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Help for the Haunted: A Novel (P.S.), by John Searles
Download PDF Help for the Haunted: A Novel (P.S.), by John Searles
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John Searles’s Help for the Haunted is an unforgettable story of a most unusual family, their deep secrets, their harrowing tragedy, and ultimately, a daughter’s discovery of a dark and unexpected mystery.
Sylvie Mason’s parents have an unusual occupation—helping “haunted souls” find peace. After receiving a strange phone call one winter’s night, they leave the house and are later murdered in an old church in a horrifying act of violence.
A year later, Sylvie is living in the care of her older sister, who may be to blame for what happened to their parents. Now, the inquisitive teenager pursues the mystery, moving closer to the knowledge of what occurred that night—and to the truth about her family’s past and the secrets that have haunted them for years.
Capturing the vivid eeriness of Stephen King’s works with the compelling quirkiness of John Irving’s beloved novels, Help for the Haunted is that rare story that brings to life a richly imagined and wholly original world.
- Sales Rank: #110689 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-09-17
- Released on: 2013-09-17
- Format: Kindle eBook
Amazon.com Review
Author One-on-One: Gillian Flynn and John Searles
Gillian Flynn is the author of Sharp Objects, Dark Places and the #1 New York Times best-selling novel Gone Girl. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Brett Nolan, and a rather giant cat named Roy.
Gillian Flynn: Writers imbue their characters with a little bit of themselves. Obviously, Sylvie Mason is very different from you. How did you find a window into Sylvie?
John Searles: I joke that, deep down, I’m really a teenage girl. Growing up, my dad worked as a cross-country truck-driver and my brother was usually off with his friends, so my mom, my sisters and I spent were always together. As an adult, I become an editor at a women’s magazine. So in a weird way, it was almost easier for me to write from a female perspective.
GF: You’ve talked before about how your sister’s death affected your writing. How so in this book?
JS: After my sister, Shannon, died, my parents divorced and I left for New York to try and become a writer. Our youngest sister, Keri, was left behind. Keri was around the age of Sylvie, and I realized while writing the book that I was channeling her emotions from that time. She was so young to be faced with tragedy, but like Sylvie, had a resilient spirit.
GF: Help for the Haunted has some seriously scary moments and delves into the subculture of haunted souls and paranormalists. What inspired you?
JS: As a kid, I was obsessed with scary things. I made haunted houses in our garage, and when I got my license, I used to load my friends into my station wagon and drive us down a dirt road at night, where I’d try to scare the hell out of them.
Also, I grew up in the same town as the couple who inspired “The Conjuring.” Seeing them in church used to frighten me! Years later, I saw the woman at library event, and I wondered what it would be like if Sylvie’s parents dealt with the paranormal too.
GF: Do you believe in the supernatural?
JS:In Help For the Haunted, Sylvie says, “I do and I don’t believe.” Her mix of feelings is like my own. Logically, I know better, but then life serves up something unexplainable and I can’t help but believe again.
GF: How do you think you’ve grown as a writer over the course of your career?
JS:I’ve always tried to take risks with my writing, but in Help for the Haunted, I took more: writing from a girl’s perspective, combining a murder mystery with a coming of age tale, playing with time and the supernatural. I used to ask my editor, “Is this story too weird?” Thankfully, she always told me to keep going.
GF: Did you begin Help for the Haunted knowing what was going to happen?
JS: All I had was the voice of a girl left in the care of her tough older sister. The rest came in pieces. The old Tudor where the family lives was inspired by an old Tudor where I stayed at Yaddo. The sisters’ job doing surveys was one I had in high school. The doll came when I discovered Raggedy Ann dolls in my mother’s attic. I forgot she once made them until they were staring me in the face—and scaring me!— once more.
GF: Lots of writers have quirky writing habits. What are yours?
JS: Lying on the floor and staring at the ceiling. Push-ups. Runs. Baths. When I go into a writing jag, I don’t change my clothes, shower or shave. While revising Help for the Haunted, I took a break and stumbled into a restaurant. All of New York City and who sits down next to me, but Jay McInerney. He looked at me with my greasy bedhead and rumpled clothes, and I swear he was about to say, “The soup kitchen is down the street.”
