Soulstorm

by Chet Williamson

Three men are offered a million dollars each if they will spend a month in an isolated Pennsylvania mansion, The Pines. There they will confront madness, murder, and the ultimate evil so that their billionaire host might find the key to life beyond the grave. But as they learn, dead souls dwell in The Pines. And death is just the beginning...

Genres: Horror, Audiobook, Fiction

311 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Chet Williamson has written horror, science fiction, and suspense since 1981. Among his novels are Second Chance, Hunters, Defenders of the Faith, Ash Wednesday, Reign, Dreamthorp, and the forthcoming Psycho Sanitarium, an authorized sequel to Robert Bloch's classic Psycho. Over a hundred of his short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, The Magazine of F&SF, and many other magazines and anthologies.

He has won the International Horror Guild Award, and has been shortlisted twice for the World Fantasy Award, six times for the HWA Stoker, and once for the MWA's Edgar. Nearly all of his works are available in ebook format.

A stage and film actor, he has recorded over 40 unabridged audiobooks, both of his own work and that of many other writers, available at www.audible.com. Follow him on Twitter (@chetwill) or at www.chetwilliamson.com.

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This, Chet Williamson's debut novel from 1986, was definitely one of the better haunted house tales I've read in recent years. On its surface it seems to be a typical example of its ilk, only here the inhabitants are more like contestants, and must last 30 days inside a secluded mountaintop mansion, with no way out due to thick steel shutters having been placed over all potential exits and windows.

The rich, eccentric owner of the old estate wishes to discover the nature of the evil spirits or demons supposedly inhabiting the place, but he may have more nefarious intentions as well. The three lucky "volunteers" have all been recently disgraced in their former jobs and in dire straits so they accept, due to the 3 million dollar reward being offered by the owner.

Needless to say, the three -- plus the rich guy and his wife who also stay -- find much more than they bargain for, but it's too late to turn back. They must find a way to survive until the shutters automatically lift once the 30 days are up. Too bad whatever entities are inhabiting the giant house have no intention of them ever leaving. Not alive, that is.

I found this a really fun, unique take on a worn trope, with loads of creepy encounters and revelations along the way. The main characters are well-drawn for the most part, and I found myself invested in seeing (most) of them make it. I also dug the claustrophobic feel of the novel, despite it being a huge, multi-level building. It's impossible to tell if it's day or night, or even what day it is due to all watches being confiscated. And once the shit hits the fan, they have no way of knowing how much longer they need to hold out.

While it's not overly scary, it's very well-paced, with an intriguing mystery and it only gets more intense and outrageous as it goes. It's also pretty progressive in a way for 80s horror, featuring a gay main protagonist. The reason I say "in a way" is because there's a silly plot point where the girl inhabitant, Gabrielle, may be the only one who can "cure" his gay ways.

Still, even though I was disappointed with my only other Chet Williamson read, 1989's Dreamthorp, I'm anxious to check out more of his work, and recommend all fans of the genre do the same, as this was pretty damn entertaining with a great setting and some imaginatively gruesome scenes, which is about all one can ask for when it comes to horror boom-era paperback originals.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soulstorm started with a nice, creepy vibe but about half way through it kinda lost its way and sputtered to the end. Williamson employed an old trope here-- several people locked in a 'haunted house' to see what will happen. The owner of the house, one David Neville, is a super rich guy, but he is also dying of cancer. When his father passed, he found out about The Pines, a strange mansion his grandfather build in PA on top of a lonely mountain. His father kept a file on the house, filled with strange events and deaths, and had basically left it abandoned for decades.

David wants to find whatever is in the house in a quest for immortality. He also decides to 'hire' three people to stay with him-- an ex-cop, a mercenary and a slimy businessman. Why they were chosen I will leave for the reader, but these three and his wife Gabrielle are locked in the house and further, 1/2" plate steel shutters cover all the doors and windows, making it impossible to leave. The three 'guests' are offered one million dollars if they stay the full time, the house is stocked with food, and away they go!

For a story like this to work, the reader has to have some connection with the characters; either that or you hate them so much you are rooting for them to die. Soulstorm falls in the middle of these to extremes, however, and after the halfway mark, I did not feel much for the characters one way or another. This did have a nice riff on what exactly was 'haunting' the house, but even this got a little old by the end. It was kinda fun reading about how the characters managed to kill time. David insisted that they leave their watches behind and with their being no clocks, and the steel shutters blocking all light, the 5 are basically in a state of sensory deprivation. You know 'bad things' will happen, but here, what started out spooky almost (but not quite) turned into a farce. A fun read, but do not expect that much. 3 stars...

