Slade House in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Oct 13, 2015 KT rated it liked it · review of another edition

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The first thing to know about this book is that it's written by David Mitchell, author of The Bone Clocks, The Cloud Atlas. It's the first thing to know because all of Mitchell's books are part of one meta-universe and contain references to each other, and this book specifically so. You can read this book without having read Bone Clocks, but the ending will be harder to understand if you haven't.

That s I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The first thing to know about this book is that it's written by David Mitchell, author of The Bone Clocks, The Cloud Atlas. It's the first thing to know because all of Mitchell's books are part of one meta-universe and contain references to each other, and this book specifically so. You can read this book without having read Bone Clocks, but the ending will be harder to understand if you haven't.

That said, this is a great book for those who like a touch of mystery, a touch of horror and a touch of fantasy in their stories. Like The Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks, Slade House is a story told over the course of separate shorter stories, each from a different point of view.

Slade House is a mysterious manor house that appears only once every nine years, reached through a door in the middle of an alley. Every nine years, someone goes into the house and never comes back out. Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of the victim's of the house, until the very end, when we finally get the point of view of one of the predators that lives within.

If you have read The Bone Clocks, you will recognize the antagonists by the end of the first chapter, but even if you haven't, the mystery is intriguing enough and the story well enough told that you will get hooked right away.

The one thing that brings the story down, and is a thing that you'll also find in The Bone Clocks, is Mitchell's tendency to have his characters spout of lot of terminology, signaled by Capital Letters, which makes little sense, as it's rooted in their own secret philosophies. They'll sit there and chat about the Operandi and the Orison and the Aperture and it all seems like a magician's trick to make everything seem more deep and mysterious than it really is.

And maybe that's on purpose, but for me it detracts from the enjoyment of the story. Listening to evil nemeses stop and drone on for a large chunk of dialogue about words and concepts you barely understand (because they aren't explained) really breaks the immersion and interrupts the flow of the story. Whenever the capital letters popped up, I felt the urge to skip ahead to when the action begins again.

That said, it's a quick read that's full of suspense and Mitchell is a good writer. I would recommend reading this along with The Bone Clocks for a deeper understanding of what's going on and who the final "victim" of the house actually is. ...more

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Mar 04, 2016 Anne Clair rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Read The Bone Clocks before reading this book.

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Apr 05, 2016 Shannon rated it liked it · review of another edition

Picked this up not knowing anything about it. Was fascinated by the first three quarters and felt the last part was rushed. Based on other reviews, I think I need to read more from this author to really appreciate this book.

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Aug 18, 2015 Meredith rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

What a fantastically creepy book. It's kind of like... If Stephen King wrote the Yellow Wallpaper. That's how I felt when I read it. It's fantastic. ...more

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