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Loading... Slade Houseby David Mitchell
  
Books Read in 2015 (81) » 15 more I Could Live There (56) Library Books/Loans (18) KayStJ's to-read list (1,145) To Read (212) Horror to Read (98) Top Five Books of 2015 (264) Life Everlasting (12)  indygo88 | Jan 21, 2017 |  I am a big David Mitchell fan, but I'll admit I was unimpressed with this one. I know it's merely a novella, but I guess too much time had passed since reading The Bone Clocks for me to really understand or care what was happening. This would probably be best read immediately following The Bone Clocks, if at all. (  ) skrouhan | Jan 5, 2017 | Every nine years, down a narrow alley in a town east of London, a small, black iron door appears. Through the door lies an improbably large mansion: Slade House. Here could be a posh musical gathering, a lonely woman, or a lively college party-just the thing to appeal to each visitor. That's because Slade House is really a trap-and each "guest" is really the next victim... Readers of "The Bone Clocks" will probably figure out pretty quickly what's going on here, as this book relates directly to Mitchell's last. Marinus even shows up in the last part as well, as Dr Iris Fenby. Like Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas, this is a novel of short stories, each focusing on a new guest every nine years from 1979 to 2015. This is a quick read, and although you should probably read Bone Clocks first, it does a decent job explaining things, albeit a tad info-dumpy at times. There are also some pretty neat, creepy sequences that would work well around Halloween. This may not be Mitchell's strongest, but still a good peek at his style and universe. A review copy was provided by the publisher. (  ) lisally | Dec 22, 2016 | The entrance to Slade House appears every nine years, but only a select few have the ability to see it. What lies ahead for those who enter is a large mysterious house that holds their fate in its hands. Slade House is a collection of connected short stories each set nine years apart and centres around the house and its inhabitants. Spanning from 1979 to 2015 each story takes you on a fantastical mind bending journey as you watch and learn the fate of it's latest victim. As each story progresses you learn a little more about the house and its inhabitants until the ultimate conclusion in 2015 reveals all. The writing is extremely vivid and paints a strikingly haunting picture of both the house and it's surroundings, and of the characters. The author made it extremely easy for me to picture what I was reading, but at the same time left room for my imagination to fill in the rest. Even though each story had a nine year gap and introduced new characters, there was still a consistency there that held them all together. The atmosphere rolled over me like a fog, becoming darker, thicker, and more menacing as the book progressed. As I read on I started to notice small inconsequential details that appeared in each story. Details which in the larger scheme of things meant nothing, but were cleverly thrown in there to show just how much each character was manipulated beforehand. Definitely one I would recommend, it was a lot of fun to read and exceeded my expectations. ( ) Scarlet-Aingeal | Dec 16, 2016 | From the author of “Cloud Atlas” comes short, this highly imaginative and unconventional ghost story. Spanning approximately 36 years and five narrators (a miniature for this gifted writer), Slade House tells the story of a haunted house, the entrance to which appears only every five years on the last Saturday in October. The two living residents of the house lure in innocents to feast on their souls. Those lured in become paintings on the house’s walls. The novel traces five of these luring episodes during which the ghosts (for lack of a better word) of those lured in become progressively stronger and disrupt the residents’ soul feasting. Mitchell’s particular talent is telling the same story essentially five times and having it each time be made new by the powerful voices of the separate narrators. That most narrators are the victims leaves him with the challenge of exposition, so we can better understand our villains. Occasionally, exposition becomes clunky (this is a fault not uncommon in Mitchell’s work, which is so imaginatively complex that much exposition is needed), but Mitchell rescues it in the end because his clunky exposition actually becomes part of the plot. Highly recommended. (  )2  Bostonseanachie | Dec 14, 2016 |
 **** 4 out of 5 stars Review by: Mark Palm Not Another Haunted House. The one thing that I have come to expect from David Mitchell is that you never know what you are going to get. That is true once again with Slade House. Nominally a haunted house novel, Slade House reminded me of the story of the Blind Men and the Elephant. The one who touched it’s tail thought that it was a rope, the one that touched it’s ear thought that it was a fan, the one that touched it’s leg thought that it was a pillar. They are all wrong, but they are somehow all right as well. The story starts with Nathan Bishop, a teenaged boy and his musician mother, who enter Slade House expecting a party, and are greeted by Jonah, a teen-aged boy who seems to have unusual abilities. We can’t quite be sure at first, because the section is narrated by Nathan, who is on valium, which makes his perception strange, as he says. As the story continues, however, and grows more and more surreal, we discover that strange and horrible things are indeed happening in Slade House. Unfortunately for Nathan and his mother, the revelation comes too late. NIne years later a tough but conceited cop, Gordon Edmunds, is looking into the disappearance of the Bishops and he is lured into Slade House by an attractive young widow, Chloe Chetwynd. At dinner, the two witness ghosts. Once again things get decidedly surreal, and our protagonist is manipulated by their desires into becoming a victim of the strange beings who call Slade House their home. This pattern occurs again and again as we learn that the entities are Norah and Jonah Grayer, who need souls to feast upon. To go into more detail is impossible without dropping a ton of spoilers, but Mr. Mitchell rewards the patient reader, as each section of the story peels away a bit of the mystery. That’s part of the rub, though. For me, not knowing the story made the earlier sections exceptionally creepy. It was satisfying to learn more and more, but as I did I found the book to be a bit less effective. Mr. Mitchell’s prose, written in the first person through various characters, is exceptional. Each is unique in tone and pace, and all are believable. The biggest problem that I had with Slade House is that I didn’t really feel that it stands that well on it’s own. It is creepy, and effective, and prior knowledge of The Bone Clocks makes Slade House a more effective novel. Still, it’s definitely original, and definitely worth your time. Full reviews available at http://www.thebookendfamily.weebly.co...
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From “one of the most electric writers alive” (The Boston Globe) comes a taut, intricately woven, spine-chilling, reality-warping short novel. Set across five decades, beginning in 1979 and coming to its electrifying conclusion on October 31, 2015, Slade House is the perfect book to curl up with on a dark and stormy night.
(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:12:30 -0400)
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I am still trying to work my way through David Mitchell's books. This one is more of a novella, but follows a similar style to many of his other longer novels, consisting of a series of interconnected stories. Slade House was eerie and surreal, but I liked it, with engaging characters and a well-written creepy plot. It is a companion novel of sorts to Mitchell's previous The Bone Clocks, which I've read and had mixed feelings about. Both books are mind-bending, but I found this one easier to follow and once I was about halfway in, I just wanted to keep reading to find out how it was going to end. What impressed me most was Mitchell's ability to interweave & connect characters and story lines, which is what he does and is known for, but I found that it was done more smoothly & coherently in this one, which made it much more enjoyable for me. (