Remember when I started reading this one and I said it was delivering some chills? Apparently that was an overstatement, because as I read on I quickly realised that this book had exactly ONE chill to deliver. ONE. CHILL. ‘No more chills for you, dear reader, I have delivered my one chill and now my job is done’ - this book.
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I don’t like to put people off books with my reviews because there’s always a reader out there somewhere who will enjoy it, but honestly I feel like by now people have decided whether or not they want to read the ~classic spookies~ or not, so my saying that this book is boring as fuck probably (maybe) won’t deter anyone - or if it does, trust me I saved you some hours of tedium.
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I had heard that this book was super creepy and featured kids gaslighting their poor governess into thinking she was seeing ghosties, so I can only blame the convoluted prose for fucking that up because it sounds AWESOME. I would start reading a sentence and by the end of it, forget how it started in the first place, but as this point I was too afraid to go back and try again. So I persevered, half understanding what the frick was going on and just waiting for the spooky vibes. Sad face.
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The positive thing is the story is only 125 pages - and you bet your ass I did NOT continue on to read the ‘and other stories’ in this collection. One Henry James was enough for me, bye Henry
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Two out of five for the one chill and potential spookiness of the kids that never fully delivered.