‘’Ellie’s own husband who was turning into Jack Nicholson in The Shining for chrissakes. A few pages later Janz made a lovely nod to the shining Looking at some of my notes I wrote ‘the Shining and Amityville Horror feels’ meaning the property itself was slowly sending the protagonist (Chris) into a descent of madness/evil and slowly turning him into a stranger. I liked the way that although this was a ‘haunted house’ type story you really felt that the house and woods themselves were evil, not just land that was used by a demonic cult and still haunted by an evil presence. She would remember these things and hold them close to her like talismans against the onslaught of darkness. ‘’She’d look back on that night and remember the feel of her Husband’s arms around her, the sound of his voice in the gloom. Just to point out there was a brilliant paragraph at the end of one of the ‘happier’ earlier chapters where you think yep, these two are cute and it might all be ok, then JJ swoops in and dashes all of that in an instant. I felt like I was there and know what the house and land look like in my mind even after finishing the book. As always Janz’s imagery was excellent, from the run-down house, the stream, bridge and clearings to the creepy woods that envelope Chris and Ellie.
The setting is perfect for a Demonic Cult tale, Chris and Ellie have inherited his late Aunt Lilith’s estate, the house is old and is surrounded by forestland. I’ve come to the conclusion that you are always in for a treat with a Jonathan Janz book, I invariably look forward to getting stuck into one of his Novels, The Darkest Lullaby was no exception to the rule.
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