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3.31 AVERAGE
3.31 AVERAGE
This was a slow read for me. Interesting characters, and definitely disturbing.
After breaking up with her boyfriend, Audrey finds herself on the lookout for a new place to live, but it needs to be cheap. Then she finds The Breviary, a beautiful apartment that not only works for her wallet, but seduces the architect in her. To Audrey, her new apartment is almost too good to be true. Unfortunately, that's because it is. There is evil in this apartment that speaks to her in her dreams, begging her to build a door.
Audrey's Door is the October selection for calico_reaction's bookclub. Although I don't read too much horror, the title seemed more than appropriate the Halloween season, making me quite interested in reading it. Unfortunately, it didn't take too long before I realized that something was very wrong. I had a really, really hard time connecting with the main character. I didn't even really feel all that sorry for her. Given the fact that her life had been so traumatic, this was shocking to me. In fact, Audrey kind of drove me a little nuts, and the secondary cast wasn't that much better. This made it really hard for me to look forward to reading this book.
Unfortunately, my issues with Audrey's Door go beyond characterization and into plot as well. Everything seems to set up nicely at the beginning. This is clearly a classic haunted house story, with the twists being the fact that its an apartment and the horrors that exist inside Audrey's mind are what's the most terrifying. But it wasn't too long before the book began to feel awfully repetitive. We're delivered scene after scene of Audrey's nightmares, and moments where Audrey acts crazy. These were fine at the beginning but they began to grow old rather fast. The horror elements of the novel also didn't always work for me. Maybe it's because I prefer more subtle kind of horror but Andrey's Door (especially near the end) felt way too over the top to me, even to the point where the book was border lining on comical instead of creepy. I also found the writing to be a little week to be honest, as the author seemed to occasionally fall into the old trap of telling instead of showing.
Final Thoughts: I always feel a little guilty about giving negative reviews (not just in this case where the author lives here in Maine, meaning I might actually run into her one of these days. There aren't that many people up here), but despite an interesting set up in the beginning, this book really didn't work well for me. Perhaps it's because I don't read a ton of horror but I found the horror elements to be a over the top and therefore ineffective, the plot to be repetitive, and the characters to be unsympathetic. I have no plans on picking up any other books by Sarah Langan.
Audrey's Door is the October selection for calico_reaction's bookclub. Although I don't read too much horror, the title seemed more than appropriate the Halloween season, making me quite interested in reading it. Unfortunately, it didn't take too long before I realized that something was very wrong. I had a really, really hard time connecting with the main character. I didn't even really feel all that sorry for her. Given the fact that her life had been so traumatic, this was shocking to me. In fact, Audrey kind of drove me a little nuts, and the secondary cast wasn't that much better. This made it really hard for me to look forward to reading this book.
Unfortunately, my issues with Audrey's Door go beyond characterization and into plot as well. Everything seems to set up nicely at the beginning. This is clearly a classic haunted house story, with the twists being the fact that its an apartment and the horrors that exist inside Audrey's mind are what's the most terrifying. But it wasn't too long before the book began to feel awfully repetitive. We're delivered scene after scene of Audrey's nightmares, and moments where Audrey acts crazy. These were fine at the beginning but they began to grow old rather fast. The horror elements of the novel also didn't always work for me. Maybe it's because I prefer more subtle kind of horror but Andrey's Door (especially near the end) felt way too over the top to me, even to the point where the book was border lining on comical instead of creepy. I also found the writing to be a little week to be honest, as the author seemed to occasionally fall into the old trap of telling instead of showing.
Final Thoughts: I always feel a little guilty about giving negative reviews (not just in this case where the author lives here in Maine, meaning I might actually run into her one of these days. There aren't that many people up here), but despite an interesting set up in the beginning, this book really didn't work well for me. Perhaps it's because I don't read a ton of horror but I found the horror elements to be a over the top and therefore ineffective, the plot to be repetitive, and the characters to be unsympathetic. I have no plans on picking up any other books by Sarah Langan.
Lots of Rosemary's Baby and The Shining influence
Pros
• Blurred border between waking and dream states
• Interesting use of family history of mental illness/neglect and heroine with mental illness
•The push and pull between Saraub and Audrey was a nice weaved into the story of her "descent into madness" (duh duh duh)
• some genuinely creepy imagery - skeleton man with arms as long as his legs skittering across the floor, build the door out of what you love, etc.
