Chantel's Reviews > The House of Whispers

** spoiler alert ** To be honest, I am still unclear about how I feel about the story. At face value, Purcell has written an interesting story about someone fleeing their past & stumbling upon a house of people within which, one person seeks to rejoin hers. I suppose what makes this story difficult for me to adore is the pace that the plot undertakes to transmit the details which are to render the reader ‘spooked’.
 
Hester, the main character & primary narrator is in her early 30s & has spent the entirety of her adult life as a personal maid. By her own account, & one which we never really delve into, death follows her & seeps itself into the people for whom she is employed. There are instances wherein Hester hints at it being her parents who instilled the idea within her, that she was cursed. However, at no point in the story do we explore Hester’s family, nor her life before her employment. Therefore, we are never given a clear picture of who our narrator is.

I can appreciate it when a book leads the reader to draw their own conclusions. However, the majority of Hester’s dialogue circles around the immense guilt she feels, all the while never giving the reader a reason to want to root for her to ‘be better’. Had we explored a bit more of the circumstances that accounted for Hester having such terrible anger issues perhaps I would have been led to appreciate the complexities of this character. Unfortunately, I found myself perplexed by her continuous reflections of appreciation for the houses in which she worked, her sudden alcoholism, her self-imposed nurse’s title, & hints at a less than stellar family life.

Not having the main character for whom to root is not a make-or-break detail in a book, at least not for myself. However, reading about minute instances in a person’s life only for those to be the sole details we are given to form a total conclusion of Hester as a person/character isn’t great. She comes into a house where the house owner, Miss Pinecroft, simmers in her reflections on the past. Had we had the opportunity to tie Hester’s past into her present actions I would have felt the significance of meeting an elderly person for whom the past has encompassed every waking moment of her life.
 
Miss Louise Pinecroft is very well nearing the end of her life & sits in a room dedicated to bone china which, we discover, is in part forged with the bones of a group of men who came to reside on the island in the hopes of discovering a cure for Tuberculosis (TB) when Louise was twenty (20) years old. Having lost her mother & two siblings to the disease not long before we meet her & her father, the reader learns that both remaining members of the Pinecroft family are immeasurably devoured by grief. The introduction of local lore is where the story began to crumble, at least such is my opinion.

It is a thin thread to tread, attempting to write physical/mental distress alongside folklore in the hopes of leading the reader to question whether or not both could be plausible & whether or not, the legends of those who creep in the night are the reason for so much terror. I did not feel as though this was successfully achieved in this particular story. The reason for this is that the characters were not established enough as standalone members of the world in which they lived for me to question whether or not something paranormal could have influenced the state of events that transpired.

It was enough for me to look at Dr. Pinecrfot, for example, & deduce that the man was on the brink of mental collapse. His lapse into delusion was further emphasized by his decision to seclude himself with people who were rapidly dying of TB therefore, inducing traumatic reactions which his psyche which would inevitably lead his sanity astray. It was no surprise to see him attempt to ‘save’ Louise by murder, therefore removing her from a world that cruelly took away the family he so loved.
 
There was a lot of talk about some of the local lore but I felt as though it didn’t actually intertwine with the characters & their experiences. It takes little information to understand that grief & mental illness can absolutely collapse a person into psychosis. I needed to be given more than a simple bright orb that floated around Hester some nights after she had experienced mental duress throughout the day, to believe that these mystical beings were present.

Perhaps, had we explored a bit more of each character I would have been led to appreciate the fact that belief in such lore was probable. I get it, sometimes it’s easier to believe the fantastical rather than the absolute devastation which is found within the human species. A quick recap on Creeda leads one to understand how this is possible. As a girl, she was kidnapped & abused. Practicing protective actions against fairies is easier than confronting the fact that the people who abused you are still out in the world, most probably repeating what they have done.
 
There is a final aspect I want to touch on & I will preface this by saying that I have no authority on the matter; Rosewyn. I am severely unsure how to interpret this character & their participation, or lack thereof, in this story. I think what renders me so unsure is the fact that Rosewyn didn’t need to be part of the story; there didn’t need to be a person with developmental delays in this book for anything else to have happened. By that I mean, what Rosewyn brings to the story is the threat of her suicide in the final scenes. During the entire time, we are within the house, we see this character so few times as to make those in which we do, bizarre.

We see them under duress almost every time they are in scene a yet, we are never given any character markers for them as individuals, they are simply ‘simple-minded’ & that’s it. What was the point of that? There didn’t need to be a person constantly locked in a room, crying themselves to sleep & distressed by abandonment. Why was her character included? What did her disability bring to the story if only to highlight what most people already know; that people with disabilities have been consistently treated poorly.
 
Overall, I did enjoy reading this book & finished it within a couple of hours. It’s a very quick read as Purcell is a good writer. Comments regarding the plot itself do not reflect her abilities as an author. Most of my comments could be addressed through dedicated editing. I will continue to read works by Purcell as I do enjoy the stories she crafts, though, I have often been left wanting at the end of my reading experiences of her books.

Therefore, let me advise that if you are looking for a story that introduces the reader to the genre without being a slow burn (i.e. a long read), which houses some one-dimensional characters (i.e. not complicated to become involved with), which explores a story which is straightforward with hints of ‘outer-worldly’ (i.e. can be spooky if one is not as I am & is able to fully appreciate things for what they are at face value); this is a good book to select & I am certain that many people will enjoy.
 
For myself, I would have desired more details about Hester; when she walked off the cliff there was nothing tying her to me—why should I care? What made this person the way that they were? Give me details about a person who is meant to leave me feeling uncomfortable & disturbed; lead me to understand why & how a person can snap on a dime.

Write to me about the ways in which Louise’s nights were spent gazing through blinding eyes onto shelves of fine china built on the backs of the skeletal remains of people she had hoped to save. Give me the details of that distress; riddle me with the guilt Louise felt at being the sole survivor of her family. Let the grief linger in the rooms that shelter the cold air; make me feel as though I’m trapped in a house that numbers the locks.