Review: The Seeker by R.B. Chesterton

[SWilder]

I liked this book, but I didn't love it. I give it 3/5 stars (or 2.7/4), with it's main weakness being the narrative voice of the protagonist, Aine.

It's a murder mystery centered around a Literature Ph.D. candidate, Aine Cahill, staying at Walden Pond to write her dissertation on Henry David Thoreau, using her great-great-great-aunt Bonnie Cahill's journal as a testimony to the theory that Thoreau did not live alone in the woods, as he claimed.

The protagonist is a misfit, born and raised in Kentucky from cursed Irish Immigrants. The Curse is a literal thing that Aine's grandmother has tried to protect her from, by insisting on education and city living. But The Curse finds Aine anyway. She realizes slowly that her whole life has been a struggle against The Curse, which has killed everyone around her that she ever loved, with the whole process accelerating at Walden. The acceleration of The Curse coincides with Aine's seeing an old childhood 'friend' in the woods. The 'friend' is an innocent looking child who is really something else. No spoilers. Aine is unafraid of this friend, though it seems that everyone else, including the reader, is afraid of her. This adds to my discomfort with Aine as a narrator.

The book uses the doll gimmick to create most of the major creepiness scenes, which, although used in a novel manner, is a tired way to scare people. I admit, finding the dolls as described in the times and places described, would be terrifying. But it's just not the most imaginative thing.

The thing which got me from the beginning was that I didn't like Aine and couldn't identify with her. This could have been rectified by telling the story in third person, instead of first person, I think. But it's told in first-person, by 'Aine'. I couldn't get over the feeling that it was a guy trying to write what he thought a woman like Aine would think and feel like. I hear that the author is female, but it's hard to believe. And the story skates the line between reality and the supernatural with a bit of awkwardness that's already been done as well. I would have normally have put the book down (I tend not to finish randomly selected library books unless the author is good enough to hold my attention, which is rare) had I not been waiting at the County Courthouse for Jury Duty Selection for eight freaking hours.

However, being that I was trapped with nothing better to do except read The Seeker and play with my cell phone, I did get through the first three-quarters of the book, which allowed me to stay involved enough to finish it. The storytelling is not bad at all. The suspense and the writing were good enough. In short, if you love suspense, mysteries, ghost stories, etc, this isn't a bad choice.