Book 76: "The Servants" by Michael Marshall Smith
Friday, September 26th, 2008 15:26![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeEleven-year-old Mark has moved to a large eighteenth century house on the Brighton seafront with his seriously ill mother and his new stepfather. For some reason Mark hasn't started school in Brighton, so his days are sent learning to skateboard and trying to get the better of his stepfather. Not realising how ill his mother is, Mark thinks his stepfather is deliberately preventing his mother from doing anything interesting, and restricting Mark's access to her.
But once Mark meets the old lady who rents the basement flat in their house, he finds that strange things happen when he goes through the door from her flat into the unconverted servants' quarters.
This short book was a birthday or Christmas present from my brother. The author is new to me, but apparently he mostly writes science fiction, so this ghost story was a bit of a departure for him. It has been nominated for both the British and World Fantasy Awards.
Spooky but not scary, "The Servants" is a book that grew on me as it went along. The only thing that annoyed me about it was that house was described using the American usage 1st floor/2nd floor instead of ground floor/1st floor. Since the house was in England and Mark was English, it really jarred.
But once Mark meets the old lady who rents the basement flat in their house, he finds that strange things happen when he goes through the door from her flat into the unconverted servants' quarters.
This short book was a birthday or Christmas present from my brother. The author is new to me, but apparently he mostly writes science fiction, so this ghost story was a bit of a departure for him. It has been nominated for both the British and World Fantasy Awards.
Spooky but not scary, "The Servants" is a book that grew on me as it went along. The only thing that annoyed me about it was that house was described using the American usage 1st floor/2nd floor instead of ground floor/1st floor. Since the house was in England and Mark was English, it really jarred.
