For Kate Bennett, ghost hunting is a daily occurrence. Not because she particularly believes in them, but because it pays the bills. As the producer of a paranormal investigation TV show, it’s her job to give the viewers what they want: a spooky vibe, maybe a couple jump scares, and an overall feeling that maybe there is something out there.
So for Kate and her team, visiting a house at the top of a desolate hill is just part of the job. The owner, Sebastian Dahl, believes the home is haunted, and wants Kate and her team to investigate.
What begins as just another staged midnight seance quickly devolves into a living nightmare, as Kate is possessed by the house’s malevolent spirit. It’s only for a moment, but that moment is all it takes to propel Kate and her friends into a terrifying ghost story.
But it’s not a story. It’s real. And it involves a terrible past that Kate hoped she could forget. Now she’ll stop at nothing to discover the truth, and neither will Sebastian — no matter the cost.
What the what?!
When a book is described as being about “a woman who hosts a ghost hunting show on cable television,” I’d argue that most people automatically lower their expectations. I think most of us figured Where the Dead Walk to be like those cheesy ghost hunting shows: lots of night vision, shaky shots down dark hallways, and a handful of idiots scaring the snot out of themselves in an empty house.
And for the first couple chapters, you could forgive us for thinking we was right. Most members agreed that the book started off a little slow, but that we all felt invested enough by about midway through — and completely hooked the last 50 or so pages. Once this novel really gets going, it. Is. On.
The folks who don’t read this genre often said they were caught completely off guard by most of the twists, and had no real idea of what to expect from chapter to chapter. Meanwhile the people who love the genre were not surprised by anything at all.
Everyone agreed that Kate was a frustrating character — we all thought she was an idiot for shutting out her friends in favor of a stranger who consistently deceives her. Wanting to know the truth about your past may exert a powerful pull, but that’s no excuse to be a moron.
Most members like the Eammon character, but personally I think his being there is a sign of the novel’s weakness. By the time he’s introduced, the characters and the reader are deep into a scary situation and have almost no answers, but the book is almost over. To me it’s clear that Eammon was introduced to quickly explain all the complex stuff the author ran out of time to introduce and explain in other, more subtle ways. Eammon’s two scenes felt like “info dumps,” which disappointed me.
Overall, though, everyone enjoyed Where the Dead Walk. It was a fun read that gave us enough to talk about without feeling cheesy or too heavy. Just what we needed.