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soulstorm is the 32 year old, Tor published debut of fairly prolific author, Chet Williamson, who is probably best know for the book that follows this, Ash Wednesday. I see many of his books in used shops pretty regularly, and if Soulstorm is any indication, are worth a look.

On the surface, it's a standard story of a small group of people locked in a house with a haunted history in hopes of a large monetary prize. Just beneath that surface, however, is a rich character study, namely around sexuality and classism...

The book excels in it's characterization, keeping it's cast thin, and taking the time to really delve each of them out. I was reminded quite a bit of a book I read a few months back, Randall Boyll's After Sundown which was very enjoyable, in it's taking the opportunity of horror in isolation to really delve into those segregated from society and trapped with a terrible entity.

Here, the terrible entity is the titular Soulstorm, as the house is a magnet of sorts for all evil souls, and it even implies that it may be responsible for historically horrendous acts of murder, with cameos of serial killer Albert Fish and dictator Hitler. It plays on the human wish for power, wealth and to belong, which makes for a thoroughly different motive for the villain...to exploit it's victims to get what it wants: world domination.

My qualms lie in a similar place, however. The book seems to lose focus on being a horror novel at times, and becomes preoccupied with the drama that unfolds between the characters. It gets a bit too soap-opery for my taste, while missing out on a whole lot of opportunity to become more vividly horrific throughout.

While the character study was always interesting enough to keep me reading, I do believe it was a misfire to not have the crew so deeply studied meet more gruesome demises...readers tend to care much more when those disposed of are so strongly developed.

That's not to say there aren't some really great horror moments.

One character is turned into what can be described as a more deformed version of The Incredible Hulk who squeezes a neck until the head it attaches to bursts like a tube of rolled up toothpaste...and that's exactly what the author describes it as. Another great and gross moment involves the malodorous qualities of a corpse that just won't stay put, and still feels the need to engage in the carnal joys of intercourse.

It's a decent debut, worth a read, and I certainly will be looking into more of Williamson's work, namely Dreamthorp, which seems to be the pulpy literary stepchild of the author's bibliography.

It's 3/5 for me.

originally posted on my blog http://Undivineinterventions.blogspot...

[Warren Fournier · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover of the re-release says, "In the tradition of 'Hell House' and 'The Haunting.'" Well, that about seems to wrap it up. In fact, the description could have stopped simply at "Hell House," because that is definitely the book that inspired "Soulstorm." From the windowless house, to the semi-possessed bad guy among the main cast, to the over-the-top, semen-splashed sexual depravity, Richard Matheson was clearly the muse, not Shirley Jackson. But what it seems author Chet Williamson really wanted to do was take the standard haunted house trope to the Freddy Krueger generation.

The premise is very familiar. Rich guy offers to pay a million bucks to each of three participants who would be willing to spend the night with him and his sexually frustrated wife in a huge haunted estate for the entire month of October. But the offer is full of catches. If anyone leaves before Halloween, nobody gets the money. And nobody will be able to leave anyway, since the house is hermetically sealed in iron shutters. The only way to get out and forfeit the cash is for four of them to simultaneously insert special keys soldered to a chain around their necks into locks placed at great distances, thus forcing a largely unanimous decision. Everybody accepts the challenge, not believing in ghosts, but not bothering to ask what would happen if any of their party were to drop dead, say, of a heart attack or something. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, it turns out a lot could go wrong, as the house is literally a magnet for spirits. Our five knuckleheads must fight boredom with endless games of pool and pinochle, as well as survive against malevolent forces until Halloween. But I just couldn't get past the contrived plot point of trapping all the people in the house. The main weakness to haunted house novels is that you need to amp up the threat while keeping your protagonists in the house for the duration of 100s of pages. Here, the solution is simply forced and implausible.

And therefore, you know the rest of the paranormal happenings will also be just as outrageous. Think the remake of "House on Haunted Hill" as opposed to the Vincent Price original. You've got horny dream lovers, the ghost of Hitler, possessed people turning into the Incredible Hulk, and gory deaths.

"Soulstorm" does attempt to be as spooky as it is campy. We get some really well-written scenes where our characters are desperately searching the huge and lonely mansion, afraid of opening every door for fear of what may be lurking on the other side. The paranoia builds as our guests realize that unseen presences are observing their every move, so they become self-conscious going to the toilet, tell jokes to themselves to lighten the mood, and are afraid to ever be alone or to look over their shoulder. For me, this was when the novel was most effective.

