These hazardous personal relationships are the backdrop to the ghost story that begins when Constance believes that she sees a ghost. She believes the spirit to be malevolent and thinks that it plans to hurt Angelica. Joseph does not believe his wife's dramatics and, once again, Angelica is caught between her two parents. Constance seeks out spiritual help to cleanse the house while Joseph calls in the help of a psychiatrist for his wife. However, Angelica may not be the innocent child that both of her parents believe her to be. In fact, she might be just has conniving as they are.
Similar to The Turn of the Screw, Angelica is much more than just a ghost story. In fact, there may not even be a ghost at all! Phillips is extraordinary in exposing all sides of the story to the reader. The story is told in four sections that are each narrated by a different character. Still, it is extremely difficult to figure out which perspective is truthful because each narrator contradicts the previous ones.
Clearly, Angelica gives the reader much more than just the chills. It is a study in characters, relationships, and the results of being pushed to one's breaking point. In addition, it documents the historic clash between spiritualism/folklore and medicine/science. An excellent read that will have you thinking about the characters months after you finish!
-DLP
I just listened to Angelica on audio book (per Dani's recommendation) and while certain parts of the storytelling certainly haunted me, I found the ending rather lackluster. Granted I only listened to this book and occasionally found myself distracted and missed bits of the story. I found Constance's narrative the most convincing as the author spent the most time on it and while Joseph's narrative also compelled me, I found the brevity of Anne's and Angelica's narratives created a bias. Both narratives felt trite to me, like those sections were added as a neat technique or gimmick of the author, rather than adding layers to the story. As I listened to the conclusion of Angelica's story, I longed for the story to end. While Angelica's final piece did portray her in a very different light than the other elements, I found her voice to be irritating rather than intriguing. With such a strong beginning, the novel disappointed me towards the conclusion. However, the audio book is performed extremely well and provided a perfect degree of creepy-ghostly haunting as I went about my day - screaming on more than one more as I packed my bag to leave and heard my betrothed opening the bedroom door. A fun listen, but might be a tedious read as the story labors on.
ReplyDelete- KER