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Eden Book Society #1972
Plunge Hill: A Case Study
"Dear Maurice, I’m writing to you by candlelight again. Another power cut. I had to carry the papers back and forth in the dark, tiny flames flickering in the stairwells… They’ve got the petrol generators running in Ward 7 and the noise they make is like a swarm of bees has got into the place…"
In 1972, during the chaotic days of miners’ strikes and the three-day week, Bridget ‘Brix’ Shipley moves to Plunge Hill to start her new job as a medical secretary at the local hospital. As she writes to Maurice, her younger brother, sick at home (who never replies), it becomes clear that not all is well at Plunge Hill. There are frequent power cuts and she has to work by candlelight. While she’d hoped this might inspire some blitz spirit and solidarity between her, the other secretaries and the medical staff, she’s increasingly isolated and seemingly ignored by her co-workers.
In 1972, during the chaotic days of miners’ strikes and the three-day week, Bridget ‘Brix’ Shipley moves to Plunge Hill to start her new job as a medical secretary at the local hospital. As she writes to Maurice, her younger brother, sick at home (who never replies), it becomes clear that not all is well at Plunge Hill. There are frequent power cuts and she has to work by candlelight. While she’d hoped this might inspire some blitz spirit and solidarity between her, the other secretaries and the medical staff, she’s increasingly isolated and seemingly ignored by her co-workers.
- GenresHorror
184 pages, Paperback
Published March 4, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 2, 2020
It's been a relatively cold and rainy start to July (where I live, at least). I read Plunge Hill: A Case Study in the span of one night, with the window open to let the cool air and the sound of rain in, and felt like the world had created a backdrop especially for me to enjoy this book as it was intended to be enjoyed.
The mythology created for this story positions Plunge Hill as a real-life case study. The author, J.M. McVulpin, is a consultant psychiatrist. The text is composed of papers belonging to Bridget Smith, a typist at Plunge Hill Hospital. McVulpin, we understand, has taken it upon himself to oraganise and edit them in the wake of her suicide. According to him, Bridget's writings 'reveal a young woman traumatised by unresolved guilt and grief', 'led tragically astray by her delusions of Plunge Hill'.
Bridget's own account 'reveals' something quite different. Despite having been personally invited to take up a job at Plunge Hill, she finds it an unwelcoming place; her suspicions deepen when she finds a journal written by her predecessor, Anouk, whose departure is shrouded in mystery. Bridget and Anouk have similarly strange experiences as they struggle with their outsider status. And what's with the village's large population of oddly vivacious pensioners?
Plunge Hill is a blast from start to finish. The Eden Book Society novellas so far have all been true to the 1970s theme in their own way, but this perhaps feels the most authentic. The Plunge Hill villagers would be right at home in Summerisle, and I can just imagine the dodgy stop-motion effects that'd be used to bring the climactic scene to life. It would be a glorious romp without any extra detail, but 'McVulpin' also gives the story heart: Bridget and Anouk each have equally interesting backstories.
My best guess for the author of this one is Jenn Ashworth and Richard V. Hirst. The structure, with the narrative alternating between Bridget's letters to her brother and Anouk's diary entries (with the added meta layer of McVulpin's introduction and footnotes), is reminiscent of their previous collaboration, The Night Visitors.
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Note: I had previously created a series page for the Eden Book Society books on Goodreads, but it seems it has now been deleted. As I assume there's some official librarian reason for this, I'm not going to attempt to recreate it. So, for my own reference as much as anything, here are my reviews of the others in the series:
1. Holt House by L.G. Vey
2. Judderman by D.A. Northwood
3. A Dedicated Friend by Shirley Longford
4. Starve Acre by Jonathan Buckley
TinyLetter
The mythology created for this story positions Plunge Hill as a real-life case study. The author, J.M. McVulpin, is a consultant psychiatrist. The text is composed of papers belonging to Bridget Smith, a typist at Plunge Hill Hospital. McVulpin, we understand, has taken it upon himself to oraganise and edit them in the wake of her suicide. According to him, Bridget's writings 'reveal a young woman traumatised by unresolved guilt and grief', 'led tragically astray by her delusions of Plunge Hill'.
Bridget's own account 'reveals' something quite different. Despite having been personally invited to take up a job at Plunge Hill, she finds it an unwelcoming place; her suspicions deepen when she finds a journal written by her predecessor, Anouk, whose departure is shrouded in mystery. Bridget and Anouk have similarly strange experiences as they struggle with their outsider status. And what's with the village's large population of oddly vivacious pensioners?
Plunge Hill is a blast from start to finish. The Eden Book Society novellas so far have all been true to the 1970s theme in their own way, but this perhaps feels the most authentic. The Plunge Hill villagers would be right at home in Summerisle, and I can just imagine the dodgy stop-motion effects that'd be used to bring the climactic scene to life. It would be a glorious romp without any extra detail, but 'McVulpin' also gives the story heart: Bridget and Anouk each have equally interesting backstories.
