Holt House by L.G.Vey

Holt House

by L.G. Vey

The first novella in the Eden Book Society series

My blog has featured reviews of all the novellas which have so far been published in Dead Ink Books’ “Eden Book Society” series. All of them, that is, except, ironically, the book which launched the collection: Holt House.  It was therefore high time for me to revisit this novella, whilst waiting for the publication of what should be the final instalment in a six-book set – The Castle by one Chuck Valentine.

In many ways, Holt House set the tone for this interesting literary experiment. The “meta story” which underpins the whole series wants us to believe that the novella is the only work of fiction of the elusive author L.G. Vey. Purportedly issued in 1972 by the Eden Book Society, a small, subscriber-only press, Holt House was presented as a “re-release” by Dead Ink Press, the first of a number of planned reissues from the Society's back catalogue.   In reality, all of these “reissues” are penned by contemporary horror masters.  In fact, some of the novellas have been given a new lease of life outside the series:  a revised version of Jonathan Buckley’s Starve Acre reappeared as a novel with the same name by folk horror phenomenon Andrew Michael Hurley, and the Shirley Jackson award shortlisted Judderman was reprised as one of the segments in London Incognita by Gary Budden, master of the urban weird.

The protagonist of Holt House is Raymond, a young man harbouring dark secrets.  Raymond returns to the small town of his childhood and camps in Holtwood, near Holt House, where elderly Mr and Mrs Latch live. Once, during a family emergency, the Latches had taken him in for the night. What he experienced then still fills him with dread, even though his recollections are vague and confused. Ray now seeks answers and closure, but finds more than he has bargained for.

This novella is an eerie and understatedly disturbing work. The fluidity between the natural/animal and urban world gives it a tinge of folk and landscape horror (otters have never seemed uncannier). Ultimately, however, the terror portrayed is metaphysical in nature : the peculiarly masculine fear of mortality, of growing old and lonely.

Quite appropriately, the more surreal aspects of the story have a strong whiff of 70s psychedelia. Indeed, the novel is markedly of its (purported) time.  Given the deliberate references to 70s culture (such Chopper bicycles outside the village shop), even an innocent reader unaware of the fictional Eden Book Society backstory could well suspect that this is in fact a work by a contemporary novelist emulating vintage horror…

Paperback, 101 pages

Published 2018 by Eden Book Society