Review: "Episode Thirteen" by Craig DiLouie

Quick Summary

Type: Novel

Genre: Fantasy, thriller, horror

Back Cover: "Fade to Black is the newest hit ghost hunting reality TV show. Led by husband and wife team Matt and Claire Kirklin, it delivers weekly hauntings investigated by a dedicated team of ghost hunting experts. Episode Thirteen takes them to every ghost hunter's holy grail: the Paranormal Research Foundation. This brooding, derelict mansion holds secrets and clues about bizarre experiments that took place there in the 1970s. It's also famously haunted, and the team hopes their scientific techniques and high tech gear will prove it. But as the house begins to reveal itself to them, proof of an afterlife might not be everything Matt dreamed of. A story told in broken pieces, in tapes, journals, and correspondence, this is the story of Episode Thirteen -- and how everything went terribly, horribly wrong."

Read Time: 1 day

Rating: 3.75 stars

Review

First, I want to say how happy I am that Craig DiLouie had the good sense to spell Claire's name properly. It is spelled with an 'i', and spelling it 'Clare' is ridiculous and wrong. Signed, all Claires (including me) with an 'i'.

It was pretty creepy throughout and especially toward the end, when the group goes through the door. I was disappointed when Jessica went through the door with the rest of the crew, but glad that in the end, she is the only one who survives, although I wish it hadn't taken her five years to get out.

I liked the epistolary aspect of the novel, and I thought the characters all had distinct personalities. I wish the psychological profiles of the crew had been included, as their reactions to the profiles and the little clues they gave didn't really satisfy my curiosity. I guess including the psychological profiles could have been a little info-dumpy though, so I guess I can forgive it.

One thing I was a little confused about was that the spirits seemed to have already chosen who would make it to the end, so why put all of the crew through that weird test? Also, we find out what happened to two of the scientists from the seventies, but what about the others? Presumably they died, but why don't we get to find out how?

Why do the spirits spare (sort of) Jessica? Everyone else died, so why does Jessica get to survive? I wish we had gotten some clarification.

And lastly, why does spirit-Claire leave all the material from the episode somewhere where people can find it? Why does she feel the need to get the story out? I can't quite remember if she justified her afterlife actions, and I don't think she did, but if she did, it was not a good or satisfying justification.

But, it was appropriately creepy and left me feeling very unsettled and paranoid in the dark (my fault for finishing the book a little too close to bedtime). And since this is a thriller/horror story, that means the story succeeded, hence the higher-than-average rating.