NNtG: Shivers #24: The Ghosts of Devil's Marsh

It's time to spin the chamber once again with the Russian Roulette of GB-likes. We've done a few Shivers books lately, and the last couple have been on the more tame side. Not a knock, but given the lengths this series can go, it's definitely a let down. We got ghosts in this one and secrets and marshes. Surely a surefire combination for some Shivers fun? Let's learn about The Ghosts of Devil's Marsh.

This cover is yet another really solid Shivers work. Complete with a lot of the standard items. Big bight moon, lots of trees and foliage, lots of shadows and glowing lights. No skulls though, at least from what I can see. But the selling point is the grisly hand rising from the grave. Or in front of the Bart Island sign. We've had plenty a rising hand and while it is stock, it still works for adding a creepy element to the story. Also we got crows. We don't get enough crows on covers.

Samantha McMillan's (or Sammy as she'd prefer) summer is looking pretty bleak. She has to spend it on Bart's Island with her cousins, the Dimmswells. Her mother has to go on a business trip, and with no one on her side of the family to watch Sammy, she sends her to visit her family on her late father's side. But of course, Sammy not crazy about it. First off, the cousins are all boys, and she barely knows any of them. But T.S. Eliot because she still has to go live with them for a while. Her uncle Tim and Aunt Sylvie are marine biologists with three boys, Adam, who is about Sammy age, Andy, who is six, Allen, who's fifteen, and Alfie who is two. The house is a mess and Adam and Andy are always fighting. So yeah, great summer so far, huh? 

The kids are sent to the beach, where Adam and Andy sneak up on Sammy and soak her with super soakers before knocking her into the water, which causes her to get super upset. After things calm down, Andy suggests they go on a ghost hunt, but Adam thinks Sammy won't be up for it because she's a girl and this is just gonna be a book about "The WEAKER sex" talk for a bit huh? But Sammy's no wimp, and is curious when Andy mentions a ghost in the graveyard, but Adam wants him to shut up about it, and given it's raining, and still early in the book, it's a good excuse to get away from the graveyard. Though that just leads to the kids almost being struck by lightning that smacks a nearby tree. 

That night, Adam talks with Sammy and asks for a blood oath before they talk about this ghostly encounter. And I mean like literally pricking her finger to bleed because when Adam says something I guess it has to be done as literally as possible. He points out the window to Devil's Marsh, named as such because those who enter it never come out alive. It's a deep swamp filled with alligators, which Adam notes once ate a baby. Ah, there's that burst of pure gruesome imagery that only Shivers can provide. There are stories that those who die in the marsh still haunt the island, case in point the story of a farm near the marsh. The pig got loose and the farmer's daughter entered the marsh, but never came out. Grief-stricken, the farmer blew his brains out. Wow, I didn't think we'd get heavier than chewed baby but then BAM, second encore! But ever since then, the sounds of wails, oinks and gunshots can be heard.

So as it pertains to Adam's ghost sighting, he experienced something similar to Sammy in that he was almost struck by lightning. The next day, he checked out the charred husk of tree and began to hear a voice call his name, saying that now Adam could see into their dimension. Suddenly the smoke from the tree turns into a monster face that spews goblin-like bat creatures with fox heads that try to enter his head. He biked off and tried to tell his family, who didn't believe him, but Andy did, because this is all made up. Or at least that's what Adam wants Sammy to believe I guess? So Sammy fell for Adam's ghost story, and not only that, she frigging bled for him. So now she's out for blood. Adam's blood.

Some time passes and things don't get too crazy, which would be a pretty boring book, so one day Sammy, Andy and Adam go biking. Sammy loses track of the boys and ends up finding herself at a nearby crab shack that also promises to cast spells. I mean if you want crabs and revenge spells, you don't have to shop at two stores. Sammy is then stopped by a strange old woman who is described as having "skin as dark and soft as leather" and is covered in jewelry. Yeah, that's a little deserving of a collar tug. Yeah, I know, white moron writing this blog, but if I can cringe a shade at "struts like a rapper on MTV"...

