5/15/2023 0 Comments Elsewhere 2009![]() ![]() I knew that that horrible, blurry and demonic face on the cover was staring at something. Author of the only book that, as a kid and probably a teenager, I didn’t even like having in my room at night. Anyway…īack to William Peter Blatty, a guy who knows how to write a scary book. Unfortunately the rest of Elsewhere doesn’t measure up.įirst off… DO NOT READ REVIEWS BEFORE READING THIS BOOK!!! I just checked out the reviews, and just about everyone feels the need to spoil the ending, at least a little bit. It never would've occurred to him that the answer was love.” That’s a good line, written by a good writer. “What is the meaning of this ludicrous courage? he marveled. At one point Dare finds himself an unexpected hero to Freeboard. His leads have awful names-a woman named Freeboard, and a gay man named Dare-but they’ve got the spark of life. Blatty gets two stars for the sheer force of his characters. And the “twist” ending Blatty offers is stale and simply doesn’t play in a post “Sixth Sense” society. This is the same “skeptics in a haunted house” set-up we’ve seen many times before, from The Haunting to House On Haunted Hill. Blatty’s Legion is an equally important work in the field. Hell, Stephen King might have remained a high school English teacher if Blatty hadn’t kicked the door to the horror genre open with The Exorcist in 1971. Blatty is a master of supernatural and horror fiction. Such is the case with William Peter Blatty’s Elsewhere. Sometimes good writers produce crappy novels. I would recommend it anyway, each reader will judge according to its criteria. In the end, a nice story and well written, but not enough to send shivers. The end is well-built, with all the pieces jamming together and a further twist, as the icing on the cake. ![]() The medium, "Anna Trewley" is a rather shy, often hesitant character. Gabriel Case more than an expert in paranormal phenomena seems like a psychiatrist and the waitress, with her sudden appearances, should be disturbing but doesn’t get the desired effect. Apart from Joan Freeboad and Terence Dare, with their quarrels and hysterical crises, others are a little cool. Perhaps nowadays such a novel is no longer able to convey that thrill of fear that one would expect, or maybe we are now accustomed to more. The mystery is simple to understood, it is not difficult to understand the truth. I must say that the first half is a bit boring, although Blatty's style is fluent and pleasant to read. The elements for a good story are there: a home with a sinister reputation, started with a painful event, strange and inexplicable phenomena, a group of very different peoples, each driven by their own reasons, but all determined to find out what is hidden at "Elsewhere". When I saw this novel, I bought it without hesitation, as well as for the author, even for the plot, quite intriguing. The only novel I’ve read so far by William Peter Blatty is "The Exorcist" and I really liked it. Most jarring is Blatty's persistent habit of referring to the characters by their occupation instead of their names: "The realtor's eyes were glazed over." "The psychic mutely demurred." "The author shrugged." I suppose Blatty was trying to avoid repetion of proper names, but gawd, it was irritating. The characters are the mere sketches at best. It can be relaxing to read a book that's familiar enough to deliver just what you expect, but here, the writing itself gets in the way. I enjoyed in and was fooled by it in that movie, but not in this book. ![]() The Denver Rocky Mountain News called it "the first truly original haunted house story in decades." Yes, it is strikingly original, assuming you haven't gone to the movies in the past 15 years, otherwise the main plot twist will feel mighty familiar. I was shocked at how bad this was, given William Peter Blatty's pedigree. It is ALWAYS haunted, or you wouldn't be in a book. Listen, select group of people: THE MANSION IS HAUNTED. Ah, this plot line never gets old: a select group of people stay at an old mansion to prove it's not haunted. ![]()
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