Yes, despite this being the fifth book in the series, this is our fourth foray into Shivers as a series and so far it's been far more interesting than I ever really gave it credit for. And when a series can do that for me, I tend to want to go back into it more than usual. So, one more before we get back to Goosebumpin'. Let's open up The Locked Room.
COVER STORY
STORY
Brittany's life kinda sucks. Not really her fault mind you. Her mother Lucy divorced her father and remarried a far more handsomer man named Bill Beard. And now she and the new hubby are moving Britney and her little brother Eric to Podunksville, California. It's not so bad, her Aunt Bonnie lives in a farmhouse close from there and her Uncle Ian lives in a nearby trailer. It's just the lack of her old friends and now being away from her real dad that's got her down. Especially since she doesn't like Bill. Sure he's nice to both her and Ian and seems to love their mom, but something just doesn't smell right. She gets a weirder premonition when, after Eric screws with her locket containing pics of her mother and father, she looks at the pictures and strangely she sees what looks to be a different woman than her mother looking sad and afraid, with a red line around her neck. Then the pictures go back to normal. She blames cabin pressure from the plane.
They leave the plane and meet up with Bill, who drives them to their new home. Straight in the middle of nowhere. No neighbors, no kids. Miles from the school or stores. Brittany's bad vibes are already getting worse. They arrive at the place and Bill tells them of the story of the original William Beard. A prospector in the 1800s who fell in love with a woman. William had a locked box with his fortune around his neck. He was fooled by his wife to take the box off one night, to which she stole the money while he slept and set the house on fire. William survived, but vowed to never let anyone steal his possessions again. This all seems not that concerning until Eric touches one of his keys and Bill snaps at him over it. He apologizes, but those red flags for Brittany just got a lot redder.
Brittany gets a good look at her new room which contains a little rectangular door to one of two dormer closets . After Brittany gets a flashlight to check inside, she gets a stock scare from Eric who checked in one before her. After a while, she goes to check the second, then heads to see her mother. However, as she sees her mother fixing herself up in front of a mirror, the reflection shows a different woman staring daggers at Brittany. She tries to tell her mother, but she doesn't believe her because Goosebu-oh wait, Shivers parents.
After that incident, Brittany talks with her mother about changing the walls of her room, which are littered with giant roses on wallpaper. She asks where Bill is and her mother responds that Bill tends to take a walk outside every evening. Brittany goes to find him, but both end up scaring each other when they meet. Aside from freaky images, things are going fine. The kids get to talk to their dad on the phone for a bit before going to sleep. Brittany hears sobbing noises coming from outside her room and believes it to be Eric. However, when she goes to check, Eric's sound asleep. She sleeps in Eric's room that night, then tells him the next day about the crying. They suspect it might be their mom, but she reveals she was sleeping in the living room after watching TV.
While out for the day, Brittany tries to get Eric to believe her, but he's still skeptical. She gets angry and runs off with him following. They soon find a cemetery containing all of Bill's ancestors, including Louisa Gepplewhite Beard, the wife of William. They return home as Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Ian show up. Mom tells them the story of how they met at a wedding and after three days of interacting were smitten with one another. Bill interrupts to tell the same. Bonnie notices Brittany's locket and looks at it, but doesn't recognize the woman in the locket. Though she chalks that up to poor eyesight, but describes it in the same detail as Brittany saw before.
That night, determined to make Eric believe, he tells him to stay up to hear the noises. Sure enough, they both hear the wails. Eric goes to wake up their mother while Brittany loses him, only to get caught by Bill. Bill checks Eric's room for anything scary, but bangs his head when checking under the bed. As he recovers by the mirror, Brittany sees four shadowy figures in the reflection, looking almost skeletal. She doesn't mention this to Bill, nor does she mention it to Eric since he's already freaked out. She begins to realize that the house must be haunted by the wife of William Beard. Bill said that she had run off, never to be seen again. But maybe her body was found and buried in the cemetery. Now she and three other ghosts haunt the place. Brittany believes she's pulled a Velma and solved the case, but now she doesn't quite know how she'll be able to leave.
Despite her concerns however, she seems to calm down after they finally start arranging their rooms. This includes the little closet that Brittany uses for a hideout. Mom mentions going with Bill for his evening walk, so the kids have the house to themselves. Both kids get in the closet, with Brittany mentioning some nails that were taken off her wall. Eric takes one to put in the closet wall to hang a flashlight, but suddenly the wall collapses in front of him. Brittany's angry, but both kids then notice something. Some chests in front of another door. Eric is excited to check out what's behind the door, but Brittany decides it's wiser to check later.
Later that night, they enter the room, which contains a bunch of stuff like guns and knives, along with bottles of strange liquid. You know, nothing that should cause concern. But more concerning to the kids is yet another door. Brittany tries to open it, but the knob breaks off in her hands. They try to wriggle the door open, but no avail. Brittany then turns her attention to the locked box. Inside she eventually finds a photo of a man and a woman. The woman looks exactly like the woman she's been seeing visions of, but more concerning is the man. It's Bill! But even weirder is the photo of him and their mother's wedding day is behind them. Panicked, the kids go to warn their mother, but she's more angered that the room's destroyed, so that plan goes down the crapper.
One last plan in mind to get their mom to believe them, Brittany steals the keys from Bill's pocket, then leads her mother to the room and shows her the picture. She begins to notice everything and is starting to believe what her kids are saying. As Brittany goes for the door however, they all hear that Bill has returned already from his walk, enraged that his keys were stolen. Mom and Eric attack him with a paint roller and can before mom tells Eric to run for it. Uncle Ian returns and attacks Bill. Suddenly, ghostly figures exit the locked room and grab Bill. Despite his protests, he's dragged into the room, the door locking behind him.
TWIST ENDING
The family return home, ready to put the whole Bill incident behind them. At the airport, they're reunited with their dad. Brittany looks at her locket and freaks out yet again, throwing her locket in the trash this time. This time, her mom photo looks normal, but this time it's dad that looks different. Almost like Bill, I guess?
CONCLUSION
The Locked Room is easily the tamest Shivers book I've covered. No real gore or dead kids scenarios here. But aside from the supernatural stuff that honestly isn't well executed, the real horror of the story is that fear of the unknown, in this case trusting your life to a man who you still don't know that well. And I really wish the book executed on that more than trying to tell an undercooked mystery about the ghost of what I guess was Bill's former wife. We get a bit of a hint that he's done this before. He mentions he doesn't ever start a relationship with a woman who has kids, alluding to the idea that he is a black widower. Someone who lures unsuspecting women to live with him before he kills them and I guess leaves their bodies in the locked room, which we really don't get much of despite that title.
The mystery isn't that good in this one. It feels like there's attempts to make it matter, but in the end there really is no feeling that it mattered to the story. As such, I really wish the story had focused entirely on evil stepdad who is out to murder and build the mystery better on just what he did to the victims. Even tie the concept around how the past with his ancestor stuck to him so much that he refused to let another woman deceive him. That he became unhinged. You could execute all that while still adding supernatural elements that work to tie in better. I feel that's Shivers' biggest issue. Spenser has some great ideas, but he's not good at tying them into a compelling mystery. And in cases where he can at least excuse it with a lot of gore and darkness, without any of that in sight you see just how unbalanced the story becomes. Not the worst book ever, protagonists are fine, and there's a glimmer of a compelling concept, but it feels like too much of this story is all locked up. The Locked Room gets a C.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.