📖The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts

First off, I want to thank Colored Pages Book Tours and Tin House on for having me on this tour and for the gifted book.

This is not my usual kind of read and not the typical kind of horror. It leans more on the literary fiction aspect of writing as we follow Eleanor on her journey in life after her mom passed away from cancer. As an adult still living with her retired dad, I related and sympathized with her because of the struggle to balance your personal life with seeing to the care of someone you love as they’re getting older. But now that her mom is no longer there, she’s all alone with no help from family or friends. She moves into a house she bought as part of her others dying wishes, but it’s not all it seems. 

Eleanor is haunted by the “spirit” of her mother as everything seems to go out of control. The strange dreams she’s had, the conversations she go through with someone who no longer is alive, seem more like a deep rooted representation of her dependence on the person who literally took care of everything. I cannot lie and say I don’t feel the same because, at some point, I will have to face this reality where I have to deal with everything on my own and that, in itself, is haunting. 

The way this was written can be confusing to some. The transition from dream to waking is so smooth, I had to go back and reread things to make it clearer. This has to be a perspective on how Eleanor must have felt. This wasn’t an easy read as the mood is set pretty much with the almost constant rain that falls in the area. Touching on real topics that many adults face, along with seeing to an aging loved one and home ownership, this hits as it’s meant to in the literary fiction category. The horror of this reality is just that: hauntingly real whether the voices in our head have to point that out or not. 

The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is available in paperback, audiobook and ebook.