{"id":80799,"date":"2015-10-15T01:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T00:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=80799"},"modified":"2015-10-12T12:15:49","modified_gmt":"2015-10-12T11:15:49","slug":"little-sister-death-by-william-gay-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/little-sister-death-by-william-gay-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Sister Death by William Gay book review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">What better place to write a horror novel than a haunted house? When struggling novelist David Binder moves his wife and daughter into the former Beale mansion, he\u2019s hoping to use the legend of the Beale Witch to write the book that will make his fortune. But as anyone who\u2019s ever seen a horror movie can tell you, that\u2019s not exactly how things are going to play out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Drawing on the allegedly true story of the Bell Witch \u2013 the same legend that inspired <em><strong>The Blair Witch Project<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 this \u2018lost\u2019 novella by the late William Gay dances through history, exploring hundreds of years\u2019 worth of tragedy that all happened in the same creepy house. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The writing is gorgeous; descriptive, rich and musical, with a Southern accent so thick you\u2019ll wish author William Gay could\u2019ve read it to you. It\u2019s compelling \u2013 and short \u2013 enough that it\u2019s possible to read in a single sitting. That\u2019s probably how it\u2019s best enjoyed: as a single gulp of deliriously macabre mystery. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">This isn\u2019t a book that\u2019ll stand up to close scrutiny. It\u2019s all atmosphere and mood, packed full of moments of horror and weirdness that, individually, are effective enough, but don\u2019t come together to form a coherent whole. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">It ends abruptly, abandoning Binder and his family in the middle of their story, stranded in the remains of a history they\u2019ll never understand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Perversely, that might make it even more unnerving than if it\u2019d had a tidier ending. It\u2019s the kind of book that stays with you long after you\u2019ve closed the cover \u2013 while you might not remember the details of the plot, there are plenty of eerie images and haunting ideas that\u2019ll snag in your brain, waiting for the perfect late night moment of vulnerability to resurface and creep you out all over again.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>William Gay channels The Blair Witch Project in Little Sister Death<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":80801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[1624,8],"tags":[4791,4792],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Little-Sister-Death-by-William-Gay.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}