By Christopher RansomThey were in the house a week before it came for him...
About the Author
After studying literature at Colorado State and managing an international business importing reptiles and other exotic creatures, he worked at Entertainment Weekly in New York. He also worked as a copywriter in Madison, Wisconsin, but now lives near his home town in Colorado. After moving into a 140 year old birthing house in Wisconsin, Ransom began to write his first best selling novel The Birthing House.
The Story
The Birthing House evolves around the history of a 140 year old Victorian birthing house located in Wisconsin. When Conrad and his wife Jo move to the birthing house with the hopes to start a fresh with each other, Conrad starts to feel like something is wrong. When Jo suddenly leaves to go on a business course in Detroit, Conrad notices things are starting to get weirder. One day he is handed an old, torn up photo album by the gentleman that owned the house before him. When Conrad is looking through it he notices a photograph within the first few pages that catches his eye. Its his house. Someone took a photograph of the birthing house, but at least 100 years ago. There are lots of women in the picture. Old and young, tall and short. as he is scanning over the faces in the picture, he is struck with a feeling of deep fear. For in the back of the group of women, is one tall figure staring in to the camera with a look of evil and hatred. Only after focusing on the figure does he notice that it is his wife.
The Birthing House is a story following Conrad's very fast spin in to madness and how he handles the house trying to control his thoughts and actions, along with trying to keep up appearances with the neighbours daughter. What will become of Conrad? Is the house haunted or is he simply mad?
Characterisation
Baring in mind the fact that our story is based upon Conrad and his wife Jo moving in to the Birthing house, the story is a main focus on Conrad and his pregnant teenage neighbour, Nadia.
Conrad, being out main protagonist in the story, is a big fan of exotic reptiles and cares for them in his garage after moving to Wisconsin with Jo. But when Jo goes to Detroit for a business course, Conrad is left to fend for himself in the house he feels is pulling him into oblivion. Conrad meets his neighbours, and that is nice. And then he meets Nadia. The neighbours daughter who is a typical attitude filled teenager, but with a baby on the way. Conrad and Nadia start to bond after Nadia tells him that she is scared of his home.
Eventually Conrad talks her into telling him about her experiences in the birthing house. They share a few meals, she falls asleep on the couch a few times and he leaves her to her daily routine. Except she is doing it in his home. Until one day they get a little closer than they should.
I loved how Christopher Ransom has made sure that he hasn't pushed the boundaries between Conrad and Nadia, even though she is still a teenager, but legal. The relationship that builds between them is wrong, and you feel it in your gut, and yet you don't want it to end.
Jo, Conrad's wife, spends most of the story in Detroit, until she suddenly arrives home covered in dirt and with black bags under her eyes. Something is wrong with her and Conrad doesn't know what it is.
Jo is a strong and independent woman who feels she doesn't need the help of a man. There are many parts of the book where we are believing she is being unfaithful towards Conrad, and Conrad does believe it himself. But it doesn't help that Jo doesn't deny the accusations. Nobody has the perfect marriage. And this shows one of the more normal marriages in the world. Not including the ghostly goings on of course.
Plot Lines
As I have grown up, I have become accustomed to watching more scary movies or horrors. However I still find it hard to watch the occasional ghost film. Its just something I find hard to focus on. But when walking through my local book store I was looking at the usual books I would read. And I felt I needed to try something new, that way I had something new to review. I needed a scare in my imagination. And that is exactly what The Birthing House did to me. Many times. I am only going to write about one of my favourite plot lines in this story, because I don't want to ruin it for anyone that decides to read this in future.
Have you ever noticed that in a good ghost story, there is always going to be a possession of some sort. Whether it be a demon or a ghost. And they are either going to take over the whole body and control its everyday life, or it just wants to deliver a message to someone particular.
Well there was one chapter in particular that had me shaking, being too scared to even look up from my book in-case there was someone standing at the end of my bed too.
Nadia has fallen asleep on Conrad's bed and he is wandering the house and hears all sorts of noises and goes to investigate. Things happen, but I shall not go into them now. Anyway, he makes his way back up into his bedroom and Nadia is still asleep. A little while later Conrad wakes to find Nadia sitting up in bed, staring at the wall talking to someone that wasn't there. He turns on the light and can see something about her eyes has changed. They are flat. Dead. And when she spoke it was like someone else was speaking. The voice was sore and old. Jilted sort of. And then Nadia says "Thread through a needle cannot men a young girls broken heart."
Conrad is confused and moves around the bed to sit with her and asks her questions. He then realises it is no longer Nadia in the room with him. After realising he is speaking with the ghost of a woman called Alma, the woman from the photograph that looks like his wife, he freaks and starts to ask questions about the house. When Alma/Nadia reaches out to touch his throat, Conrad slaps her hard across Nadia's face, and both Nadia and Alma recoil and turn back with a murderous grin. After a exchange of words, Nadia starts to come back into her herself and Conrad must hold her to the bed while her mind returns. Conrad falls asleep next to her, only to be woken again a few hours later by Nadia again claiming someone is in the room with them. And that is when Conrad knows things are getting real personal.
OVERALL
Story: 8/10
Characterisation: 6/10
Re-readable: Yes (If you can handle it again)
Recommendable: Definitely
When I bought this book, I remember looking up what other people had said about the book and how many stars that had given it. Amazon had awarded it only 2/5 stars. So when I started to read it, I felt like I had made a mistake. But after finishing it, I wondered why only 2/5. I thought the story was amazing. The way the author was able to actually have me shaking in my boots and too scared to turn of the light at night. Following the decline of someone's madness and them testing what is actually their reality made me want more and more.
I also bought Christopher Ransoms The Haunting of James Hastings, which shall be one of my next reviews. I recently completed reading The Haunting of James Hastings, and that received 4/5 stars on several review sites. Yet I felt that The Birthing House was definitely the better if the two. But I am not going to put The Haunting of James Hastings on a bad review, because it was yet another book that I loved very much.
I felt that Christopher Ransom really touched a nerve when writing the Birthing House. It made me physically scared to leave my room in the night. I didn't want to even think about seeing peoples faces in blacked out windows and eyes staring at me over the end of my bed. Lollipop stick dolls and kitchen knives suddenly arriving with notes attached in the most random of places. I praise Christopher Ransom for The Birthing House.
I look forward to writing my review to that in the near future. But I also look forward to carrying on reading other stories by Christopher Ransom, including The Orphan.