. Indistinct characters.
LibraryThing member tapestry100
Slade House is a fever dream-induced tale with familiar ghost story and horror tropes all mixed together to bring us something new. Slade House isn't your typical haunted house; it only appears every 9 years and only to a particular person(s). This selected person finds themselves wandering down
Each chapter of the book takes place in a different decade and is told in a first person narrative from the point of view of that decade's selected guest. I have to admit that the opening chapter, which takes place in 1979 and is from the POV of a young autistic boy, was the strongest for me, with each subsequent chapter feeling slightly less compelling. Not that the later chapters didn't hold up, there was just something about that opening chapter that struck a chord with me.
It wasn't until after I read Slade House that I discovered it had ties to Mitchell's previous book, The Bone Clocks (which I have not read), so I can't tell you what those ties are, but I'm definitely going to want to read that now, and probably follow it up again with Slade House. However, you don't need to have read The Bone Clocks in order to understand what's going on in Slade House, as I'm assuming the connections between both books must be minimal, as I didn't seem to be missing anything in the story when I read it.
If you like ghost stories or horror, I think Slade House would work for you. It's dark and atmospheric and does a great job at upping the creepy factor.
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Slade Alley when they come upon the small door in the wall and when entering the door find themselves in the beautiful garden of Slade House. Here, they meet either the sister or brother who reside in Slade House, and while at first all of this seems wildly normal, by this point it is too late for them and they will never leave Slade House.Each chapter of the book takes place in a different decade and is told in a first person narrative from the point of view of that decade's selected guest. I have to admit that the opening chapter, which takes place in 1979 and is from the POV of a young autistic boy, was the strongest for me, with each subsequent chapter feeling slightly less compelling. Not that the later chapters didn't hold up, there was just something about that opening chapter that struck a chord with me.
It wasn't until after I read Slade House that I discovered it had ties to Mitchell's previous book, The Bone Clocks (which I have not read), so I can't tell you what those ties are, but I'm definitely going to want to read that now, and probably follow it up again with Slade House. However, you don't need to have read The Bone Clocks in order to understand what's going on in Slade House, as I'm assuming the connections between both books must be minimal, as I didn't seem to be missing anything in the story when I read it.
If you like ghost stories or horror, I think Slade House would work for you. It's dark and atmospheric and does a great job at upping the creepy factor.
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LibraryThing member LoisB
This was my first David Mitchell novel, and it's a genre in which I am not comfortable. But, I was pleasantly surprised with the readability and the aura of suspense. The story focuses on the disappearances of individuals over several decades and concludes in a creepy, dark plot twist. I will
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definitely read another book by this author. Show Less
Awards
NPR: Books We Love (2015)
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Fiction — 2015)
The Observer Book of the Year (Science Fiction and Fantasy — 2015)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Adults (Selection — Fiction — 2015)
Original language
English
Original publication date
2015-10-27
Physical description
5.12 inches
ISBN
1473616700 / 9781473616707