But when it tried to "one-up" the old school stories from which it is inspired, the book got unintentionally comical. Unfortunately, the author was clearly taking this project very seriously. Chet Williamson wanted to offend me, but I only giggled or rolled my eyes. He wanted to gross me out, but I felt he could do better than that. I'm not saying this book didn't have any ability to thrill or scare, but perhaps it worked better forty years ago in a more innocent time. And that's the problem when entertainment relies on mostly on gore and shock. What was amazing to audiences in the past doesn't necessarily phase them now. And so that's why story must always come first--your narrative will be what makes your work timeless. That's because gore and shock are tricks that only work once. You have to keep turning up the ridiculous factor to get diminishing reactions, and inevitably your story becomes a parody of itself.

Another weakness is that the characters are pretty dull. The author did give at least one of them some psychological depth, but the others were simply flat and wooden, or otherwise cartoonishly despicable. The dialogue was also nothing to brag about. Shirley Jackson may have gone overboard with all her cutesy banter between her cast at Hill House, making everyone sound like they were in a Victorian salon or a 50s Tupperware party, but here Williamson injects only the bare modicum of personality, humor, or quirkiness into what people say or do.

Don't get me wrong, though. This book gets a lot right. For example, I liked how the characters had all their watches confiscated, and there are no clocks in the house, so with the windows all shuttered, they could only rely on internal cues to mark time. This had interesting psychological implications and was utilized well in the story.

I also enjoyed the running theme about how the house exploits vulnerabilities in people, and the author made this process feel very real and organic, even if the end results were kind of goofy.

The pacing was well timed, and it is one of the more violent offerings of the original paperback from hell line, building to a crashing crescendo the way that only 80s and 90s paperbacks can pull off. This is overall a moderately sick and entertaining little book that should resonate well with modern horror fans, and even may stimulate an odd craving for smoked oysters. Or maybe it was just me.

As a final point, this is an original 1986 paperback that has greater availability than others because a modernized version was rereleased a few years ago on Kindle. I've never understood why we need updates for such books--who cares if a character is looking at the hands of a Swiss watch vs a digital LED screen? Especially in a book like this where technology is purposefully eliminated to up the stakes! But at least this book is easier to find, especially on a whim.

The ideas presented here had a lot of potential, but I don't think what Chet Williamson tried to do to set this book apart from other haunted house stories had the overall effect he had hoped. Regardless, it was a really fun ride, enhanced all the more for me when a thunderstorm came rumbling through at the same time the soundtrack to my wife's horror video game wafted in from the living room TV while I was reading it.

For all its flaws, it's a great choice for your short list this Halloween season.

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chet Williamson hasn't written nearly enough horror novels so far, but the ones he did I liked very much and this book was no exception. While the premise may not be the most original and most famously done in the books like Haunting of Hill House and Hell House, Williamson's exceptionally strong writing and absolutely terrific (particularly for a genre novel) character development makes this book a real stand out. So much is the character development present here, that even the house itself is very much a character of its own and a seriously scary one at that. There are plenty of frights for the horror fans, but the story's real strengths are with exploring personal struggles of the epic good and evil kind and extremely claustrophobic atmosphere. Williamson has succeeded in creating a genuinely memorable, authentically eerie piece of horror real estate. Highly recommended.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a superb thriller with all of the paranormal elements that I love in a good haunted house or ghost story. The character development and imagery is spot on; the writing and plot are tight and expertly done. There's always a few books that come to mind as "wow books" or those that you bookmark as favorites and share with others. This ranks among the top of my list; my only regret is that I waited so long to read it. If you love horror or the paranormal give this book a try.

[Soo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mini-Review:

4.5 Stars for Excellent Narration by the Author
3.5 Stars for Book

Normally, I'm not a fan of author's narrating their own books because I tend to dislike their narration. It doesn't matter how well you know the story if you can't recite it in a manner that gives the story some sort of life.

I enjoyed Williamson's narration on another book and went in search for others. I had no idea he was also a writer. This book was great! While I was not surprised by the overall plot, the characters were interesting and Williamson really made the story come to life in my mind. I'm quite happy with the edgy horror movie that played in my head. It had a great 80's/90's paranormal movie vibe.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The idea of a group of people being paid to stay in a haunted house is not new but Williamson's take on it is far from worn out or anticipated. David Neville is rich, entitled and dying. His plan for the next 31 days is to lock several people in a house that he knows is haunted not to prove the existence of ghosts but to establish his immortality and exact some revenge along the way. But the spirits have a different plan because frankly, they don't need him to join them or want him for that matter. They have a far more sinister agenda but they need a person of strength to carry it out. I am not a fan of small spaces and being claustrophobic made the setting frightening to begin with but then Williamson starts a slow boil of terror as the spirits assess the strengths and weaknesses of the group and put their plan into action. There are surprises behind every door and one never quite anticipates the next horror. The characters are well drawn and the ending is as terrifying as the slamming of the steel plates that cover windows and doors because he set us up and then lulled us into a seemingly benign if not happy ending only to jump out from the dark and ask "what if?"