The woman calls Sammy Honey and claims that Sammy has "the devil's power".  Freaked out, Sammy continues to drive until she finds her way to the cemetery. She eventually finds the McMillan family plot. There are plots with all sorts of McMillan's, even ones for baby McMillans which is dark but hey, we already talked about a baby being gator vored, so band-aid is off. But it's one grave that catches Sammy off guard. Samantha Lewis McMillan, born May 9th, 1906, died August 22nd, 1987. There was a woman with Sammy's full name who died on the day she was born. That's either haunted or a hell of a coincidence.

In a panic, Sammy grabs the tombstone, breaking a stone angel that was on top of it. She tries to put it back together, but notices a small heart that the angel had been holding. She takes that and rushes off in a panic, only to find herself at Devil's Marsh. And with no other way back to the Dimmsell house, she enters the marsh. Not long into the marsh, she finds the same tree from Adam's story. Charred on one half, but seemingly still alive on the other. Could Adam's story be true? She then hears someone calling her. That turns out to be Uncle Tim, who finds her before she goes too deep into the marsh and because we're only 53 pages into this 124 page story.

That night, Sammy learns more about her father and his side of the family. The house they lived in was built by Nathaniel McMillan in 1800, which was where Sylvie's grandmother lived after she and Sammy's parents died, notably their dad who died in Vietnam. We don't learn much about Sammy's dad yet. That night, Sammy hears her voice being whispered and thinks she sees something darting outside of the house. She checks on Adam and Andy, with Adam on a chair on top of his bed feeding flies to a spider. I mean... gotta do something before YouTube. She then has a nightmare of being bitten by a snake near the cemetery. She sees what looks like the snake and a bird arguing before they turn their attention on her, the snake saying that Sammy broke her heart and now must pay, which leads to the big cloud head from Adam's story.

Sammy wakes up and sees what looks like an explosion coming from the marsh that disappears in an instant. She talks with Adam who says that there's another story about the marsh that an old woman and her son were driving. She depended on him but he was going to leave her for his girlfriend. They argued on the road and ended up crashing into an oncoming car and dying. Ever since then there's been stories of the sight of fires in the marsh. Also Sammy notes that her dad also died in a car crash because this is turning into the "Coincidence? I think Not!" Olympics. Sammy then mentions that she met with the old woman who was screaming about Devil's powers. Adam notes that it's Nadina, and she's usually crazy, but maybe she's not wrong about Sammy having powers. That it's believed that surviving a lightning strike can give someone the power to see ghosts. A sort of aura. 

So now the kids have to find Nadina to see if she can undo this curse. As they bike, Sammy again hears the voices that tell her that they will pay. Suddenly, Andy encounters a giant alligator that almost gets him, but they escape in time. But it's enough of a sign that these spirits aren't fucking around anymore. Sammy then goes to get her bike, but it gets covered in eels, all while the voice laughs at her saying that she broke their heart then stole it. So, we know what the solution is, but we still got 30 some pages to get there. She tries to bike, but sees the ghostly snake again, which almost gets her to swerve into a car. With all the negative vibes in her head trying to kill her, Adam suggests she sing John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith (yes, it's supposed to be Schmidt, but I can also forgive it since it's coming from kids who are in a panic given, you know, murder ghost). 

They find Nadina who tells the kids that Sammy has "Miz Sam's devil in her". Which means the Samantha McMillan who is currently dead. Given that Sammy can see the dead and broke the grave, AND took the stone heart, that's enough to piss off a ghost. So now Sammy needs to find a picture of Samantha and return to the grave with the piece of heart, then bare her soul to Samantha while burning and burying the ashes of the photo. Sammy talks with Aunt Sylvie about Samantha McMillan, Sammy's great-grandmother. Samantha, or Nana as she's called by Sylvie, was a woman who always felt that people abandoned her. Her first husband left her for another woman, she lost her other husband in the war, when Sylvie got married, Nana cut her out of her life. All that remained was Sammy's father, who eventually eloped with Sammy's mother. That angered Nana who cut him out of her life. He tried to make amends by naming Sammy after her, but still no good. You know, I'm starting to see why everyone started to "Aight I'mma head out" on her.

