Crawlspace
John Gregory Hancock
November 15, 2014
Reviewed by Marvin P. Vernon
Haunted house novels can be a lot of fun but are full of logistical traps for the writer. A good haunted house novel is essentially a psychological horror novel; the haunting is important but it is the people who are being haunted who make up the story, no matter how creative your house and resident spirits are. Both Shirley Jackson and Richard Matheson were very aware of that, and so is John Gregory Hancock. His novel, Crawlspace, may not be the equivalence of such masterpieces as The Haunting of Hill House and Hell House, but what is? However, Crawlspace is still a rousing good tale of a haunted house and haunted people.
A good haunting usually depends on either the psychology of the haunted (Hill House) or the nature of the haunting (Hell House), which can also be psychological. Hancock gives us both.
In Crawlspace we have the character of Ethan Novotny, a distant cousin to Hill House’s Eleanor Vance in his fragile personality and his claustrophobic fears. We meet him early on as he is headed to an allegedly haunted Southern plantation to appear in a filming of a “Ghost Hunters” styled reality TV show that focuses on the supernatural. The novel then leaves him for a good while as we are given the story that reveals the nature of the haunting, which entails a African shaman who is shipped to the US as a slave in the 19th century, an evil girl, and a troubled World War II soldier. The best part of Hancock’s tale is how he blends these three characters together in the development of the horrors of the plantation house.
By the time we return to Ethan in contemporary times, we have all the elements in play. There are a lot of scares and feelings of dread in this novel (which is an essential ingredient for this type of novel), but most of all I like the way the characters interact together. I wish I felt the same for the reality TV crew; they seem to be the weak link, having little character development and basically being there to fill in the blanks. It remains for Ethan and the spirits of the house to move this tale along.
Crawlspace has some nice elements to it: a strong backstory, a fragile but thoughtful main protagonist, and sufficiently vivid spirits of which their intentions are varied. While it is a standalone novel in one way, it is also the first of a series that uses some of the characters to continue the story apparently away from the haunting. It also has a bit of a tease and cliffhanger at the end. I wish that was made clearer at the beginning or in the blurb on the book as it weakens some of the resolution. There is also a resolution regarding Ethan’s girlfriend that felt tacked on and unconnected to the bulk of the story. Yet Crawlspace remains an entertaining and scary haunted house tale that effectively brings together Ethan’s fears and the intentions of the spirits of the house. I recommend this to anyone who likes a good haunted house story.
