By: Gwendolyn Kiste
Genre: Gothic; Horror; Romance
Publisher: Saga Press
“It’s strange how many directions you can travel in the world
and few of those paths you ever choose.”
Gwendolyn Kiste, The Haunting of Velkwood
The Haunting of Velkwood, by Gwendolyn Kiste, is not my typical genre as I am a very niche reader of fantasy and science fiction. When this book was offered for review from Saga Press, I was intrigued since horror would be new to me. It was not a long book and the description sounded good, so I thought I would give it a try. I can honestly say that I did not know what to expect from a horror novel, since the only one I read was Stephen King’s The Stand over 30 years ago. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It was eerie, at times depressing, unique, and it kept me guessing as to what would happen right to the end.
The story centers around Talitha Velkwood, who, along with her friends Brett and Grace, fled the street they lived on twenty years prior. They left to return to college, but clearly something had happened that caused them to leave so abruptly. Not long after, they received a call telling them the street was gone. It was shrouded in mist, and no one could enter, as the area actively repelled them. It was re-named Velkwood, and it was assumed no one left had survived. Refusing to return, the three friends drifted apart over the years. The area would only allow the three women to enter, and Grace was the only one to return. When she came out, she was clearly changed, moved away, and became a recluse.
Over the years, Talitha graduated college, but the trauma and the past never let go. She went through a series of jobs, and we ultimately meet her in a run-down neighborhood, living in a run-down apartment doing odd jobs. Brett moved on and became a successful businesswoman, transforming empty buildings into usable space. If the past haunted her, she never showed it.
When a paranormal researcher approaches Talitha to go back, she reluctantly agrees. She returns to her past, frozen in time from 20 years ago. The ghosts are there, she can see them all, and she finds her little sister. However, they cannot see her, save for one person. Enid was the strange girl on the block. A girl with some sort of power, the source of which is never revealed.
The story takes Talitha into a past she was never able to forget. A past full of pain and anger, and a place she never wanted to live. To a judgmental mother and nosy neighbors. Eventually, Brett does join her, and she, too, returns to an abusive past she would rather forget.
As they walk the street of Velkwood, the reader becomes immersed with both women in this eerie place. Ms. Kiste created a story that pulls you into not only their lives, but the lives of the people of Velkwood. You can feel time disappear as they cross the boundary into the street that no longer exists outside this bubble. Who will they encounter? What will they be shown? If they enter, can they ever leave? There are so many questions as the story progresses, and they are all answered. The excellence of the writing is the way Velkwood draws the reader to it, just as it does Talitha and Grace. We feel the creepy way the “people” are stuck in a time loop of 20 years ago and there is a strangeness to the land the houses were built on. It was eight houses of a planned development, so they know who everyone is and what they were doing. The street makes the reader wary of what is behind the closed doors and what will the women find of the family they left behind. It was both creepy and suspenseful. I had to keep reading to find out the secrets of Velkwood and how it intertwined with the lives of Talitha, Brett, and Grace.
The characters were very well fleshed out. We can feel the despair and hopelessness in Talitha when we first meet her. As the story progresses, she is constantly drawn to Velkwood in hopes of saving everyone, especially her little sister. She is steadfast in this hope, and draws Brett back to help her. Both women are intertwined in unexpected ways, and their fractured relationship is very complex. Enid is essential to the story as well, and even though she has some mysterious power which seems tied to Velkwood, what exactly she is the reader does not truly fond out. It only adds to overall strangeness and atmosphere Ms. Kiste created. I loved how she kept us in suspense of everything until the end. It made me keep reading because I wanted to hope right along with Talitha. When she went to Velkwood, I also wanted her to get out because it was haunting and gave off a sense of hopelessness, which I clearly felt as well.
The setting was chilling and well done. The pacing was perfect for the length of the book. The mist shrouding the street did let people see it, almost like a mirage, but would not let them in. It was only Talitha, Brett, and Grace that could pass through the veil to Velkwood. Every time they entered, it was a different part of the street, and different time of day than outside. If it were daytime going through, it could be nighttime when they arrived. Time passed differently as well, which was another added layer of complexity to the world Ms. Kiste created. I would highly recommend The Haunting of Velkwood to all readers. If you normally do not read horror as I did, I think you will find that it is a very enjoyable read, and the length is a perfect introduction to the genre.
Overall Thoughts
Having not read horror, The Haunting of Velkwood turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable read. Even though it was relatively short, it never felt rushed. The pacing was excellent, and it kept me guessing as to what would happen from the first to the last page. The main character, Talitha Velkwood’s arc, was very well done. We meet her in a state of despair, unable to forget her past. As the story proceeds, she becomes stronger as she tries to unravel the mystery of Velkwood and help those left behind. Brett and Grace, her two best friends, were also fully fleshed out characters. Each were very different in how they dealt with events, and ultimately came to terms with the past. The idea of the street of Velkwood shrouded in a mist and looping the people in a past of 20 years ago, was eerie and haunting. Overall, I really enjoyed The Haunting of Velkwood and would recommend it to fans of the horror/gothic genre, and to other readers as a great introduction to the genre.
Summary (from Saga Press)
The Velkwood Vicinity was the topic of occult theorists, tabloid one-hour documentaries, and even some pseudo-scientific investigations as the block of homes disappeared behind a near-impenetrable veil that only three survivors could enter—and only one has in the past twenty years, until now.
Talitha Velkwood has avoided anything to do with the tragedy that took her mother and eight-year-old sister, drifting from one job to another, never settling anywhere or with anyone, feeling as trapped by her past as if she was still there in the small town she so desperately wanted to escape from. When a new researcher tracks her down and offers to pay her to come back to enter the vicinity, Talitha claims she’s just doing it for the money. Of all the crackpot theories over the years, no one has discovered what happened the night Talitha, her estranged, former best friend Brett, and Grace, escaped their homes twenty years ago. Will she finally get the answers she’s been looking for all these years, or is this just another dead end?
Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste has created a suburban ghost story about a small town that trapped three young women who must confront the past if they’re going to have a future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gwendolyn Kiste is the three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens, Reluctant Immortals, And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, Pretty Marys All in a Row, The Invention of Ghosts, and Boneset & Feathers. Her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in outlets including Lit Hub, Nightmare, Tor Nightfire, Titan Books, Vastarien, Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, and The Dark among others. She’s a Lambda Literary Award winner, and her fiction has also received the This Is Horror award for Novel of the Year as well as nominations for the Premios Kelvin and Ignotus awards.
Originally from Ohio, she now resides on an abandoned horse farm outside of Pittsburgh with her husband, their calico cat, and not nearly enough ghosts.
My thanks to Saga Press for eARC in exchange for an honest review
Find out more about Gwendolyn Kiste on her Website
Purchase The Haunting of Velkwood on Amazon
