- Oct 26, 2021
The reviews are very varied. We do take pot luck. I read inside whenever poss, and the first page sells it, or doesn't. The voice and calibre of the observation.
I once remarked to @AgentPete that the title of 'Dark Matter' made me think of an observatory, and he said, how strange, because the novel was originally set in an observatory. This bespeaks a long hard slog, and lengthy gestation. I read somewhere that Michelle said she was almost embarrassed to admit how long she worked on this book one way and another. But, there, for me, is the gravitas. You can tell with 'Dark Matter', that this story was brewing a long, long time.
Did it frighten me? Well, the landscape certainly frightened me, and one knows that something truly hideous has happened somewhere along the line. There is an unpleasant mix of claustrophobia and agoraphobia. What TC Lethbridge might have called a ghoul...a nasty residue held in a place,
I had a taste of that once myself...in a beautiful place in Suffolk. But wild horses wouldn't drag me to Michelle's Gruhuken.
Katie-Ellen Hazeldine's review of Dark Matter
Interesting. Have you written about your Suffolk experience? It is a beautiful place to meet something dark. I like the contrast. The places I've visited that hold a well of grief, despair, and horror are to do with the Indian wars in the US. There is a sandstone fort near where I grew up that was built mostly as a protection for the Santa Fe Trail. Custer was stationed there for years before the Little Big Horn. Cheyenne women and children were brought back there after the Washita massacre as hostages for peace. The ruins of the fort was a Boy Scout camp when my father was growing up. He went to Jamborees there. He'd wake in the night hearing voices whispering until he'd burrow into his sleeping bag and cover his ears. I don't do Kindle so a book is an investment. Especially when you live in a non English speaking country, like Switzerland where I was living at the time. You don't see television interviews or read reviews so what other readers write on Amazon will make or break a decision. For me it seemed dubious that a good writer would repeat herself with a 2nd novel so much the same. The reader review on Amazon just confirmed that for me. Such are the pitfalls for even an excellent writer. I can rectify it now.
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