When Sammy's parents returned to Bart's Island, Nana was so pissed that she had a heart attack. So Sammy's dad took her to the hospital on a stormy night. They went through Devil's Marsh and crashed into another oncoming car, much like the story from earlier. Mr. McMillan managed to escape with Sammy in tow, but couldn't save Nana in time who died in the car. However, Mr. McMillan succombed to his own injuries and died not long after. With that exposition in place, Sammy, Adam and Andy return to the graveyard to place the heart back on the angel. Suddenly the ghost snake shows up and starts to burn Sammy. But they manage to burn and bury the photo's ashes while Sammy apologizes to her great-grandmother. She sees the ghostly form of her great-grandmother and her father who comforts her before the two vanish into the air.

The rest of the summer goes by pretty well, mainly thanks to Sammy no longer being cursed. Before she's to leave Bart's Island, she's visited by a bird, who is the spirit of her father, telling Sammy to tell her mother that he loves her and to give her the stone heart from the grave, which is brought back to her. She then hears the sound of crying and a lullaby coming from the marsh, a sign of her father and great-grandmother singing for I guess the baby version of Sammy. Sammy returns home and knows now to stay inside during storms and not to fuck with tombstones. I mean god only knows what vengeful poltergeists are on her mom's side of the family?

So, aside from a few gory details like the farmer offing himself, this one falls mostly into the safer chamber of Shivers. But I'd say of the safer books I've read in this batch, this one might be the one I liked the most. Though it does feel like it takes forever to get started. Both in building Sammy's issues with Adam, the lore of the marsh and all the exposition when it comes to all the family drama and ghostly issues. But once the ball starts rolling, it's rolls pretty well with very little in terms of wall hitting or wheel spinning. I also like that we don't just solve this by the most obvious means of "put the stone heart back on the angel" but rather that it's part in solving the issue itself. So props to Shivers on that end. And also a ghost story from Shivers that isn't about forgiving the guy who started a genocide. That's a double win!

Sammy's a decent protagonist. Nothing out of the ordinary as a protagonist but still solid enough that you want to see her survive all of this. Adam's a solid side-character who works both as the annoying cousin and also a good friend who will be by Sammy's side, even when it nearly gets them killed. Although the annoying "you're such a girl" stuff got old super quick. Andy mostly exists, but doesn't fully feel Superfluous Clay either. That mostly goes for Allen and Alfie who exist in the story but do absolutely nothing, which I mean, Alfie's a baby, what's he going to contribute? Your mileage will vary on Nadina. Is it too much of a stereotype? Does her description and her "I Sees" go too far to the point of feeling stereotypical? Again, I'm not in the right to be offended or to gauge if others should be offended, but I dunno. Got a real "crows from Dumbo" vibe at points.

Nana is an interesting villain. One that you get why she acts how she does but also kind of really hate by the end. She hated being alone, and feeling abandoned, but never handled it well, especially when her grandkids left her. It makes her sympathetic enough, but then you consider how she'll just up and murder her great granddaughter for the simple mistake of messing up her tombstone. She gets a happy ending, but does it truly feel deserved, or more just giving the ghost baby her bottle? I guess so long as it provides a happy ending, it's enough for it to work as an ending. Cue the "It's an ending. That's enough" Simpsons picture here. 

So, not a bad Shivers book overall. Not the most unique when it comes to these types of ghost stories and it is a bit slow to start, but it still does everything it needs to quite well. Just the right amount of darkness, the right amount of atmosphere and action, which leads to an easy recommend. I do wish the marsh mattered a bit more, but I guess it's about the ghosts of the marsh, not the marsh itself, so I can live with it. We're still going pretty safe lately with Shivers. How long until that changes? The Ghosts of Devil's Marsh gets a B-.