Many people describe the overall purpose of the horror story as creating emotions like fear, dread, and terror in the reader. There are also readers like Paul Tremblay who create disquiet, the feeling taht something is not quite right, and that whatever is "not quite right" could lead to something truly awful. Rather than relying on jump scares or moments that grab the reader by the throat, these authors of disquiet create scenes that settle like a miasma over readers, causing them discomfort while pulling them deeper into the universe the writer has created. Kaaron Warren goes all into creating atmosphere with her novella Into Bones Like Oil.
The premise of the book sets it apart from the average ghost story. Protagonist Dora is the latest resident of the Angelsea rooming house, which is located near an old shipwreck. Broken people come to the Angelsea, including Dora, who has recently lost her daughters, but the Angelsea is also home to a unique brand of ghosts, ones that speak through the living while they sleep. You can probably get a good night's sleep at the Angelsea, but expect a ghost to use you as its mouthpiece and whisper its secrets to anyone willing to watch and listen to you sleep.
The book goes all in on atmosphere. The characters are profoundly miserable, with even their social gatherings full of a kind of sickly tension that remains throughout the encounter. Day and night also have very little difference between them; everything being a dreary overcast of the soul. Even he ghosts themselves aren't the most frightening thing in this book; rather, they are treated like a morbid feature of the hotel, but still a feature as mundane as the view from the balcony or the continental breakfast, which lies one of the more fascinating aspects of the book. Much like Micah Dean Hicks's Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones, the spirits are fully ingrained into this shadow universe full of magical realism. Angelsea owner Roy is more disturbing than the ghosts that speak through the emotionally dead yet living people who rent his rooms. Not only does Roy pump the spirits for information about the shipwreck, he is willing to cut deals with his living tenants to get the ghosts to speak through them. Basically, Roy has no problems exploiting the living and the dead and the living all cater to Roy's need to hear the dead speak.
The book is not a plot-driven piece; there is no grand climax or eureka moments for these characters. Nobody really learns anything and the denouement is truly minimal. I actually listened to this book on audio during a long drive. It was raining and the sky was a dismal gray that makes a story like this feel appropriate. Finally finishing the book was more like coming up for air rather than the satisfaction of unraveling a story. This book is not for readers whose reason for reading is opening up a story like it's a puzzle box. This novella,which makes Into Bones Like Oil only the briefest dive into sadness, is for readers who like their stories to take them to other places, if only for a little while.
