BOOK REVIEW: THE MOORE HOUSE BY TONY TREMBLAY

19/6/2018

by tony jones

This haunted house tale has it all, from demonology, dodgy exorcists to lesbian nuns…
The only thing missing is Bruce Campbell!

I’ve read a respectable number of haunted house novels recently (probably too many) and so I was slightly jaundiced when I got around to Tony Tremblay’s “The Moore House” a further addition to this rather crowded sub-genre. I had never read Tremblay before so started the novel with as much enthusiasm as I could possibly muster and quickly found myself to be pleasantly surprised and easily drawn into the book. From beginning to end, this very enjoyable horror novel had absolutely no problem in holding my attention and is well worth having a look into should exorcisms, demons and haunted houses be your idea of Saturday afternoon fun.

Let’s get this out of the way right at the start: “The Moore House” will remind you of many other books and films, the most obvious points of reference being “The Exorcist” and I suppose “The Amityville Horror”, and perhaps even “The Evil Dead”. However, don’t let that put you off, Tremblay has his own refreshing take on very familiar material and does more than enough in creating a novel which through very strong and convincing characterisation stands on its own two feet.

“The Moore House” of the title is a terrific location and dominates the majority of the book. In other haunted house novels I’ve reviewed recently I’ve quickly become tired of authors reiterating that their house is “creepy”. This is not scary in the slightest and does nothing to develop atmosphere or build tension. The best haunted house stories do not tell the reader creepy things are afoot, the reader feels that mood soaking out of the page through the words. The crackling and foreboding atmosphere which surrounds Moore House, both before and after the characters enter the building, which is created by Tremblay is considerable more effective than being told something is “creepy”, instead it just naturally is.

Father MacLeod leads a paranormal unit of three excommunicated nuns who are empaths, the novel is seen from all four points of view, all of which also have their own issues. The nuns use these strong empathic feelings to verify or debunk reports of demonic possession, and if necessary MacLeod performs exorcisms. More often than not though they are not necessary and the group root out other issues such as child abuse. Early in the novel a rich church benefactor strong arms MacLeod to investigate Moore House, where his drug addict granddaughter was last sighted before she disappeared. Initially the nuns proclaim the house to be free of supernatural forces, but they are soon proven to be horribly wrong, and the house, or whatever lurks inside, is very powerful.

Right from the outset Tremblay lays his cards on the table in the prologue: “the Moore House has a black soul” and all the locals avoid it. However, it has a weird pull on those who stray too close to it, and in the opening pages some poor sucker gets trapped in the window and a huge talking dog eats his face off whilst he is still alive and keeps munching until all that remains is the bottom half of his torso stuck outside the exterior of the window. Nasty. Yes, indeed, this is one unsavoury house and it reminded me a tad of the Marsden House in Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot”.

I particularly enjoyed Tremblay’s riff on demonology. We naturally think that demons are thousands of years old, but what if the Devil created or recruited new demons, those who were Nazi torturers or modern-day serial killers such as Harold Shipman? So, if someone is a recently deceased ‘new’ demon then perhaps an ancient exorcism rite might not have any hold over them? This is all cleverly explored, as we slowly realise that Father MacLeod really is not quite what he seems and may be out of his depth.

Most of the action is set over a very short period and has an insightful take on the workings of the Catholic Church, exorcisms and demon possession. Combined with the back-stories and secrets of the three nuns Celese, Nora, Agnes, which is exploited by the most powerful demon, there really is quite a lot going on in the novel. Along the way, a terrific support character is introduced, a pawn shop owner who is an expert in religious artefacts and demonology.

There are lots of haunted house novels around, but in the end of the day they remain one of the key corner stones of the horror genre, and “The Moore House” is one of the stronger efforts I have read recently and is of the same quality as the widely applauded “Kill Creek” by Scott Thomas which I reviewed on Ginger Nuts last year. Great characters, nasty demons, impressive action and a very unpleasant location. If you’ve been jaded by reading just one too many haunted house novels then this effort may well rekindle your enthusiasm for something we all love.

And remember, whatever you do, NEVER say the name of the demon out loud, always spell out that bad boy, nobody wants that kind of unwanted attention… whatever you do, don’t say it…
B-E-L-P-H-E-G-O-R

Tony Jones