![]() ![]() Aside from the occasional email, it feels as though the book could be taking place at any point in the last 500 years. Mostly, The Small Hand is about a creepy manor, home to a phantom looking for closure. Contemporary settings can work well in Gothic narratives (Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian is a shining example), but in this case the setting has no bearing on the narrative, because the only substance is drawn, unchanged, from Gothic tradition. The plot walks paths laid by Gothic classics with such reliance on tropes that I struggle to list anything fresh it brings to the table. This is possibly the most formulaic ghost story I have ever encountered. In the weeks that follow, his paranormal acquaintance starts to visit, no longer a forlorn child, but a sinister presence with increasingly malevolent designs. Like the protagonist of many a Gothic/horror narrative, he thinks bizarrely little of this life-changing supernatural experience, and heads off home to London with only a vague interest in finding out more about the abandoned house. Upon entering its grounds, he feels an invisible child take his hand. In reality, I was underwhelmed.Īdam Snow, an antiquarian book dealer, stumbles across a derelict estate. It is my first Susan Hill read, and based on her reputation as a literary powerhouse, it must be said I expected something impressive. ![]() The Small Hand is a modern Gothic novella, published in 2010. ![]()
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