My best guess for the author of this one is Jenn Ashworth and Richard V. Hirst. The structure, with the narrative alternating between Bridget's letters to her brother and Anouk's diary entries (with the added meta layer of McVulpin's introduction and footnotes), is reminiscent of their previous collaboration, The Night Visitors.
---
Note: I had previously created a series page for the Eden Book Society books on Goodreads, but it seems it has now been deleted. As I assume there's some official librarian reason for this, I'm not going to attempt to recreate it. So, for my own reference as much as anything, here are my reviews of the others in the series:
1. Holt House by L.G. Vey
2. Judderman by D.A. Northwood
3. A Dedicated Friend by Shirley Longford
4. Starve Acre by Jonathan Buckley
TinyLetter
July 7, 2020
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The Eden Book Society series is one of the most exciting things happening in horror fiction. For those who are new to the project, I will briefly explain the literary conceit which acts as a narrative frame to the series. The (fictional) "Eden Book Society" was set up in 1919, publishing horror novellas for a private list of subscribers. Eden books were elusive artefacts - written under a pseudonym, available only to a select few, occasionally turning up in jumble sales or unexpected locations. Dead Ink Press, the publishing house behind this literary experiment, purportedly acquired the back catalogue of the Society, and will reprint the novellas sequentially, starting from 1972. In actual fact, the books are penned by a group of specially commissioned writers, who face the challenging task of evoking the style of 70s horror whilst taking contemporary readers back to the atmosphere of that decade.
Following the publication of Jonathan Buckley’s Starve Acre (subsequently reissued by John Murray in a slightly different version crediting its actual author, Andrew Michael Hurley) there was a hiatus of several months, which led me to fear that the project had floundered short of its six-novella target. Thankfully, my concerns proved unfounded as the latest instalment plopped through my letterbox.
Plunge Hill: A Case Study, takes the series’s “meta” concept to another level. Whereas the other novellas in the series are works of fiction created by fictional authors, Plunge Hill: A Case Study is presented as a bona fide real-life psychological study by one J.M. McVulpin, author of such esteemed monographs as Diagnosis Hysteria and The Insulin Shock Therapy Handbook. But why would a consultant psychiatrist choose to publish a work of non-fiction with the Eden Book Society, a subscription-only publisher specializing in horror? Even if we were to suspend our disbelief and just for a moment presume that the Society did exist, the figure of McVulpin comes across as an incongruous addition to its roll-call of authors, suggesting that McVulpin is (probably) the creation of yet another fictional 1970s author. It’s enough to send one’s mind spinning in circles.
Of all the novellas featured in the series to date, Plunge Hill is probably the one which relies most heavily on the Gothic tropes of the unreliable narrator and the “found text”. Bridget “Brix” Shipley, a typist at Plunge Hill Hospital in the North-West of England, takes her own life, and the ensuing scandal leads to the closure of the hospital. McVulpin decides to place before the public the real facts surrounding Shipley’s death. His declared purpose is to defend the reputation of the hospital and, purportedly, Shipley herself, by proving that she was the unfortunate victim of a psychological disorder, a hidden pathology “that bloomed in darkness”. To this end, McVulpin compiles and presents as a “case study” the letters which Bridget used to send to her parents (from whom she was estranged) and to her sick brother Maurice. Bridget, a Londoner and an outsider, does not seem to fit in with her work colleagues, all of them local residents who treat her with suspicion.
Bridget’s letters alternate with extracts from the diary of her predecessor Anouk, the typist Bridget was hired to replace. Bridget claims to have discovered the diary in a hiding place at the hospital, but McVulpin insists that it is Bridget’s own fabrication. A strange story emerges, one of weird experiments and terrifying secrets. Who and what are we to believe? Anouk’s diary, possibly forged by Bridget? Bridget herself, who admits to not trusting her own memory and is not above glamourising her “new life” to impress her relatives? Can we trust McVulpin himself, who admits to having an agenda in publishing his case study, and whose notes reveal him to be as interesting a psychological study as Bridget herself? What we’re left with is the warning which opens the book: The lesson, such as it is, to be gleaned from what you are about to read is a stark one: beware fiction.
These narrative games certainly make Plunge Hill interesting. The novella, however, is equally entertaining if we were to take it purely at face-value – a scary extravaganza which combines the medical Gothic previously explored in A Dedicated Friend with a folk horror streak (aptly) reminiscent of 1970s movies such as Robin Redbreast. I hate spoilers, so I won’t reveal more. Just as I won’t reveal who the real McVulpin is. Or “are”…
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
Following the publication of Jonathan Buckley’s Starve Acre (subsequently reissued by John Murray in a slightly different version crediting its actual author, Andrew Michael Hurley) there was a hiatus of several months, which led me to fear that the project had floundered short of its six-novella target. Thankfully, my concerns proved unfounded as the latest instalment plopped through my letterbox.
