Fog Heart

Rating:
Summary: Cold comfort
Review: Oona, a strange, ethereal, suicidal young medium, brings together two married couples. Charley and Jan are haunted by guilt over the death of their infant daughter; Carrie is haunted by visions of her dead father and a murderous, faceless man, while her husband Oliver, blandly guiltless though hideously culpable, is haunted only by the thought that Oona may know more about him than he would like. And Oona, too, has a guilt and a ghost of her own, perhaps the deepest and most awful of them all. Three harrowing psychic episodes, steadily increasing in horrific revelation, entwine all these separate hauntings and bring them to a head. Perhaps, as Oona says, "ghosts are a kind of redemption"; if so, they exact a terrible price. Or perhaps, as Charley bitterly imagines, the "afterlife" is as aimless, chaotic and incomprehensible as life on earth. Which would you prefer? Characteristically, Tessier gives no pat explanations and no easy answers. The ending leaves the two relatively innocent characters alive but devastated by what they have witnessed (supernatural in one case, earthly but hardly natural in the other); however, although nothing is guaranteed, the novel is saved from utter blackness by the tentative reassurances which Oona gives to both survivors. Fog Heart is a superb, complex, bleak modern ghost story, written in Tessier's usual cool, clear style: anything but foggy and without a single wasted word. The characters are beautifully drawn, the set-piece psychic sessions utterly riveting, the visions of Carrie and Charlie described, like Oliver's murderous violence, briefly but with a poet's power.

Rating:
Summary: ...Far from a great read...
Review: This book falls far short of its potential. Although I found that I was never emotionally invested in any of the characters, that wasn't my main problem with this book.

I found it lacking in suspense and not scary at all. (Is it categorized as a horror novel because some people were killed?) The only "scary" moments were the ones where Carrie had her encounters...I had to turn off all the lights in my house and read by flashlight to conjure up the tiniest bit of fear.

In addition, the story completely fizzled at the end. Everything seemed far too rushed and hurried. The Roz/Oliver confrontation was just plain unbelievable. Am I to believe that Oliver wasn't the seasoned veteran he seemed to be? All of a sudden, he's a bumbling idiot? And I didn't buy Oona's fate either. It seemed like an easy out for the author.

All in all, the story just disappeared...

Rating:
Summary: Tessier in top form
Review: When Carrie Spence starts having visions of her dead father, she and her husband Oliver consult a young psychic named Oona Muir. Through Oona, they meet Charley and Jan O'Donnell, another couple who believes they are receiving messages from their infant daughter who died tragically in a fire. This eclectic mix of personalities generates disturbing results, as dark crimes from both the past and present are unearthed through Oona's traumatic seances. The truths revealed test the parties involved, driving them to madness, despair, and death.

A book which promptly landed on many reviewers' short list for best novel of 1998, Fogheart is first rate work from a major talent. Tessier casts a dark spell through his gripping narrative--his characters live and breathe, the dialogue shines, and the atmosphere of dread he creates will unnerve even the most jaded reader. Fogheart proves that horror is alive and well, demonstrating that a familiar premise can gain new life in the hands of a capable writer. If Tessier remains "horror fiction's best kept secret" after this one, there is simply no justice.