3/5/02
Book
Spirit - Graham Masterton
Spirit (1995) is one of the newer novels by horror author extraordinaire Graham Masterton who also penned "Mirror", "Walkers", and the Night Warriors sagas amongst his career of over 70 novels to date. Spirit tells the story of a family from just around the time of America's involvement in WWII through to the early sixties as they deal with the death of their youngest child Peggy. This alone might make an engaging novel on its own the way Masterton writes, but since this is a horror title there is an added dimension. Peggy may have drowned and been buried but some part of her is still around and very concerned for the safety of her two sisters, deadly concerned.
Spirit is the second full-blown ghost story by Masterton and there are superficial parallels to the other novel, The Pariah. As such Masterton's faithful readers cannot help but remember the other ghosts. Being aware of this he turns some of the reader's expectations on their head to make for a unique and equally engaging stand alone story that neither relies on the other nor tries to compete with the other. The story builds like a snowball rolling down a mountain until the avalanche buries everything and a new world is revealed when it thaws.
This novel however does seem to be lacking a certain added depth in comparison to some of the author's other works. The first time or even casual Masterton reader will not notice it because a notch down from his usual excellence is still head and shoulders above other authors. It's hard to state what this lacking quality is but to this reviewer it meant a certain flatness to the terror and it could be intentional, but if so did not properly show the inherent emotional conflict I believe it was meant to portray between the love for a lost sister and the fear of her returned spirit.
(
Thank you for reading my review.
Bob Male)
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