Every October my local library has a curated shelf of spooky books and movies to get into the spirit of the season. Last year I found a wonderful gem I wouldn't have otherwise found (Frankenstein Dreams) and this year it seems I've struck gold again in the same place. One of the official reviews printed on the book itself praised the book for being so easily digestible that the reviewer gobbled it up in a single day. Reading this review I decided to put that claim to the test, I set aside time enough to read the book straight through and hoped it would capture my attention enough that I wouldn't abandon the endeavor and put off finishing the book until a later time. I must say I had absolutely no trouble blasting through this book. It's captivating in waves. Each chapter is a bit tough to get into because each chapter introduces a brand new protagonist and a quite altered setting and circumstance. After each chapter opens it ramps up and draws you in perfectly at a masterfully steady pace. In other words I started each chapter lazily lounging in my seat but when the chapter finished I realized I had somehow made it all the way to the edge of my seat, and so naturally that I hadn't noticed my own change in position.
This book can be utterly terrifying and I recommend setting the mood before reading this. Wait until it's getting dark, turn out all the lights apart from the one you'll be using to read, set some candles. I missed the perfect opportunity to read this by two days, I read it two days before the last Saturday in October, which has a special significance in this book, but just being so close to the day gave reading this an extra bit of mystique. The horror contained within is paranormal but mostly psychological. It felt to me like Stephen King's famous short story "1408" in long form. Apart from just the sheer skill with which Mitchell slowly drives each chapter into a psychological thrill ride, I was also impressed by how he manages to create a new set of characters and circumstances in each chapter without making any one story feel worse than the rest.
As far as criticisms are concerned I have very few. One is that the last chapter which is different from the rest was a bit of a slog, I had really been enjoying the formula which the last chapter departs from a bit. I appreciate that it was pretty necessary to at least partially abandon or subvert the formula for the last chapter just to feel like the story has an ending but I also think that an ending could have been avoided to some degree given the premise of the story. What if the most recent event was another successful go for the twins and this horror will continue? There really didn't need to be a happy bow to tie around the story at the end, but it seems like David Mitchell felt otherwise. The conclusion felt very Deus Ex Machina. We learn new things about the supernatural world within this book at the very instant that they are having dramatic effects on the story. It reminded me of a bad mystery novel when the murderer turns out to be someone that never appeared in the book before so you never really had a chance at guessing "who done it". When I say the last chapter was a slog it's because the whole thing is just very convoluted and the whole time I'm just saying "yeah, yeah, magic plot resolution... I get it. Will there be anything else?" and no there really isn't anything else except a sort of corny "I'll be back" moment. The only other criticism I have of the book is that the formula gets a bit tired in places, overall the formula was lovely and I wouldn't throw it out, in fact I'd read a sequel that's twice the length with the same formula. The spots where the formula gets in the way of my enjoyment are basically just when the characters are experiencing essentially the same exact moment as previous characters encountered and not really even finding any narrative difference in how they experience it. My two main examples of this would be when the characters encounter their own portraits and when they see the beautiful orb being pulled from their forehead. After my first encounter with these moments rereading them felt like a bit of a chore.