Cons
• A little too confusing at times, the use of the 'red ants' seemed kind of muddled or unclear, overused; Audrey's friend Jayne seemed weird as a reader but ended up being another innocent targeted by the building(?)
• The other tenants being used by The Breviary as part of its family didn't come together fully and felt rushed towards the end - this is where a lot of the Rosemary's Baby stuff came out - I thought interesting and frightening but not done quite right here
Suprisingly, this felt like maybe the author started out writing " Literature with a capital L" then somehow got lost and ended up finishing it as a genre horror story (as much as I hate hewing to those categories) - I thought the use of mental illness was really interesting because it was fleshed out more than one usually sees in things. I don't know the ins-and-outs of OCD but it was brought up throughout the story in a novel (to me) way.
Not super scary, a couple of scenes that were a little unsettling if you're reading somewhere by yourself at night.
Pros
• Blurred border between waking and dream states
• Interesting use of family history of mental illness/neglect and heroine with mental illness
•The push and pull between Saraub and Audrey was a nice weaved into the story of her "descent into madness" (duh duh duh)
• some genuinely creepy imagery - skeleton man with arms as long as his legs skittering across the floor, build the door out of what you love, etc.
Cons
• A little too confusing at times, the use of the 'red ants' seemed kind of muddled or unclear, overused; Audrey's friend Jayne seemed weird as a reader but ended up being another innocent targeted by the building(?)
• The other tenants being used by The Breviary as part of its family didn't come together fully and felt rushed towards the end - this is where a lot of the Rosemary's Baby stuff came out - I thought interesting and frightening but not done quite right here
Suprisingly, this felt like maybe the author started out writing " Literature with a capital L" then somehow got lost and ended up finishing it as a genre horror story (as much as I hate hewing to those categories) - I thought the use of mental illness was really interesting because it was fleshed out more than one usually sees in things. I don't know the ins-and-outs of OCD but it was brought up throughout the story in a novel (to me) way.
Not super scary, a couple of scenes that were a little unsettling if you're reading somewhere by yourself at night.
I was pulling for this book, just by virtue of the fact that it's a spec fic title by a woman... but man, the prose was too scattered for me to really latch onto either protagonist. The uncanny terror of the building is lost once Langan goes out of her way to start explaining her intention in clear terms, there's no room for metaphor... I'm so bummed, because Audrey stole my heart in the first few chapters. Unfortunately her framing wasn't quite right for me.
Loved this book. A cross between Rosemary's Baby and The Shining,it's fantastically macabre and grotesque. Creepy monsters, a haunted/possessed apartment building, and falling into madness - I could definitely picture being made into an awesome horror movie.
4.5 Stars! A very creepy haunted house story, in the vein of The Haunting of Hill House. Loved it!
A good haunted house story should involve ghosts, scary moments that are possibly real or not and a feeling of dread that leaves the reader or audience glad that they are not in that house. While AUDREY'S DOOR has most of those elements, the one thing that got left out was "scary". It is an interesting story due to the problems that the main character encounters but it wasn't really strong enough to leave me spooked or overly concerned.
Audrey Lucas, a young architect in New York City, moves into an apartment in the Breviary, a building with Chaotic Naturalism that combined with the super cheap rent makes it very appealing for her. After she finds out that the previous tenant drowned her four children there, Audrey starts to notice more and more things odd with building. At the same time she must deal with her boyfriend's unwelcoming family and her own OCD problems.
The supernatural elements don't really kick in though until the last third of the book; unfortunately I thought that Langan hit a good stopping point shortly before that point. There would have been unanswered questions but it seemed a more natural stopping point. The supernatural parts didn't quite fit the story as nicely as I would have liked. Audrey and her boss were both interesting characters. There could have and should have been more interaction between them. Or maybe more parallels drawn between their lives. With the horror elements gone, it would have targeted a different audience and thus lost me as a reader but I think it would have been a more satisfying book.
Audrey Lucas, a young architect in New York City, moves into an apartment in the Breviary, a building with Chaotic Naturalism that combined with the super cheap rent makes it very appealing for her. After she finds out that the previous tenant drowned her four children there, Audrey starts to notice more and more things odd with building. At the same time she must deal with her boyfriend's unwelcoming family and her own OCD problems.
