Slade House, by David Mitchell, is an eerie take on the haunted house genre. It’s an exceptionally well written book, and while it has a few flaws, I genuinely enjoyed the book, and would recommend to someone searching for a brisk ride through a haunted house.
Every 9 years, Slade house beckons a new guest. Every 9 years, people disappear. The premise is simple enough, and as most stories, it’s been done before. What makes this book stand out, are David Mitchell’s writing chops. The book is structured like an anthology, With two of the main characters and Slade house being the connection between all of the stories. The stories themselves aren’t even anything spectacular I was never wowed by much of anything in this book. I’ve took some time to think about that statement. How is it that I can tell you that the book doesn’t do anything special, The characters aren’t very memorable, The final few chapters of the book serve primarily to force feed you all the information you didn’t have and bring the book to its conclusion, but still sit here and highly recommend this book? The answer is simple. These interwoven stories are just so READABLE. There is something about David Mitchell’s style of writing that just lent itself particularly well towards a short book that moves at a brisk pace. The premise is interesting enough, and while I do wish the the characters were in the book were easier to feel for, I did enjoy that Mitchell crafted a book where nobody is safe, and any character can die at any time.
When everything is said in done, despite the issues I have with this book, I genuinely enjoyed Mitchell’s take on the haunted house genre. What we are left with, is a book that is greater than the sum of it’s parts. I’d recommend this one to genre fans and also to Mitchell fans, as it does somewhat tie into the bone clocks.
3.5 out of 5 Mortar rounds for Slade House, by David Mitchel
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