I really liked this book up until page 220, but then it turned into a ridiculous mess with a stupid and anticlimatic ending. What a huge disappointment. At least I can count it for the haunted house square.

 

Well, the main chararcter, Constance Langton, is a complete moron.

 

[Source]

 

For the last 40 pages this book has taken a complete nose dive, so at the moment I´m not a happy reader.

 

 

The Seance is really good so far. I love the atmosphere that John Harwood creates with his writing and the way the novel is structured kind of reminds me of Wilkie Collins´ works.

 

And it´s a book that could be used for a variety of squares:

There is a haunted house, there are ghosts and supernatural elements in the story, the house is surrounded by a dark and gloomy wood, it fits the horror genre and the gothic square, a huge part of the story takes place in London (even though the haunted house is outside of London) and since the book has been published in 2008 it fits the "Modern Masters of Horror" square as well. It could even fit the locked room mystery square, although I don´t think that it would be the perfect book for that one.

 

I decided to go for the haunted house square with this novel.

 

The Seance in Apartment 10 begins with a forthright, if bland, title and it sets the tone for the rest of the book. The story is told from the viewpoint of Tori, a young college student, who has decided that anywhere is better than living in the dorms over the summer. So she ends up in a crappy, run-down and mostly abandoned place that most people wouldn’t do more than side-eye. Needless to say, it’s creepy and it’s not long after she moves in that creepy stuff begins to happen.

I’ve read Ambrose Ibsen before, and know that he’s capable of better work than this. The Seance in Apartment 10 is, as the tagline suggests, a ghost story. (And a little bit more.) Its easy to read but if it were a meal for the mind, I’d call it a cheap diet perpetually-on-sale microwave dinner. Technically nutritious, but completely unsatisfying. The only bit of pleasant seasoning comes when there is finally the first true confrontation with the entity.

Unfortunately, it’s a dash where a cupful is needed in The Seance in Apartment 10. (Er, I have no idea why I’m stuck on food, sorry.) And because there was nothing to drag me into the story, it felt more like checking items off on a plot list rather than reading a novel. “Okay, we’ve had R, S, and T. Now we have to have a minor confrontation for U, a supposed escape at V…” etc. Even the ending, which should have been a slightly uneasy note to send the story on was a “And one last bit o’ spook to wrap it up, and we’re done! That’s a wrap, folks!”

Definitely not one of Ibsen’s better works. Technically competent, but completely lacking in personality, The Seance at Apartment 10 is a story that fades from your mind almost as soon as the words are read.

This would make a good movie.  The romance at the end is a bit, well not forced, but it is somewhat out of the blue.  Still it was a good book.