AUTHOR: David Mitchell
NARRATORS: Thomas Judd and Tania Rodrigues
PUBLISHER: Random House Audio
PUBLICATION DATE: November 17, 2015
FORMAT: Unabridged audiobook
LENGTH: 6 hrs and 54 mins
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy/Paranormal
Keep your eyes peeled for a small black iron door.
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 stranger will greet you by name and invite you inside. At first, you won’t want to leave. Later, you’ll find that you can’t. 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 recently divorced policeman, a shy college student. But what really goes on inside Slade House? For those who find out, it’s already too late...
Spanning five decades, from the last days of the 1970s to the present, leaping genres, and barreling toward an astonishing conclusion, this intricately woven novel will pull you into a reality-warping new vision of the haunted house story—as only David Mitchell could imagine it.
If you are looking for an eerie story to give you chills, this is the one for you! It’s a perfect pick to read at this time of year.
I actually had never heard of this book until it was featured as a Group Read for the RIPXII challenge. I always enjoy doing this seasonal challenge every year and love to participate in the Group Read, so I borrowed the CDs from my library and was fascinated by this spooky tale right from the get-go! I have a thing for haunted houses, and this one was right up my alley. However, this one was so much more than that. Yes, the story does revolve around Slade House and the inhabitants that are tied to it (being a pair of twins, Nora and Jonah) but the most fascinating bit is the nine-year cycle. The entrance to Slade House is through a black iron door in an Alley, but it can only be found on the last Saturday in October every nine years. The twins lure one (un)lucky visitor each cycle and that person is never seen again. I loved how Mitchell moved us through different cycles and learning how the different victims met their fate, and the author manages to weave the different cycles together seamlessly. My favourite character is Fred Pink!
This author is new to me, and I can’t wait to read more of his work! Unbeknownst to me, this is actually the sequel to The Bone Clocks but it also works as a standalone. I plan to read the earlier book as well.
The story is narrated by Thomas Judd and Tania Rodrigues, who are both new to me but were an excellent fit to this spine-chilling tale. Here is a podcast from AudioFile Magazine that talks a bit about the book, which is followed by a sample of the narration:
MY RATING:
This book qualifies as:
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