Lee Allen's Blog - Posts Tagged "shani-struthers"

Wildacre: A Christmas Ghost Story by Shani Struthers

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A festive tale of isolation and penance.

Isla Barrow is dispatched to provide urgent live-in care to the elderly Jessica Lockhart over the Christmas period.

Arriving at Wildacre, an estate left to live up to its name, Isla finds Jessica alone and in peril.

Cut off from the outside world, Isla struggles to care for Jessica, while discovering that Wildacre hides a vengeful darkness.

'Wildacre' is a Christmas Gothic ghost story by Shani Struthers, following Isla's experience at the eponymous house over several days leading up to Christmas. Atmospheric, chilling and emotive, the prose draws us into its grasp as we find ourselves trapped with Isla following a car accident shortly before her arrival at Wildacre, finding there no supplies and no way to make contact with the outside world. We meet Jessica, frail, ailing and declining rapidly, left to rot even as she still breathes, as it becomes clear she is suffering from dementia and perhaps has little time left to live.

Slowly building the suspense as Isla finds herself isolated from the outside world, trapped here not only by the weather and the distance from civilisation, but also the secrets that spread through the shadows of the house like a cancer; exploring the largely abandoned and uncared for home and discovering the history of Jessica's family and the tragedy that befell them, their spirits still haunting the house.

Perfectly poised for the season, this darkest of days which we fill with such light and joy as we celebrate the promised return of the light, both Isla and Jessica find themselves facing the trauma and shame hidden in the past, ghosts so often locked away within our own minds, while the spirits of the dead linger awaiting the day of reckoning, the narrative building to an intense climax where old sins are revealed and old wounds find their time to heal, pondering whether, perhaps, no one ever truly dies alone.

Poignant and bittersweet, 'Wildacre' is a short and enjoyable supernatural yarn for Yuletide.



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