Wylding Hall

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It's true. When he was young, Julian was almost unearthly; he was so handsome, it was difficult for me at first to keep my eyes from him. Spooky beautiful. People thought he was gay, but he wasn't. Iwas the one who was gay, though I only came out after that summer at Wylding Hall. Windhollow Faire, in 1972, was just starting to make a name for itself when manager Tom Haring sends the quintet of potheads off to the country to practice new material. Through the frame of interviews with an unnamed writer, each surviving member of the band gets a distinct voice. The bassist is resolutely grounded in the empirical. The drummer and fiddler aren't so sure there wasn't something supernatural going on. The other lead singer of the band seems to know a bit more, but she's been fighting off accusations of being a jilted girlfriend ever since that make her a less than willing informant. It was also a little hard for me to tell the characters apart in their monologues because all of their voices sounded so similar. I was initially thrilled by the strong Gothic tones, even though this typically means a slower pace, which is why I gave the book much more patience than I normally would. However, the dramas, romances, hijinks, and conflicts within the band takes up more time and space than anything else. The author drops a hint here, a hint there, an unusual occurrence or behavior, hints of occult interests within the group, and a few weird sightings, but nothing too vivid and all of it very, very vague. But, I stayed with it, especially since the book wasn’t all that long. I kept waiting for something to develop that would give me the shivers. However, nothing ever took place that was all that exciting, and the ‘stunner’ at the end was very anti-climactic, tepid, and disappointing. There wasn’t enough information given to the reader to give it much of a bite and I ended up feeling underwhelmed.

Members of a folk band decide to stay at Wylding Hall, an old countryside mansion. They try to create songs for their next album and their manager thinks this setting will inspire them. The world seems to be so different for the band members as they get entangled with the local folklores and people. There are some weird things happening at Wylding Hall. The entire place is very atmospheric. One of the band members, the most popular one Julian Blake seems to become obsessed with the woods around them. One day Julian disappears. Perhaps there was just a little *too* much left hidden for my tastes. That's not to say that I want more concrete answers on what actually happened to Julian Blake that summer, the open ended nature of the mystery worked well. I think what I really wanted was for the supernatural menace at the heart of the mystery to play a larger part in the story. Just a few more inexplicable occurrences or perhaps a more pervasive build-up of the supernatural menace surrounding Julian would have gone a long way for me.But you know, it was like he could barely stand to be touched — he'd almost flinch if you came too close to him. Not just me — I was used to guys not wanting to be too close to other blokes — but everyone. I'm sure that's what happened with Arianna; she thought they were in a relationship, and here he could barely stand to touch her. That's why it was so strange about the girl.

There is zero tension for most of the book. We get an interview with all the band members (40 years after the events) minus one showing that they all come out relatively okay, well, minus the one. Any tension that could be had as to what happens to him is negated by the fact that they spell out what happened to him repeatedly before it actually happens. Though raised in Yonkers, New York, Elizabeth now splits her time between coastal Maine (quite unusual for horror authors) and Camden Town, London. Perhaps it was her time there that inspired her to tell the tale of a doomed British acid folk band… A No-Spoiler Summary So I jumped at the chance to get a free version of this short novella from NetGalley. And it's edited by the legendary Ellen Datlow, so what more could one ask for?But you know what I mean. She was a different type, physically, from Arianna. Lesley wasn't a waif, and even in school Jules always went for the wee girls with the big, sad eyes. No stamina, girls like that. I would know. And Les was scary smart, which can be intimidating for a bloke, even someone as brilliant as Julian. Maybe more intimidating. I don't think he was accustomed to being with someone who was his equal. Musically, yes, but not someone who could match him intellectually. Especially a girl.