So, what are we to make of it? What do we, non-believers in the supernatural, attribute the omnipresent specter of the phantasmal that has followed humankind since recorded history to? I’ve recently softened my stance on the subject to allow for the possibility that what many people claim to see and otherwise experience in terms of ghostly apparitions could very well be a true and transformative experience for them, but maybe not exactly what they believe it to be.
That’s where TURN OFF THE LIGHT comes in. The new novel by Jacquie Walters, Emmy nominated screenwriter and author of DEAREST, takes aim at that very possibility. In this unconventional haunted house story, Walters puts a unique spin on the idea of hauntings and how the causes and effects can echo through time. Without giving too much away, Jacquie Walter’s concept is something I’ve considered before as a possible explanation to hauntings, so it was nice to see this idea applied in narrative form. So, what’s the story?
It’s the year 1630 on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Edith, a young married woman, skilled in the art of herbal healing, plies her craft much to the dismay and disapproval of her pious husband and community. A random apple appears near Edith’s hearth yet, there are no apple trees in the area. This odd but small occurrence creates a chain reaction of ghostly events that tests Edith sanity and further marginalizes her in her staunchly dogmatic community.
Now, we flash to the present, to Claire, a single mother with a young daughter named Julia. Claire returns to her childhood home where her older sister, Tilly, and her husband are caring for Claire and Tilly’s dying father. Upon her arrival, Claire begins to experience chilling and increasingly intense ghostly encounters in the house; the same house Edith called home 400 years prior.
TURN OFF THE LIGHT tells the story of two women, separated by centuries, yet connected through time by frightening incidents in a singular location that impacts both of their lives irreversibly. In many ways, the two women are polar opposites. Edith is a married, childless woman in a society that expects each union to bear fruit yet, her true fulfillment and self worth comes through her healing work. On the other end, Claire is a mother without a husband whose greatest joy is raising her precocious young daughter independent of the presence of a husband in the scenario. Having these two women as opposites creates an important conversation about the societal expectations of women and if there even is such a thing as a perfect meeting of those expectations. On the surface, it would appear that motherhood is a central theme of the story but, due to Edith’s contrast, I find that the book is less about motherhood and more about a woman’s right to her agency and that her choices are valid in spite of societal pushback.
The book is a slow burn with every chapter alternating between Edith and Claire’s perspectives. I’m no expert on seventeenth century colloquialisms but, the language used in Edith’s portions of the book felt authentic to this layman. In Claire’s chapters, the dialog was also very natural between characters. The sibling tension between Claire and Tilly also felt believable considering the circumstances presented in the story. I was also impressed with how convincing the depiction of Claire’s daughter, Julia came across. Her lines of dialog were very much phrased in a way a child her age would say them. It’s obvious that Jacquie Walters is a parent who pays close attention to her child’s mannerisms and behaviors. I think Julia may actually be my favorite character in the book.
Even though the story is a slow build, when the eerie moments arrive, you feel the chill. My only issue with those parts is that I expected them to reach a climax that they didn’t quite attain. When we arrive at the twist, as creative as it is, it dulls the impact of the “haunted” moments of the story. I understand the point was that the true horror of the story was born of the material world and not the supernatural. I don’t believe this book was intended to be an all out horror story in the traditional sense. That said, it didn’t stop me from wanting more in terms of fright.
Another issue that I did my best to ignore but couldn’t was just how much telling instead of showing was present throughout the book. There was so much telling us what the character was thinking and feeling and hoping that I wished that more of it was accompanied by actions to go along with it to indicate these feelings or dialog that implied them. It seemed the author used these moments to allow her prose to bloom a bit, and her style was fine, it just stuck out to me how much we weren’t actually being shown in those moments.
Overall, TURN OFF THE LIGHT was an interesting take on the haunted house genre / supernatural genre. The lack of profound scares and telling instead of showing did distract me quite a bit and made me wonder how much better this book could have been if not for those specific missteps.
SCORE: 6.9 OUT OF 10
Author: Jacquie Walters
Publisher: Mulholland Books / Little, Brown and Company
Pages: 322
Age Rating: N/A
