The Unseen

The Unseen
By Alexandra Sokoloff (328 pages)
Published by St. Martin's Press
Bookish rating: 3.75

It being the spooky month of October and all, I just can't help but dive into darker reading. I'm a Sokoloff fan, and The Unseen is a fun ghost (well, poltergeist) tale of the Rhine parapsychology experiments at Duke University (a real thing).

I actually worked--briefly--for the University of Virginia's School of Medicine's perceptual studies department (one of my multiple jobs in grad school), doing tasks related to paranormal research. For reals. So, Sokoloff's portrayal of the academic approach to and treatment of parapsychology actually seemed pretty accurate to me. Well, sort of. Sure, my disc man (yes, THAT long ago) never seemed to properly work around there, but that was the limit of any poltergeist activity I saw. Bummer.

Anyway, our heroine--Laurel--investigates a mystery as to why the Duke lab was shut down, eventually deciding to recreate what appeared to be the defining experiment--holing up with some sexually charged college students in a haunted house. Of course.

I liked how Sokoloff--like Shirley Jackson's classic The Haunting of Hill House (my all-time favorite ghost story)--uses the suggestion of evil or creepiness rather than just the overt icky to generate the thrills. Also, I'm partial to academic settings, which made this a fun book to read. The ending left me wanting  a little something and seemed rather rushed or incomplete, so I docked a quarter star from what would've been a 4.

So, bookish peeps: This is a well-crafted ghost (sorry! poltergeist) story, perfect for late October reading. Really, that's all you need to know. Recommended.