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Author: Sephera Giron
Published by Leisure Books (August 2001)
Paperback, 360 pages
$5.95 US/$6.99CAN/ $12.95AUS
Sephera Giron's House of Pain has a lot going for it as a horror novel: ghosts of tortured souls; sadistic underground dungeons; an evil deity made incarnate; unexplained disappearances; a walking skeleton and his pack of spectral wolves; ritual sex magic, and the ultimate of horrors, a betrayed lover.
Now having said all that, I don't want to give too much away about the story, because even though all those horrors listed above are in the novel, the pleasure of this novel comes from the slow unraveling mystery of how all these things are connected. Giron utilizes a mostly straightforward narrative, but with the use of strategically placed flashbacks, she creates a growing tension within the story. Giron's descriptions never interfere with the pace of the story - especially given the sometimes violent and/or horrific content. The descriptions are not over-adorned, but are skillfully descriptive enough to give the reader both a clear and suggestive picture of the horror at hand. On top of that, her writing is clear, crisp, and often witty.
In fact, the only real flaw I see in House of Pain is that sometimes Giron's wit unintentionally changes the tone of some scenes so that the horrific impact is less than what it should be.
Giron deals with several inter-related themes throughout House of Pain, themes such as loss, redemption, the cycle of life and death, parenthood, and friendship. Those themes are woven into the narrative with grace and finesse.
House of Pain begins with the destruction of a house in a small town that was the former home of Debbie and Donald, a couple of psychopaths, who, shall we say, worked at home. The demolition of the house is witnessed by three young teenage boys who grab themselves three souvenirs from the house's rubble. These souvenirs lead the boys (Tony, Buddy, and Jeff) to the discovery of the dark secrets of the house. Flash forward twenty years later, Tony and his new wife Lydia, a native New Yorker, move into a brand-new house that has been built on the same spot as the original house. Lydia, not knowing the past history at first, slowly discovers things are not what they appear. She experiences a series of unexplainable hauntings and nightmares that draw her in closer and closer the strange past of the small town. Are these occurrences related to a new rash of disappearances that echo the horror perpetrated by Debbie and Donald twenty years ago? And why has Tony been acting so weird lately? And why does his vagabond friend Buddy lurk about in the woods next to the house? And why is the only part of their new house to remain unfinished is the basement, which Lydia becomes more and more terrified to enter? And is there something down there that is trying to warn her, or beckon her closer? And could there be something hidden even deeper below? And what is she going to do once she discovers that she is pregnant?
In short, Sephera Giron is a skilled and competent story-teller, and knows how to keep readers involved with the characters in this novel. Giron has had previous works recommended for the Stoker Award (her novel Eternal Sunset, and her short story "Release") and House of Pain has already received several recommendations as well.
Her web page is at www.sff.net/people/Seph.
