The Haunted Sand

by Hugh Scott

A tale of the supernatural.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

148 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1992

About the author

Biography

I love cats. I love their beautiful faces and ickle tickly tums. I have been owned by many cats, but now only a visiting ginger tom declares possession of me. I don't read my books to him, because he's into mice and sardines in tomato sauce, not spooks and crooks and flukes of nature, or even unnature such as the mighty Gargoyle or the dreadful creeping creature which is Something Watching. My proudest book, of course, is Why Weeps the Brogan? Which won the Children's Whitbread in 1989 and was shortlisted for the McVitie Prize. The Haunted Sand was shortlisted for something, but I can't remember what; it came second to a book that wasn't too bad, I suppose. I love good English; I can't stand sloppy modern drip-speak innit? wot books 'ave as written language, and which supposedly reflects the way kids spea. I don't mind a bit of rebellion in language, but dumb brainless Me am de man is pure stupidity and totally rebarbative in a language which has hundreds of thousands of words which cretins are too lazy to look up and use with clarity and power. To all the worm-brains who think bad spelling, ignorance and foul words make them better than other people, I say buy a dictionary.
Current events and projects

I talk to schools and writing groups about how to write.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay I can not honestly say that I have judged a book by its cover - true said book was sitting on a bookshelf in a second hand store and I instantly recognised the cover as the art of Bruce Pennington an artist I have been looking out for since he has published work through Paper Tiger

However once I had got over the fact marvelling of the cover I read the inside cover and felt it would be an interesting read. After all haunted beaches, ancient curses and the bubonic plague what was there not to be intrigued over.

Well I will not give the story away but let us say that it was a fun read although certain characters did start to get annoying (especially one who I felt was there simply to be a snide, cocky teenager who lived for getting the last and often nasty comment in).

However the writing style also caught me out a couple of times - considering the reading group this book was aimed at its style sometimes felt rather more mature than it should have been. That said it did give another layer to the story which could have been so easily predictable and tame.

Instead you had a different take on a story I am sure felt I had read before (I know that is huge disservice to Hugh Scott but as I was reading I kept of thinking of similarities to other books I had read).

So a fun and atmospheric book which personally I would have loved to have seen extended as there was a lot of potential for further development. Not bad for the first random buy of the year.

[Capn · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Murder, Frisby! Murder on the beach!"
There's something creepy in the churchyard. There's something deathly down on the sand. Darren feels it, Frisby hears it, George thinks it's a bit of a laugh. But there's nothing funny about murder . . .

So I'm on book 3 of my own little Spooky Readathon for October (had been all poised to join one slated for this month that just never materialised), and I've had two deep and intellectual YA supernatural stories to ponder. And now I have this (Walker, so middle grade), likened to The Goonies in a review. Some lighter fare for inbetween courses.

It is disappointingly dissimilar to The Goonies.

Blended family (Frisby (teenage girl) and George (teenage boy), with remarried Mom and new stepdad, George Sr.) come together over a Saxon era & bubonic plague (1348) haunting.

The story of the haunting itself is quite violent and upsetting (major spoilers follow): a young girl is chased down and executed by her own father, who mercilessly cleaves the infected child 'in twain' stem to stern with a sword, and repeated apparitions show the upsetting scene, with the screaming mother chasing behind to no avail.

The story itself is quite eventful, and Darren, George's weird archaelogically-obsessed friend (who reminded me of Owen Meany in John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany), has 'psychometric powers', very useful for such a hobby: touch the chunk of metal, have flashback to give date, setting, etc. In spite of his careful and methodical approach to digs, he falls victim to personal greed ("cupidity", as we learn), which is linked to a curse... and though this is set on the haunted sands of Norfolk, there is a direct link to the Sutton Hoo site.

Meanwhile, cue a real-world baddy (the parts that probably reminded the other reviewer of The Goonies will doubtlessly include bikes, sand, wind and waves and pursuit, as well as threats and some physical violence towards the children), and historical accounts of when the curse last struck.

Funnily enough, I feel more positive about it while reviewing it. I guess because I can see all the constituents of the story, and I rather like what was included. The trouble is that I didn't really enjoy reading it. I found Frisby's (what a name for a girl!) relationship with her very handsome new stepfather a bit too intimate from her end. I liked the scene where the Mom, George and Frisby are all affected by the ghost and try to interact with it, but then I felt that the denouement to that scene didn't ring true. I liked the (big spoiler) idea that King Aethelhere was buried there to protect the people, and there was a grave-robbers curse which brought back the black death until his grave goods or bones were restored or the thief killed, but I found our present day villain's actions tough to swallow (more spoilers) (as head of the museum, he could have called in authorities to secure the site and done it all above-board and still have been villainous!). But for me the worst bit was shy, weird and necessarily secretive Darren suddenly happy to tell reporters all about his discoveries which were discovered using his special powers... so the ending was rushed and left some tattered ends.

Goes well with a wee nip of Glenmorangie. It's mentioned many times. :) So if that's someone's favourite tipple, and they like boilerplate middle grade archaeological ghost stories or are obsessed with Saxon grave goods or something, then you've got a strange Christmas present wrapped up. ;)

[Gabriele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was definetely a fine read, surely not the best book of my life, but enjoyable,
it reminded me a lot The Goonies and considering this book is just five years older than the movie I'm pretty sure there's some influence from it.

[Irene Lasàgna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was seven when I read this (absolutely shouldn't have). I couldn't sleep at night because I was terrified, but kept reading it nonetheless, so my mum had to take it away. I'm never opening this book again.