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Nightmare Legacy
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 17, 2021
Silly and forgettable, even by the standards of 70s Gothics, when quantity didn't always translate into quality, "A Nightmare Legacy" tells the story of Amanda Vail, who inherits her great-uncle's rambling New England mansion, only to find that there are rival claimants. Are those rival claimants responsible for a series of increasingly serious accidents? (Or is she just clumsy? I couldn't make up my mind.) Meanwhile, in stereotypical New England fashion, the town treats Amanda like a scarlet woman because five years ago when she was 15, she scandalized everyone by posing as Juliet for a neighboring artist, whose marriage broke up at the same time. Oh, and there's a mysterious writer living in the swamp who might be a hero or might be a villain. Corby takes the reader on bizarre digressions through the Lizzie Borden case on a meandering road trip to Fall River, but never actually visits the house at the last minute; and then, after not one, but two climaxes, doesn't finish the novel for dozens of pages--unforgivably overstaying its welcome. "A Nightmare Legacy" is more of a nightmare for the reader.
March 24, 2026
Amateur writing; no atmosphere. The heroine (Amanda) flounces from conversation to conversation with a flip of long black hair and a condescending attitude that never seems earned. Corby obviously thinks she is doing something here, subverting a "meek gothic heroine" trope, but what you end up with is a petulant, immature brat whose manufactured stupidity consistently places her in life-threatening situations that a man must save her from.
As Corby moves her characters from contrived scene to contrived scene like actors on a stage, it becomes increasingly funny that references to Shakespeare's plays appear throughout the story, from Amanda posing as Juliet for Bill Atherton's painting, to her randomly quoting "Henry V". When Amanda reads "A Midsummer Night's Dream", she remarks that reading the play makes for a dull experience next to watching it on a stage, and it feels like Corby is making fun of her own novel.
The book's conclusion is ridiculous and melodramatic in the extreme: a series of rushed reveals, each one more baffling than the last...a cringe-inducing villain speech... Ultimately, Amanda gets her legacy 3 chapters from the end of the book, and after all the fighting and struggling, impulsively decides to sell off the estate to a land development corp. that intends to turn it into a vacation destination, complete with golf-courses.
As Corby moves her characters from contrived scene to contrived scene like actors on a stage, it becomes increasingly funny that references to Shakespeare's plays appear throughout the story, from Amanda posing as Juliet for Bill Atherton's painting, to her randomly quoting "Henry V". When Amanda reads "A Midsummer Night's Dream", she remarks that reading the play makes for a dull experience next to watching it on a stage, and it feels like Corby is making fun of her own novel.
The book's conclusion is ridiculous and melodramatic in the extreme: a series of rushed reveals, each one more baffling than the last...a cringe-inducing villain speech... Ultimately, Amanda gets her legacy 3 chapters from the end of the book, and after all the fighting and struggling, impulsively decides to sell off the estate to a land development corp. that intends to turn it into a vacation destination, complete with golf-courses.
April 1, 2025
A young woman named Amanda inherits an old mansion, which unfortunately comes complete with grumpy relatives who think they should be the rightful owners instead of her. Deadly accidents start befalling Amanda, whilst at the same time she ponders over which one of the handsome (but mysterious) bachelors who live nearby she should fall in love with.
This is a very short book in which everything that happens reads like a series of disparate elements picked off a list and thrown together. Amanda behaves stupidly and recklessly completely by herself, constantly risking her own safety without the intervention of any one else. Two seemingly significant sub-plots (a forged will, and a man who may be wanted by the police) only exist because that's the sort of thing heroines of gothic romances typically face, but at the climax, they just evaporate into nothing and are removed from the plot. Oh, and the climactic confrontation has a hilarious payoff in which the villain seemingly defies physics with "wild gyrations" (direct quote), and propels himself backwards over a parapet. All in all, it's pretty bad.
This is a very short book in which everything that happens reads like a series of disparate elements picked off a list and thrown together. Amanda behaves stupidly and recklessly completely by herself, constantly risking her own safety without the intervention of any one else. Two seemingly significant sub-plots (a forged will, and a man who may be wanted by the police) only exist because that's the sort of thing heroines of gothic romances typically face, but at the climax, they just evaporate into nothing and are removed from the plot. Oh, and the climactic confrontation has a hilarious payoff in which the villain seemingly defies physics with "wild gyrations" (direct quote), and propels himself backwards over a parapet. All in all, it's pretty bad.
July 1, 2011
So I just finished the book. It was ok, it was rather short and slow going for awail but twords the end there was a few twist that made you wonder how it was going to end. Its a good book for if you don't want to read a long story.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews