An Audiobook Review of “A House of Ghosts” By W.C. Ryan
A House of Ghosts
By W.C. Ryan
Audiobook Review
Sometimes with an audiobook I do wonder after if I might have preferred to read instead of listen, especially when it’s a large cast of characters, lots of names to keep track of, and a single person narrating. The narration for A House of Ghosts was great, unfortunately I found myself pausing quite often trying to work out who was who.
Winter 1917, Lord Highmount arranges a spiritualist gathering at Blackwater Abbey, on an island off the English coast. But there are secrets under the abbey roof, and the guests bring even more with them. Kate, a code-breaker, is encouraged to attend, though she is reluctant; she was previously engaged to Reginald Highmount, killed in the war, and her ex-fiancé – Rolleston Miller-White – is also making his way to the abbey, though as far as everyone else is concerned, they are still together.
This is where I kind of started getting a little lost. It was a lot of names, and I must have occasionally missed bits and pieces, not good when there’s so many different characters to keep track of. They felt largely indistinguishable from one another, except Orlov with his accent.
The supernatural elements felt almost shoe-horned in. Kate has some psychic ability, able to use a family heirloom that reveals secrets, and able to see ghosts, but this never feels used to a full extent (or maybe I missed that bit?). It didn’t feel like it was needed, and maybe more ambiguity around the existence of ghosts would have added something rather than detracting.
I found the chapters to be extremely short, too. They alternate in POV between Kate and Donovan, and I have to admit the switching POV was handled well, giving both characters distinct voices, but it felt at times like we’d just settled into one POV before jumping into another.
Overall I found A House of Ghosts to be a bit too choppy, with situations resolved almost too easily. Some of the war and espionage elements were decent, but at times maybe a little too convoluted for me to follow via audio. Some folks will really enjoy this, and appreciate the atmospheric elements, but by the midway point I was surprised at how much was still left, as a lot dragged and information was repeated. Don’t go into this expecting too much on the supernatural or even horror side – it’s more of a World War I Historical Mystery in a big house with characters who were fairly upper class at the time. I did find some of it to be a bit boring, but I liked the relationship between Kate and Donovan, and at least a couple of the scenes were interesting.
Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter & Instagram: @elleturpitt
I purchased this audiobook via Audible.
