Catherine's last job ended badly. Corporate bullying at a top TV network saw her fired and forced to leave London, but she was determined to get her life back. A new job and a few therapists later, things look much brighter. Especially when a challenging new project presents itself -- to catalogue the late M. H. Mason's wildly eccentric cache of antique dolls and puppets. Rarest of all, she'll get to examine his elaborate displays of posed, costumed and preserved animals, depicting bloody scenes from the Great War. Catherine can't believe her luck when Mason's elderly niece invites her to stay at Red House itself, where she maintains the collection until his niece exposes her to the dark message behind her uncle's "Art." Catherine tries to concentrate on the job, but Mason's damaged visions begin to raise dark shadows from her own past. Shadows she'd hoped therapy had finally erased. Soon the barriers between reality, sanity and memory start to merge and some truths seem too terrible to be real... in The House of Small Shadows by Adam Nevill.
An emotionally fragile woman heads to an old mansion, to catalog an enormous collection of antique dolls and hoards of creepy puppets. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, for starters she is expected to stay in the house until the job is complete. The owner's appearance is unnerving to say the least. She and her maid are rude and sullen, There is no phone service, and the job will take longer than planned since the owner seems weirdly intent on dragging it out.
The main character Catherine has suffered multiple traumatic incidents and after years of therapy and learning how to deal with what she is told is her "paranoia" she does not always trust her own judgement.
There is a pervasive atmosphere of wrongness in the house that would have had me saying take this job and shove it, but sadly Catherine ignores her gut feelings.
This was a deeply disturbing gothic horror, slightly reminiscent of "Burnt Offerings."
4 out of 5 stars.
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