Book review: Earthbound
When I was reading The Turn of the Screw a couple of weeks ago I got the idea that it might be fun to write a ghost story play. I have lots of other ideas I want to work on first but it sounded interesting enough that I thought I'd read a couple of classic ghost stories to get some ideas. I bought some MR James the other day but in the meantime I already had a copy of Richard Matheson's Earthbound, in which a couple in their forties go to a seaside cottage in the off-season to help their ailing marriage. It doesn't quite work out that way as David is seduced by the ghost of Marianna, a woman condemned as a slut in life and not much changed in the afterlife. I can see why it's one of the more obscure Matheson books - it's OK and the spooky atmosphere works well at times, but it never quite gripped me. It probably doesn't help that the story is all about sex, and sex scenes in books almost invariably make me cringe.