I love a good mashup, especially of the literary variety, and I found exactly what I was looking for this summer when I picked up a copy of Jeremy C. Shipp's The Atrocities: a gothic novella that reads like Coraline meets Black Mirror ... Around every corner, there seemed to lurk some frightening element that...gave me all of the creeps. Stockton House truly feels like it occupies a space separated entirely from the real world ... I definitely recommend picking up Jeremy C. Shipp's The Atrocities to read for yourself.
This strange novella has bursts of unexplained visions and dreams, at times feeling like a nod toward ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.' We have two women, one who has obviously been entrapped and gaslit, and one who has been through some serious trauma that has barely been explained. A lot of the oddities—and indeed the Atrocities themselves—are unexplained in the novella, but the story does not suffer from it. The unexplained nature of the story works to make it creepier, because instead of rationalizations and explanations we get dreams and madness and oddity. It’s a creepy little novella that reminds me of some of the old classics. Great read.
I read The Atrocities in a single unbroken sitting and came away about equally impressed and perturbed. Shipp’s exaggeration of Gothic clichés, his shifts of tone and plot, his dry humor and his sense of the absurd have all stayed with me, but so have my feelings that [there] should have been a little more to the book. I value concision, but much here seems undeveloped ... There’s a frustrating abruptness to the ending; just a few additional pages of aftermath and reflection would, to my mind, have improved the book. Queries and quibbles aside, I truly enjoyed The Atrocities: it’s made me eager to read more of Shipp’s writing, whether archly humorous, bluntly sinister, or, like this book, some strange combination of the two. Stockton House is worth a visit, but do mind the statues, and don’t let the capybara get underfoot.
Author Jeremy C. Shipp likes to throw in details to remind us that this story, which we could easily assume is taking place in the mid-nineteenth century, is actually set in the present day. There are 84-inch, high-definition, wall-mounted televisions, smart phones, a security camera system. These details work to heighten the Gothic elements by the intrusion of sudden, modern contrasts. The bits of today that appear thicken the atmosphere of the past by comparison. This short novel is dense with detail and quick to take turns that impress you to keep reading. You’ll want to finish it one sitting because there is never a reason to put it down. Especially if you are in the mood for some Gothic fiction before our second Southern Gothic post on novels, pick this one up and it will give you a good, hard dose.
Gothic in style, this haunting (maybe) ghost story had many fine moments and gleefully led the reader up the garden path with its dark haunting descriptions, ominous atmosphere, morbid setting, restrained (and nutty) characters with a quality central plot thrust which (almost) keeps it going to the end ... Shipp has crafted a tightly constructed tale that uses every page and image for maximum impact and is an excellent take on the classic haunted house story ...The weak link of the novel was unfortunately the ending ... In such a short piece of fiction a great ending is crucial and ultimately this very entertaining novella was deflated by a failure to close out a tale which it has carefully developed in the first 100 pages.
Shipp...successfully plays with the expected atmosphere of a haunted house but still presents surprises. The mystery of the haunting drives the plot and does not disappoint the reader. Any fans of haunted houses or strange families will thoroughly enjoy reading this short novel.
Shipp...uses a very strange house, full of nightmarish paintings and statuary, to explore the vast, haunted spaces between life and death, showcasing a gift for horrific imagery ... Told in Danna’s haunting voice, this beautifully executed tale, as twisted as the hedge maze she braves to reach Stockton House, will surely linger with readers.