Plunge Hill: A Case Study, takes the series’s “meta” concept to another level. Whereas the other novellas in the series are works of fiction created by fictional authors, Plunge Hill: A Case Study is presented as a bona fide real-life psychological study by one J.M. McVulpin, author of such esteemed monographs as Diagnosis Hysteria and The Insulin Shock Therapy Handbook. But why would a consultant psychiatrist choose to publish a work of non-fiction with the Eden Book Society, a subscription-only publisher specializing in horror? Even if we were to suspend our disbelief and just for a moment presume that the Society did exist, the figure of McVulpin comes across as an incongruous addition to its roll-call of authors, suggesting that McVulpin is (probably) the creation of yet another fictional 1970s author. It’s enough to send one’s mind spinning in circles.
Of all the novellas featured in the series to date, Plunge Hill is probably the one which relies most heavily on the Gothic tropes of the unreliable narrator and the “found text”. Bridget “Brix” Shipley, a typist at Plunge Hill Hospital in the North-West of England, takes her own life, and the ensuing scandal leads to the closure of the hospital. McVulpin decides to place before the public the real facts surrounding Shipley’s death. His declared purpose is to defend the reputation of the hospital and, purportedly, Shipley herself, by proving that she was the unfortunate victim of a psychological disorder, a hidden pathology “that bloomed in darkness”. To this end, McVulpin compiles and presents as a “case study” the letters which Bridget used to send to her parents (from whom she was estranged) and to her sick brother Maurice. Bridget, a Londoner and an outsider, does not seem to fit in with her work colleagues, all of them local residents who treat her with suspicion.
Bridget’s letters alternate with extracts from the diary of her predecessor Anouk, the typist Bridget was hired to replace. Bridget claims to have discovered the diary in a hiding place at the hospital, but McVulpin insists that it is Bridget’s own fabrication. A strange story emerges, one of weird experiments and terrifying secrets. Who and what are we to believe? Anouk’s diary, possibly forged by Bridget? Bridget herself, who admits to not trusting her own memory and is not above glamourising her “new life” to impress her relatives? Can we trust McVulpin himself, who admits to having an agenda in publishing his case study, and whose notes reveal him to be as interesting a psychological study as Bridget herself? What we’re left with is the warning which opens the book: The lesson, such as it is, to be gleaned from what you are about to read is a stark one: beware fiction.
These narrative games certainly make Plunge Hill interesting. The novella, however, is equally entertaining if we were to take it purely at face-value – a scary extravaganza which combines the medical Gothic previously explored in A Dedicated Friend with a folk horror streak (aptly) reminiscent of 1970s movies such as Robin Redbreast. I hate spoilers, so I won’t reveal more. Just as I won’t reveal who the real McVulpin is. Or “are”…
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
November 9, 2021
Imagine living in a small town where everyone knows your past and watches your every move. No one can be trusted and everyone is keeping a sinister secret. This is what Bridget has to face when she accepts a secretary position at a hospital. Everyone is rude to her yet at the same time she is vitally important to everyone in town. Bridget also hides a secret of her own, one that causes her immense guilt. I really enjoyed this novella and the secrets everyone was keeping. I’m not usually a huge fan of epistolatory formats but here it worked well and contributed to the tension. Overall, I really liked the concept and story of Plunge Hill and I recommend this to any horror fans.
October 23, 2021
More like a 3.5.
May 1, 2022
This epistolary novella is a weird and wonderful bit of folk horror. The story comes out from three sources: a young woman’s diary, letters written by her replacement at the hospital typing pool, and a psychiatrist’s case study of the letter writer. Through the letters we get portraits of two damaged women brought to an isolated small town for sinister purposes. The case study works as a counterpoint with the psychiatrist almost providing comic-relief with his obliviousness as his sense of superiority forbids him from once considering that either women’s accounts could contain any truth. Even though through the few times his own personality comes through, it’s clear he is just as alone and damaged as they are. Like all of the Eden Society series, this book really captures the mood of the early 70s, and it would be easy to imagine this as a response to the success of the Wickerman. The high quality and enjoyability of works like this makes me hope the Eden Society Project will get rereleased to a wider audience one day.
October 4, 2025
A strange little story that whilst building tension and unease, never really goes anywhere and ends ambiguously.
I'm still confused as to whether McVulpin is a real author, a pseudonym to an author from years ago or a pseudonym to a modern author from the Dead Ink crowd. Strange.
Anyhoo, just ok and 3 stars at most.
I'm still confused as to whether McVulpin is a real author, a pseudonym to an author from years ago or a pseudonym to a modern author from the Dead Ink crowd. Strange.
Anyhoo, just ok and 3 stars at most.
January 26, 2026
solid
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews