House of Windows

The feel of John Langan's long, detailed, narratively driven Horror novel is very Lovecraftian. Veronica Croydon's tale, she being the younger member of the May/December marriage between herself and the missing professor Roger Croydon, reminds one of a Lovecraft story in which the narrator relates a horrific event or situation that happened to a friend or colleague (or in this case husband) that the narrator witnessed and took part in. Like in Lovecraft stories, the reader is given a glimpse into another, almost indescribably dark reality or dimension that the character(s) have unfortunately opened a way into. Langan doesn't rush the reader through Veronica's tale of her husband's disappearance, but slowly lets the horror build with all its many faceted details. A short excerpt from the book gives you some idea of what I'm talking about. “I had more information than I knew what to do with. Alcoholic painter-shamans; magic formulae for bringing houses to some kind of weird life; malevolent entities offering sinister deals; ghosts trapped who knew where by paternal curses; strange visions and sensations; and, to cap it all off, a spirit map; I wasn't living one horror story; I was the screaming heroine in a B-movie marathon.” The reader must me patient because Veronica has a lot of ground to cover, but it's a long, strange trip well worth travelling to its final dark destination.