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

And so my reading drought ends.

This book I will admit was bought along with two of his other works ( Lowland Rider and Ash Wednesday) I will admit that at the time I knew next to nothing of his work but I thought I would give it a shot (you should know by now that I love these random choices which can lead me anywhere). But on further investigation he is a very accomplished author with many and varied achievement to his claim.

The book can be condensed down to the hounded house story but it is so much more. You get to see the characters develop while at the same time unravelling the history of the house, its contents and what they really mean are as much of interest as the events that unfold.

Its difficult to explain without giving the story away but I will say that although at first glance (and I see from other reviews similar comments) that there are similarities to stories such as Shirley Jacksons Haunting of Hill House, Soulstorm is very much more and is strong enough to stand up on its own without riding on the tails of other more famous titles.

[Ken Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Time is change. Just like you can never swim in the same river twice, humans experience so much constant mental and physical change that we have to shut down for hours every day. (No surprise that sleep plays an important role in this book.) We rely on consistent observations over time to perceive and comprehend our surroundings, other individuals, and our own identities.

SOULSTORM uses a haunted house scenario to ponder what happens to our identities when we lose all concept of time. Exercise, art, healing, and studying all require time and endurance to realize progress, as do captivity and desire. In this book's characters we see all these pursuits frustrated. The artist explains her struggle to create: "It's like a plant ... it needs time to grow. How can anything grow without time?"

Complicating the scenario is the presence of Hell itself, presenting as poisonous remnants of history's most evil people. They meddle with the characters' bodies and minds, influencing perceptions and animating repressed impulses so that cruelty reigns.

I wish the book's fabulously grotesque climax, featuring bodies literally twisted to mirror the characters' warped desires, hadn't arrived so prematurely. Afterward everything gets explained over and over with diminishing returns. With all that explaining the only thing I never understood is why anyone trapped in a haunted house would keep sneaking off to the corpse-filled basement alone to summon up more evil ghosts. Unfortunately that's most of the book's back half and the characters are pretty thin, so you do have to coast for a bit.

There's a lot of silliness about the "gay" character and what seemed like an unusual excess of casual racist epithets, but I liked Williamson's stylish writing and the clever way the conclusion quickly unravels. The subplot, with an outside character lured into the house's web, cleverly plays against the main character's dilemma to show how time (specifically impending death!) imposes a creativity and resourcefulness that the soulstorm, so fixated on the joy of destruction and so distracted by its "collective atrocious", can't comprehend, what with its whole "Earth is dying, and there is no hope" attitude. So why bother with studying, why bother with painting, why bother starting a fire? This book suggests that a big drawback of "eternal life" is forever looking backward, looking backward forever, and the death of imagination.

[Justin Lowmaster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three men are offered a million bucks each to stay a month sealed in a haunted house. Sounds like all the other haunted house stories, right? In some ways yes, but where it counts, no.

One item that sets Soulstorm apart from books such at Hell House or The Haunting of Hill House is the fact that none of the people staying in the house are psychics or ghost hunters, or anything of that sort. I have actually listened to those two books recently and when I started Soulstorm, I was a bit weary, thinking Soulstorm would be more of the same. Instead, as the characters got introduced, I became interested in them, so my initial apprehension slipped off into the night.
Another thing Soulstorm does is start showing you that the house is truly haunted right from the start. I think in this case, that worked well. It doesn’t start off with a lot of things happening, but just enough to set the reader on edge.

If you get the audio version of the book, you are in for a treat. The author himself reads the book. I really enjoy it when an author can read their own work and do it well, like Chet does here. He knows exactly what he meant when he wrote it, and can convey it exactly how he wants you to hear it. He also pauses very well at the right moments. It is all pleasant on the ears.

If you like stories about haunted houses, then this is one you should read. The characters are interesting, the plot works, and the setting is enough different (at least as far as my reading goes) to keep it interesting.

Buy it directly from Crossroad Press.

[Arlingtontexican · Rating 3 out of 5]

late login...as in after the fact...story was okay, as I remember it, hey...I remember it so that has to mean something. . Just needed to get this inventoried.

