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    Mrs. God: A Novel
    Mrs. God: A Novel
    Mrs. God: A Novel
    Audiobook5 hours

    Mrs. God: A Novel

    Written by Peter Straub

    Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Esswood House. Home and estate of the Seneschal family, aristocratic patrons of the literary arts for well over a hundred years. D. H. Lawrence, T. S. Eliot, Ford Madox Ford, and Henry James were privileged to call themselves guests and Esswood Fellows. Even minor poets such as Isobel Standish found Esswood’s refined atmosphere an inspiration for her work. There was always talk of a hidden secret in Esswood’s past—and the Seneschal children were often so pale and sickly—but don’t all English manor houses have a few ghost stories to call their own?

    When Professor William Standish receives the rare honor of an Esswood Fellowship, and the chance to study Isobel’s private manuscripts at close hand, he is thrilled beyond his wildest ambitions. But upon arriving, something seems slightly strange at Esswood House. He hears faint laughter in the halls, the pitter-pattering of small feet in the night; strange faces appear in the windows of the library, and of course, there are those giant dollhouses in the basement.…

    Never before published as a separate volume, Mrs. God is a very different kind of ghost story from one of America’s most celebrated authors.

    “Peter Straub is a national treasure.” —Lawrence Block

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateFeb 15, 2012
    ISBN9781455868056
    Mrs. God: A Novel
    Author

    Peter Straub

    Born in Milwaukee, Peter Straub is the author of fifteen novels, which have been translated into more than twenty languages. He has won the British Fantasy Award, two Bram Stoker awards and two World Fantasy awards. His most recent publications are his acclaimed novel Mr X, a collection of short stories, Magic Terror, and Black House, the international bestselling novel that he co-wrote with Stephen King.

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    Reviews for Mrs. God

    3/5

    45 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 2/5
      Odd. Not spooky at all unfortunately.
    • 3/5
      On the whole I found this little book more baffling than anything. I hate it when I suspect a writer of doing something over my head, but I’m not sure that was all that was at fault here. After a bit of research, I discovered this novella is a reworking of a short story. Maybe it should have stayed a short story. Maybe it would have been more effective that way.It starts out strong - Straub efficiently gets down to business giving us our main character, setting him in his world and then on his way to the main sphere of the story. There are nice touches of foreboding and mystery in Standish’s past. I didn’t like the long dream sequences, but then I never do and always skip them. I was intrigued by Standish’s marriage and Jean in particular, but alas nothing comes of it. I’m still not sure if it was real or if she’s still alive or what. Dangling plotlines bug me when they’re made much of during the course of a novel.If you like your horror of the more surreal type, this might work for you. It has elements of the gothic and of the unraveling mind; descent into madness. But it’s not all that clear. Is this all a hoax and a figment of Standish’s disintegrating psyche? Is it a hoax of another kind; that the house does exist, but that none of the famous writers associated with it ever spent time there? This occurred to me when Standish broke open all the “writer’s boxes” to find pictures of Isobel and Corn spilling out of all of them (Corn = a minor nobody who Standish’s nemesis wanted to study at Esswood only to be rebuffed). But then who is keeping Standish during his stay? Cooking his meals? Raiding the wine cellar and fetching his little requirements and laying them on the floor outside the library door? I’m left with more questions than answer, but if that’s your bag, you might like this.
    • 2/5
      I did not not like this..... I did not understand the book or the point of it, no not at all.

      I suppose it is a darkly spooky, lyrical, literary fantasy..... It is a ghost story, but I have not a clue what it is really all about.

      I had a very difficult time reading this book, it took me over 4 weeks to finish. It was even rather boring in an overly descriptive manner of style.

    • 4/5
      Straub's Mrs. God novella is a strange story, moving from what seems to be a commonplace drama (if one with a creepy setting) to a fast-moving horror story centered around an apparently devolving narrator. In fact, you can nearly cut the book in half to find that the first portion is decidedly unhorrific, and the second is nearly unfollowable it contains so much and moves so quickly. All together, the book is interesting, and the writing of atmosphere and descriptions is absolutely stunning. Those descriptions, though, are what I'll remember moreso than the story. I have a feeling that, really, this idea needed to take on a longer form in order to do it real justice and give clarity enough to the horror for it to be really scary.
    • 3/5
      The premise for this book makes it sound like the perfect book for reading late at night with the wind/rain blowing at your window and one lonely light to illuminate your reading….. okay, in my case it was the back light of my iPod, but I digress. Writing this review is proving to be a bit of a problem. Is this a Gothic tale or just horror? I say it fits the Gothic genre, what with the elements of unexplained events, an ancestral home with strange 'goings on', supernatural beings, and an atmosphere of suspense terror. Straub uses the first person narrative through Standish to draw the reader in. While this one started off with great promise, with a pretty good writing style and an intriguing idea of a downward spiraling journey into madness, the delivery of the story itself took its own downward spiral like a helicopter in a slow auto rotate decent. Originally published as a short story back in 1990 (which I have not read), I wonder if Straub attempted to write a full blown novel and came away in the end with this novella that seems to fall apart in the last three-four chapters. Our narrator's psychological decline is poorly executed and I am completely baffled by the whole wife angle. I hate finishing a book with more questions than answers and a quick re-read of the last four chapters failed to illuminate my understanding (you never know, I may have missed something on my first read through). At least I was able to confirm through some online reviews that I am not the only one that has had trouble with this one.... and before you ask, I am still a bit unclear on his choice of "Mrs. God" for the title for this one.Overall, this was a disappointing read for me, but thankfully a rather quick one and one that I will not be recommending others rush out to read.
    • 3/5
      I gave this 3 stars because I really don't know if I liked it or not. This really isn't my genre so I've little ability to compare. It was creepy and intriguing. But I'm pretty intelligent but I only understood it on some pretty obviously levels. Sorry guys, I don't get the wife thing at all. Can somebody help?
    • 3/5
      Professor William Standish is accepted to spend three weeks researching the writings of Isobel Standish. He moves into the manor in England and meets some very peculiar people. He begins having strange dreams and seeing ghosts the first night. Nevertheless, he goes through Isobel's boxes for literature and even the journal she kept while staying at the manor many years before.
    • 2/5
      Didn't enjoy. Started off with lots of atmosphere, but really did not lead to anything...