Coffins

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Historical, So-So Horror
Review: COFFINS is the first novel by Rodman Philbrick that I have read. Based on this, I would read another of his books, but I will not be in a huge hurry to do so.

The narrator of COFFINS, Davis Bentwood, is a physician and a transcendentalist, a follower of the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The opening sections of COFFINS, which deal with this very reasonable man resisting and then acknowledging the existence of something that science cannot explain, are engaging. After that, the horror story plays out in a fairly predictable way.

When Bentwood finally unravels the heart of the mystery, the pieces fit together, but are missing the kind of charge that makes it hard to put down really great horror novels. I was frustrated at how slowly things moved when I could see where we were going. The puzzle, when finally revealed, seemed a little thin and unstaisfying.

Philbrick clearly loves the classics. COFFINS feels like an homage that never quite takes on a life of its own, though the explicitness of some of the events is very modern.

COFFINS does offer the pleasures of a good historical novel. The novel is set just before the Civil War, and the political and moral conversations of the day are quite interesting. Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton actually appear as characters.

Overall, three stars. It was good enough that I went ahead and finished it, but isn't one that I'll rush out to share with my friends.

Rating:
Summary: Solid
Review: Historical fiction with mystery, horror and a touch of the supernatural all rolled-up into one solid story; no doubt a page-turner.

Rating:
Summary: Not good.
Review: The characters are well drawn and sympathetic but that's the only good thing I can say about this. The supernatural horror that haunts the family is all powerful so its a bit like watching Final Destination but without the laughs....you just watch helplessly as people die in various gruesome ways. I think the author was trying for a Fall of the House of Usher sense of doom but it never really comes across. There is no explaination given why the horror is so powerful. There's a lot of heavy handed preaching about the evils of slavery. Lastly the main character is pretty spineless and doesn't make one effective move or plan.