[Bianca van Willigenburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love novels about people staying in a haunted house and this was no exeption. However, I didn't find this book scary at all (unlike The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackston or Susan Hill's The Woman in Black).

It's a quick read. Only one character is well developed, which makes his actions at the end of the novel predictable. I would have liked it if the backstory of other character would have been told too. Now I wasn't able to really care about them.

Short summary:
Millionaire David Neville, who has only months to live, has found out he inherited a big house, The Pines, from his father. The only problem is that it is haunted. He gets the idea that the haunted house is the way of finding eternal life, the only problem is that his father and grandfather never saw any of the ghosts, only visitors to the house. He devices a plan to force the house to show him the ghosts; he has invited three men who he, seemingly, doesn't know and gives the order to make the house unescapable. Together with his wife and the three men acting as bodyguards/servants he intends to spend 31 days locked in The Pines to see what happens. It doesn't take long before things start to happen, not only on the inside of the house, and people start dying.

[Anna Voyles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

Great

a wonderful book, kept me wanting to turn the pages! I would suggest this book to read if you like scary and mysteries!

[Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad as far as horror goes I guess. Glad to see it gone.

[John Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun, entertaining take on a haunted house story. Filled with solid characters and exciting set pieces, Williamson proves why he’s a consistently wonderful writer.

[Lee Mauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good read. I wish I could give half star ratings on here. I received the audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review by the author. The basis is o e we all know, stay in this house with no outside communication and no way out for a month with the ghosts. If you make it to the end you get a large payout by the eccentric benefactor.
The writing in this book was very good. I stuck with it all the way through and enjoyed most of it. I felt like the quality of writing started to fall off at the end a bit, like the author was getting a bit tired and was trying to figure out ways to lengthen it just a tad more and still keep it interesting. He did a good job but started to fall to the tropes of other stories of the same type so didn’t end up doing anything groundbreaking with a wellworn plot device. The narration overall was very good, though I did hear a few mispronunciations. If you enjoy haunted house stories and claustrophobia give this book a whirl.

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 1 out of 5]

One and a half stars: I generally dislike books that start with a Prologue. As a slow reader I sometimes can't remember the significance of those passages and need to reread it to understand the point being made. So I automatically took off ½ star from my review when I saw an 11-page Prologue, which I dutifully skipped (it seemed to outline the recent history of the three men invited to the mansion.) In fact I didn't need to re-read it since I abandoned the whole thing about halfway through. It's way too long and many rambling parts and dreams could have been eliminated. It's not badly written, just sort of boring. For much better haunted house books try The Uninvited by Dorothy MacArdle, Hell House by Richard Matheson or, of course, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

[Casey Bartsch · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointing read. At times the book showed such promise, while others seemed juvenile and half-thought. At regular intervals, the author went on such convoluted tangents that I got lost in the thick paragraphs, desperate to find my way out. Still, it had promise. The premise is not unique-that of people getting paid lots of money by an eccentric to stay in a haunted house-yet it had its own twist to it. Unfortunately, that twist never turns out to be much of anything and by the time the book ends, I'm not sure I remembered there was one. I wish I could give 2.5 stars as that would be more appropriate, but rounding up to 3 just didn't seem right. Your time is best spent elsewhere.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love haunted house books, and this felt like it was heading toward a 4-Star rating. Nothing life-changing, but a good and spooky read. But I kept waiting for the one woman in the book to have her bit of the narrative, and it just…never came. Every other character has a portion of the book dedicated to an exploration of their motivations and vices, but seemingly Gabriella is only there as an object of desire and rage. All we really learn about her is that she likes sex. Bleh.

[Jeff Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

No, it's not a classic of the genre or anything, but I still thought Chet Williamson's "Soulstorm" was enjoyable enough. A relatively lean read that doesn't ask too much of the reader, "Soulstorm" was an interesting take on the haunted-house formula, with a dash of sleaze and a fair-helping of testosterone.

[Noelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting concepts and eerie moments but the worst, most unlikable characters and an incredibly slow pace made this one just okay. Gave similar vibes to The Shining and the Haunting of Hill House but a story uniquely its own. Characters, language and style felt very dated.

[John Hammond · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great. I finished it, though.

[Chuck Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the vein of The Haunting of Hill House and Hell House, Chet Williamson brings a tale of a group spending a month in an allegedly haunted house. Five people enter, and are literally walled in for the month of October…but how many exit?
Crisp writing, realistic dialogue, and a great pace make this a quick, fun read.

[Steven Karalash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Fun to read. Part of the #springhorror and #readathon. Review to follow after the readathon is complete.