Nazareth Hill

This is my first novel by Ramsey Campbell, but most assuredly it will not be my last. Amy Priestly and her widowed father Oswald are headed toward a collision course with unnamed horrors, all of which reside in their home of Nazarill. I admit that it took me awhile to get into this novel, the style of writing is often difficult, especially the cadence of Oswald which only grows more archaic as the story progresses. The final few chapters are superb, with the level of tension building to an almost unbearable climax. If you are looking for a well written horror story that delivers, this one does the genre proud.

...and things that go bump in the mind...Fifteen year old Amy had a scare at the old building called Nazareth Hill, ten years ago. So did her devoutly religious insurance salesman dad, who was with her at the time. He is intensely arachnophobic, and thought he saw some kind of big spider. She saw something worse - something so bad, she blocked it from her memory until now.Having remembered, Amy goes on a radio show to relate her ghost story about Nazareth Hill, now an apartment complex where she and her widowed dad live, and ticks-off a lot of people who are afraid of her scaring-down the rent. Some of them believe her, though. Because they've seen things, too. And those people are just up and leaving all of a sudden, turning Nazareth Hill into something of a ghost town.Amy's dad is staying, though. So is Amy, because she's got no choice. She's doing research into the Nazareth Hill area, and finding its history as an insane asylum - and some sort of witches' coven spot. Her father doesn't like it. He's going quietly insane. All he wants is to shut her up - and he's getting less picky about how. Especially with all those spiders creeping around in the dark, making it harder for him to relax...This is a really great haunted house/ghost story, more akin to Stephen King's The Shining than anything else, only generally much, much more subtle. Nazareth Hill is a place festering with evil spirits, scampering about all but unseen, glimpsed just sufficiently out of the corner of one's eye to drive people mad. It's a psychological horror story as well as a supernatural one, and succeeds on both levels. It has a pervasive feel of menace and doom about it, and many genuinely creepy moments.Campbell has written several good horror novels, but this is his best to date. Not for the squeamish.

Ramsey Campbell, one of THE greatest horror writers of all time (at that is not just hyberbole folks), has penned one of the most disturbing "haunted" house thrillers I have ever read, and I have read a lot. This story builds to its shocking ending with such slow methodicalness that it almost does not take you by surprise, it seems so inevitable. Be advised that fingernails should be allowed to grow long, the reader will need something to gnaw on.

I'll keep this short...if you like atmospheric, truly disturbing horror, read this novel. As always, Campbell's use of language is both beautiful and frightening, and he succeeds in making the reader look over his shoulder. The horror works on two levels; a believable father/daughter conflict which gradually escalates into true terror, and a fascinating--and scary--haunted house story. The style is vintage Campbell, off-kilter but somehow more descriptive for being so. Stephen King once wrote that Campbell's style is so unique that it may as well be copyrighted, and I couldn't agree more. It's a good place to go to be frightened. I also strongly recommend Campbell's other work, especially Midnight Sun, The Parasite, Alone with the Horrors, Waking Nightmares, and Ancient Images. His entire catalog is truly worth exploring.

Walking home from church, six year old Amy Priestly grips her parents' hands tightly as they approach Nazareth Hill, an ancient, burnt out structure that looms over the city of Partington. Despite her parent's presence, Amy is uneasy, certain the house is interested in her. Wanting her to confront her fear, her father swings her onto his shoulders and forces her to look through a shattered window. Inside, Amy sees a ghastly creature reaching for her--shocked, she nearly topples from her perch. Knowing they won't understand, she never tells her parents about what she witnessed. Ten years later, that incident long forgotten, Amy and her widowed father move into Nazareth Hill, now a luxury apartment building. Accustomed to being at odds with her dad because of her bizarre appearance and attitudes, she at first dismisses his increasingly erratic behavior. When he becomes more dictatorial, and adopts the speech patterns of a bygone era, she wonders if their new home is causing the problem. Curious, Amy looks into the building's past , discovering its disquieting history. Built on a site sacred to witches, the building formerly housed an insane asylum, where inmates were brutalized. Amy comes to realize that past events have imprinted themselves on the house, and that its current occupants are replaying the obscene dramas that took place within its walls. By the time her father's discipline becomes persecution, it's too late. Overcome by madness, Mr. Priestly imprisons Amy in her room. Cut off from the rest of the world, Amy fights to stay sane and alive. This novel, squarely in the tradition of The Haunting of Hill House and The Shining, reworks traditional subject matter while addressing timeless issues. Campbell focuses on the persecution of the outsider, demonstrating that those who are different will always be subject to scorn, derision and abuse. In the 1700s it was witches; in the 1800s it was the mentally ill. In our century, it is people like Amy, who has chosen to adopt a punk/goth lifestyle. Her attitudes and strange appearance make her an easy target for the citizens of Partington, and gives the evil in Nazareth Hill something to exploit. The book is especially noteworthy due to Campbell's talents as a stylist. In a time where many authors choose to write down to their audience, Campbell's prose is a breath of fresh air. Campbell's writing demands (and earns) a reader's attention--each word is carefully chosen for maximum impact. He creates an atmosphere of fear word by word, building towards the novel's tragic conclusion. Of course, there's plenty of gruesome stuff going on too--cats are hung, tongues are amputated, and specters stalk the living--but Campbell doesn't rely solely on shock to create fear. A craftsman, he builds to these shocks, wringing the maximum emotional impact from each scene. By the time readers turn the last page, they'll be worn out, but may have gained some insight into the nature of p