Kate Alice Marshall has proven her supernatural horror chops with the incredible Rules for Vanishing and haunting Our Last Echoes—now she’s returned to make your skin crawl with Gothic-inspired These Fleeting Shadows. Unlike her previous two YA horror novels in which the main characters embarked on an adventure that traversed a number of different locations, this story is mostly confined to our heroine Helen’s ancestral estate…but as it comprises the ominously named Harrowstone Hall with its sprawling grounds, gloomy surrounding forest and the occasional dilapidated ruin, who could ask for more!
The blurb compares this book to The Haunting of Hill House and Knives Out…it’s certainly very reminiscent of the former, but in the interest of managing expectations, the Knives Out comparison isn’t a reference to the light-hearted black humour of that movie, it really only applies to the cut-throat nature of a privileged entitled family upon discovering that their family fortune has been bestowed upon an outsider. Helen is the major beneficiary of her grandfather’s will, however to inherit Harrowstone Hall and his fortune with it, the terms of the will enforce her confinement to Harrow for an entire year, otherwise she is left with nothing.
This may sound like a simple enough task to complete, but living in a labyrinthine house that defies rational navigation, surrounded by resentful and possibly murderous relations plus capricious spectral figments and vicious dangerous creatures lurking in the shadows, Helen has her work cut out for her to make it out alive.
Luckily she isn’t entirely on her own—Helen’s cousins Desmond and Celia are willing to ally with her, providing much-needed support throughout the book. And while this is mostly a family affair, a love interest is introduced in the form of the Harrow Witch aka Bryony, the groundskeeper’s daughter. Her interactions with Helen start off fraught with tension and hostility, but she gradually warms to Helen almost against her will, helping to protect her from the dangers of Harrow and joining forces to investigate the mysterious deaths of girls in Harrow’s past.
These Fleeting Shadows is much like Harrowstone Hall—it’s illogical, defies explanation, twists and bends around the reader, consuming us and warping our mind until we lose track of everything we think we know. It feels like being caught in a fever dream where there is no way out but through. The story is told in the first-person from Helen’s perspective so we’re right with her every baffled step of the way, and the author masterfully wields the unreliable narrator trope to make certain scenes hit hard with horrifying disorientation and numbing despair.
Kate Alice Marshall’s previous work delved into cosmic horror which is a thrilling and underexplored area of YA horror, but I was unprepared for the body horror incorporated into this book. Be wary of eating while you read this one as some sections are liable to put you off your food! The juxtaposition of vast incomprehensible forces against the very personal and grotesque nature of Helen’s illness as her body breaks down the longer she resides at Harrow shouldn’t work, these are two completely separate arcs that don’t appear to have any correlation, but the genius of this book is how deftly the author winds together seeming disparate elements to form a cohesive whole. My jaw literally dropped at a couple of plot twists that redefined everything that came beforehand and I had to mentally applaud; this is one of those books that will be a real treat to re-read just to spot the clues and foreshadowing once you know the ending.
What left me wanting was the relationship between Helen and her mother—the opening chapters presented them as a tight-knit unit and having her mother as an ally would’ve added a lot more emotional resonance further along in the story, but it’s puzzling that her mother basically disappears for most of the book. The relationship between the heroine of Our Last Echoes and her mother had a much greater impact on the reader despite the latter being dead for years and barely having an on-page presence; I expected more from the mother-daughter dynamic in this book with Helen’s mother being alive, so it was disappointing that was largely dropped.
If you’re familiar with this author, you won’t need any encouragement to pick up this book! For new readers, the pitch is this—a sapphic Gothic-inspired horror that mixes elements of Haunting of Hill House and Ready or Not in a strange and monstrously beautiful, uniquely inventive story. The creepy atmosphere, our heroine’s mysterious past and corrupt family history combined with paranormal occurrences and a bizarre pattern of inexplicable deaths make for a darkly compelling read.
These Fleeting Shadows is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of August 9th 2022.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
The Haunting of Hill House meets Knives Out in a bid for an inheritance that will leave Helen Vaughan either rich…or dead.
Helen Vaughan doesn’t know why she and her mother left their ancestral home at Harrowstone Hall, called Harrow, or why they haven’t spoken to their extended family since. So when her grandfather dies, she’s shocked to learn that he has left everything—the house, the grounds, and the money—to her. The inheritance comes with one condition: she must stay on the grounds of Harrow for one full year, or she’ll be left with nothing.
There is more at stake than money. For as long as she can remember, Harrow has haunted Helen’s dreams—and now those dreams have become a waking nightmare. Helen knows that if she is going to survive the year, she needs to uncover the secrets of Harrow. Why is the house built like a labyrinth? What is digging the holes that appear in the woods each night?And why does the house itself seem to be making her sick?
With each twisted revelation, Helen questions what she knows about Harrow, her family, and even herself. She no longer wonders if she wants to leave…but if she can.
