I read Lisa W. Cantrell's The Manse last October. At first, I thought it was OK but nothing special. But I thought about it often and realized maybe I had enjoyed it more than I had thought. I saw some less than positive reviews on Goodreads, and maybe that changed my opinion; I didn't think the book deserved the hate I was seeing from other readers. So, I began to reread it a week ago. And I enjoyed it again.
The story revolves around an old mansion in the center of fake town Merrillville, North Carolina. Each year the town's Jaycees rent the home from the owners and put on a haunted house in the Manse and it's usually a huge hit. The book is from 1986 or 1987 and set in 1985 through 1987, but you wouldn't necessarily notice this while reading. The story is not in your face '80s in any way. I still enjoy this regardless due to its 1980s setting in general. This is the year McDonald's release their Halloween pumpkin pail Happy Meals, after all. This is the time that Halloween became an absolute part of who I am as an individual. Halloween in the mid- to late 1980s was pure magic for me in particular, and I'm sure this is true for many of you out there, as well. This was a perfect moment in time that is simply divine. But back to the story...
The genius of The Manse is that it is a haunted house story that takes the mask off revealing the horror within. The Manse shoves it in your face that the old house is legitimately haunted and hides it behind a veneer of mimicry, like Lestat dressing up as Dracula at the Halloween ball. The horror of the Manse killing folks is dark and frightening at times. The house seems to play with its human meals like an orca tossing a sea lion about, often inflicting mental terror long before the house goes all Olvia Newton-John and gets physical. The horror of the house depends on the madness as it gets stronger to hurt folks physically. The characters feel overwhelmed at certain moments, debating internally whether what they are seeing is imagined or apart of the House of Horrors show until the moment it devours them in fire or tears them apart and pulls them into oblivion.
The book cover is fantastic! It has one of those mid-'80s covers that we all saw in bookstores back then that are just insane and wild as hell. Covers like this get your attention! And it certainly got mine. And when I saw it online on some such website I immediately sought out a copy and read it in a week or two.
I've mentioned this on a previous post and I'll say it again, Hell House Inc really gives me The Manse vibes. The two stories are remarkably similar. I wouldn't be surprised if the writer/producer of the Hell House films hadn't read or been somewhat inspired by The Manse. Both are about a group of young folks opening a haunted house attraction that goes on to kill everyone involved. This isn't a bad thing, not at all. I liked the Hell House movies quite a bit, actually. And considering The Manse has not been made into a film this works out really well for those of us The Manse fans.
*There are some copies out there that go for a lot of money online. If you don't want your own copy for your bookshelf, The Manse is available to read online for free on Archive.org. Enjoy! I know I did.
**The Manse was followed up by Torments a few years later. This story was OK at best. I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as the first book. The characters weren't as enjoyable, and it seemed like a novella more than a full novel. Plus, the Manse was gone, and in its place was a new condominium after they had razed the evil mansion following the previous Halloween massacre (which the town blamed on a fire). I felt that Torments should have been a final epilogue in The Manse rather than a sequel.
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