The Atrocities

February 26, 2018
A governess finds herself at the mercy of a strange house and its odd inhabitants in Stoker–finalist Shipp’s contemporary fever dream, within which beats a gothic heart. Danna Valdez arrives at the imposing Stockton House expecting to teach Mr. and Mrs. Evers’s young daughter, Isabella. Mrs. Evers explains that Isabella has died, but her spirit remains. Danna is skeptical, but the pain of her own recent tragedy makes her hesitant to leave, as does Mrs. Evers’s increasingly erratic behavior. Is there really a ghost? Did Isabella ever exist? Shipp (Cursed) uses a very strange house, full of nightmarish paintings and statuary, to explore the vast, haunted spaces between life and death, showcasing a gift for horrific imagery: “The sculpture depicts a maelstrom of elongated limbs and hairless faces. In my imagination, the whirlpool of flesh swirls around a murky vortex. The lipless mouths open wider, wider.” Told in Danna’s haunting voice, this beautifully executed tale, as twisted as the hedge maze she braves to reach Stockton House, will surely linger with readers.

April 15, 2018
Schoolteacher Ms. Valdez arrives at the mansion prepared to tutor the young daughter of the house. She is immediately greeted by the parents but told that she will meet her pupil, Isabella, later. But in the huge, empty, dank house isolated from the outside world, nothing is quite as it appears. Ms. Valdez discovers this when she is introduced to Isabella, who is not visible because she is dead. Isabella's mother assures Ms. Valdez that trying to keep her daily schedule as normal as possible will help her daughter in the afterlife and begs the tutor to stay at the house. Out of sympathy for the mother's loss, Ms. Valdez wearily agrees to stay; then the strangeness she felt emanating from the family grows exponentially. Shipp (Cursed, 2009) successfully plays with the expected atmosphere of a haunted house but still presents surprises. The mystery of the haunting drives the plot and does not disappoint the reader. Any fans of haunted houses or strange families will thoroughly enjoy reading this short novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)