The supernatural elements don't really kick in though until the last third of the book; unfortunately I thought that Langan hit a good stopping point shortly before that point. There would have been unanswered questions but it seemed a more natural stopping point. The supernatural parts didn't quite fit the story as nicely as I would have liked. Audrey and her boss were both interesting characters. There could have and should have been more interaction between them. Or maybe more parallels drawn between their lives. With the horror elements gone, it would have targeted a different audience and thus lost me as a reader but I think it would have been a more satisfying book.
Horror is such an awkward thing to write. On the one hand, the genre exists to cause you to lose control of your body. Its purpose is to make you jump at a movie, scream at a sound, or even sit on the metro at 11am, hands shaking as you thumb page after page on your way to a job interview, terrified of what's happening on the next page. To create it is to just tap into the thing that keeps you awake at 3am. Horror is, along with comedy, one of the purest forms of emotional manipulation around. It should be easy. On the other hand, because the genre is so rawly manipulative, it is unbelievably easy to drop the ball, lose tension, and make your reader hate you.
Sarah Langan kept that ball in the air this whole novel.
The titular character of Audrey's Door suffers from OCD. Her childhood was survived, not experienced. She has a history of drug abuse and depression. To the reader unfamiliar with these experiences first hand, the book seems like a morose parody. To people who have experienced the self destructive urges of depression or the harsh detachment of obsession, be warned: this book may gut you.
Audrey leaves her boyfriend. He doesn't understand her mental issues, she doesn't know how to cope with them and include him in her life. She, as an architect, is stunned to find an affordable apartment in an architecturally unique building. Rare, and beautiful, the school of design takes her breath away.
On her first night, she is haunted by a ghost telling her to build a door.
As with Shirley Jackson's The Haunting Of Hill House, the hauntings in this book act as a reflection of the mental and emotional strain the main character has been under her whole life. Unlike Hill House, this book is far more explicit. These ghosts definitely exist. The inbred descendants of socialites that make up Audrey's new apartment building definitely are creepy fucks. Audrey definitely spends the book breaking down, further and further, into a pit of loathing and self destruction.
I was amazed to find myself genuinely feeling fear as I read this book. In the daylight. In public. On a train. Langan taps into - and accentuates - the struggles of Audrey's mental concerns so realistically that the fantastic elements in this book feel real. I wanted to squirm away and partially shield my eyes during the scene where Audrey attempts to deliver her first architectural presentation while a ghost scratches messages in the wall of her office. Her ex-boyfriend's anger and frustration, and Audrey's willing acceptance of it, was believable and painful, and only served to humanize her character even more. I should warn you: this book will not make you feel good. It shouldn't. It's fucking horror, people, not The Hero's Journey.
I didn't think people still made good haunted house novels. I was wrong. They've just mutated into haunted apartments.
Sarah Langan kept that ball in the air this whole novel.
The titular character of Audrey's Door suffers from OCD. Her childhood was survived, not experienced. She has a history of drug abuse and depression. To the reader unfamiliar with these experiences first hand, the book seems like a morose parody. To people who have experienced the self destructive urges of depression or the harsh detachment of obsession, be warned: this book may gut you.
Audrey leaves her boyfriend. He doesn't understand her mental issues, she doesn't know how to cope with them and include him in her life. She, as an architect, is stunned to find an affordable apartment in an architecturally unique building. Rare, and beautiful, the school of design takes her breath away.
On her first night, she is haunted by a ghost telling her to build a door.
As with Shirley Jackson's The Haunting Of Hill House, the hauntings in this book act as a reflection of the mental and emotional strain the main character has been under her whole life. Unlike Hill House, this book is far more explicit. These ghosts definitely exist. The inbred descendants of socialites that make up Audrey's new apartment building definitely are creepy fucks. Audrey definitely spends the book breaking down, further and further, into a pit of loathing and self destruction.
I was amazed to find myself genuinely feeling fear as I read this book. In the daylight. In public. On a train. Langan taps into - and accentuates - the struggles of Audrey's mental concerns so realistically that the fantastic elements in this book feel real. I wanted to squirm away and partially shield my eyes during the scene where Audrey attempts to deliver her first architectural presentation while a ghost scratches messages in the wall of her office. Her ex-boyfriend's anger and frustration, and Audrey's willing acceptance of it, was believable and painful, and only served to humanize her character even more. I should warn you: this book will not make you feel good. It shouldn't. It's fucking horror, people, not The Hero's Journey.
I didn't think people still made good haunted house novels. I was wrong. They've just mutated into haunted apartments.