From chapter one, all Susan Hill does is use a conversational tone, fit for chicklit, but not for horror/ terror. I could have read this book at any time of night and I would have been quite as calm as ever. I read a ghost story for the excitement, the goosebumps - well, with The Small Hand, they didn't happen. I am aware that a lot of people prefer stories to be told in a straightforward manner, but the way I see it, ghost stories must not be told too straightforwardly, or the mystery, the excitement, the thrills - they are all lost. Well, to cut a long story short, Susan Hill failed to do precisely that: to create an atmosphere. In many ways, I believe, ghost stories resemble crime fiction: there should be mystery, some red herrings (but not an exggerated amount of red herrings), and everyone should hold a secret.
By "atmosphere" I don't mean "purple prose", just a fair amount of description, whether internal or external, that creates a sense of mystery and draws the reader into the story, making it feel as if he/she were living it, as if he/she were the one who met the ghost and had to find out its secret, its motives. Whenever I start reading a "ghost story", whether it be a classic or a modern one, I expect for it to do one main thing: create atmosphere. From the first chapter, however, I was sorely disappointed. I didn't get to read it until recently, but when I did start the book, I did so with a lot of enthusiasm. Instead, I patiently waited until it came out in paperback - by far not as attractive - to finally buy it. However, my ongoing status of penniless student prevented me from laying my hands on this beautiful - but really quite expensive - edition. Yes, I will admit I almost comitted the unforgivable sin of judging a book by its cover. The initial hardback version was, indeed, a jewel of a book: the black and sky-blue arabesque emboss, its pleasingly diminutive format positively crying out "I might be small, but there's a dark story inside me, bursting from my pages", its overall "collectors' edition" aspect. However, a few months ago I became fairly obsessed with purchasing and reading her most recent novella, The Small Hand. I am still, I admit, waiting excitedly for the screen adaptation of the latter after watching its promising trailer. I've known about her books for a long time and I've been meaning to read what are, perhaps, her best-known novels, I'm the King of the Castle and The Woman in Black.
I'll start by admitting that The Small Hand is the first and only book by Susan Hill that I have ever read. Well, this comes right on time for Halloween, I suppose, the best time for reviewing ghost stories.
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