P Barrell- Eighteen

A horror story from a new author for me. The cover really piqued my interest along with the synopsis so I was looking forward to this from the start. Let’s have a peek at the synopsis.

A ghost story inspired by true events.

Cornwall 1974.

On the Night of All Hallows three teenagers decide to hold a séance .

At first it seems the dead don’t want to talk but slowly shadows of the past start to emerge. The contact begins- a Roman Legionnaire, a Polish boy and a famous Cellist all come through with messages.

As they concentrate on the process, keyed up with excitement, exhilaration and fear, aspects of the three teenagers personalities start to appear. Jeff, and Jo , both have demons of her own. While Paul , the youngest, appears to be the most vulnerable and most affected by the strange energy that moves the glass.

However, their innocent fun is curtailed when a new spirit arrives. Despite their efforts the uninvited will not divulge its name and there is something sinister and threatening about ‘ it’s’ tone . They gradually realize that ‘ it ‘ knows their inner most secrets. How? Is one of them fooling around? Or are they in contact with a much darker force.

When a disturbing truth abruptly curtails their evening, they presumed ‘IT’ would leave them alone. They were wrong…

The glass flew off the table and smashed . They never spoke about what happened that night. They never dabbled in the occult again. For Paul it was different. It was his house. He lived there.

A book that started as it meant to go on, for me…creepy! We see a séance going wrong and then the weird things begin to happen to the three characters who were present at the dodgy séance.

I loved the setting of Cornwall and an old house that is not just old but ancient. A house that was built hundreds of years ago is always a great place for eerie and strange things to happen. We are taken back to the 1970s with Jo, J.P and Jeff. These three are all very well crafted and I did feel like I could relate to them.

The story is told by their points of view which helped me get to know them. Paul Barrell has also given us flashbacks of the past, which aids in raising the tension and oh so creepy factor of the book. I am so happy to say I started this in the light of day, so I was comfortable with the creepiness by the time the darkness had fallen, other than that, I think I would have been jumping at every noise in the house.

This is a short but really creepy story that does deliver the scary factor that the cover promises. I would love to read more from Paul Barrell in the future, I enjoyed it so much!

Thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours and Paul Barrell for the copy of this book to bring you my thoughts today.