It seems only like five minutes ago that I reviewed Christopher’s All Hallows for last year’s Halloween. But here we are again – another October and another Christopher Golden book to review.
Not that I’m minding though. I liked All Hallows last year and hoped that this one would be at least as good.
The premise of this one is very different to All Hallows. Although set at nearly the same time of year, gone are the cold, dark Halloween celebrations of Coventry, Massachusetts in 1984, and instead we have the slightly balmier climes of Mediterranean Italy in 2024.
The beautiful, crumbling hilltop town of Becchina is one of many half-empty towns in Italy, nearly abandoned by those who migrate to the coast or to cities. American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi decide to move there, seeing it not only as a chance to live near Tommy’s grandparents but also as an opportunity the young couple would be crazy not to seize. But from the moment they move in, they both feel a shadow has fallen on them. Tommy’s grandmother who lives there is furious, even a little frightened, when she realizes which house they’ve bought, which one neighbour refers to as The House of Last Resort. Soon, they learn that the home was owned for generations by the Church, harbouring secrets… while down in the catacombs beneath Becchina… something stirs.
Anyone who knows the joy (and the stress!) of moving to a new home, never mind migrating to a new country and meeting new people, can relate to this one. It’s like one of those television makeover programmes, but with added chills! It perhaps should go without saying that if you think that fixing the guttering is a major residential issue, then this may not be the project for you – it is not one for musophobics!
Tommy and Kate seem like nice people and the environment they move to with other migrants and older long-term residents feels genuine and appropriately atmospheric, albeit with a few obstacles along the way. In fact, I really liked the unusual international setting, as it was something a little different to the usual places in such stories. Becchina feels like one of those out of the mainstream kind of places, with a smattering of history that you get in Europe and less so I guess in the USA. As a result, both the characters and the reader get the impression that it is isolated and that they are on their own, surrounded by relative strangers, with odd things going on in a strange land.
As readers of Christopher’s other books (such as All Hallows, reviewed here last year) The House of Last Resort builds steadily to an appropriate conclusion. It is a real page turner, but as you might expect with a few gruesome moments – you have been warned!
As good an Autumn read as All Hallows was last year, I was pleased to find that The House of Last Resort felt better. With its unusual European setting, contemporary characterisation and use of history, The House of Last Resort felt more engaging and refreshingly different. It just goes to show you that, despite what some people think, horror stories can work in modern times, and in places that are not always dark and cold. As a great, if occasionally gory novel, The House of Last Resort is a recommended Halloween read.
THE HOUSE OF LAST RESORT by Christopher Golden
Published by Titan Books, September 2024
384 pages
ISBN: 978 1803 369 495