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, September 2013: Late one snowy night, Sylvie Mason hears her parents talking on the phone. A little later, they drive with Sylvie to a church, where--as Sylvie sleeps in the car--they are murdered in the church’s basement. The question of who killed Sylvie’s parents is only the first of many mysteries that unfold in John Searles’ Help for the Haunted, an expertly-wrought, coming-of-age story with a healthy dose of creepiness. Searles takes his time introducing us to his characters--Sylvie, her older sister Rose, their demonologist parents, and a handful of suspects--but in a very calibrated way, he doles out chills and family secrets that heighten the tension with each turn of the page. The chills deliver, but the depth of the story is what really sets this book apart. Your parents are never gone from you… Sylvie remembers her father saying. And for some, that’s just another way of being haunted. --Chris Schluep
From Booklist
*Starred Review* The Masons were demonologists who advertised their services as help for the haunted. But the one who is truly haunted in Searles’ third novel (following Strange but True, 2004) is their 14-year-old daughter, Sylvie, who witnessed her parents’ murders in a church on a bitterly cold evening. Now, a year later, as the case is coming up for trial, she is under pressure from the police because the troubled client she ID’d as her parents’ killer has produced an airtight alibi. Bullied at school and ignored by her older sister, who is now her legal guardian, supersmart, intrepid Sylvie is determined to figure out just what happened on that fateful night, and her search leads to some very surprising answers. Searles expertly manages his cleverly conceived plotline as he alternately withholds and doles out key information in tantalizing fashion. Amid the fascinating cast of characters, including her ne’er-do-well uncle, a kindhearted school counselor, and the specter of her supportive mother, is the unforgettable Sylvie. Somewhat geeky and blind to her own family’s dynamics, Sylvie manages to figure out the hows and whys behind the catastrophic event that changed her life forever. Superlative storytelling. --Joanne Wilkinson
Most helpful customer reviews
86 of 92 people found the following review helpful.
A waste of my time
By D. O'Brien
I'm obviously in the minority as far as reviews of this book, but I guess "to each his own". This was one of those rare books that I can't wait to finish just to be done with it. I can't stop a book in the middle because I don't like it; I always have to finish it regardless, but I got very close to closing this one midway. The character of Sylvie is interesting and well developed, but nearly every other character seems forced or shallow, leaving questions hanging overhead, hoping for more depth. I found myself eagerly waiting for something to happen, for some action, for something interesting to push the story along. But it never came. The author holds a couple carrots in front of the reader - the doll, the "possessed" items, among others - but doesn't allow them to reach their full potential.
To be clear, this is not a book about demonology or the occult nor is it remotely chilling. It's a coming of age story about a girl dealing with a very unusual home life and family, and her observations about the world around her. That alone would be a sweet story, but when the author leads you down a road of potential frights and doesn't deliver, it's just plain disappointing. Then there are aspects that don't make sense, like Abigail and the doll. Why were they even in the book? They show up and hang around for a while, then it's as if the author decided he was bored with them and pushes them to the back burner.
The worst part of all is the ending. Not to give it away but the resolution was a cop-out and a rip off. Why introduce a handful of characters if you're going to completely change course at the very end? Ugh.
I wish I could get my money back for this one. There were actually pages that I sped through because I wanted to be done with the book, and trust me when I say I guarantee I didn't miss anything.
If you are truly interested in this book I'd suggest finding it in the library when it's available and to not spend money on it.
75 of 87 people found the following review helpful.
Elegant, Touching, Transporting
By dizzyweasel
John Searles' new novel is one of those rare books that envelops, absorbs, and encompasses you completely. From the very first chapter I was completely drawn into the world Searles created: it's 1989, and Sylvie and Rose Mason are the daughters of religious ghost hunters. Very late one winter's night the Masons are called to the town church to meet Rose, who has run off again. Sylvie waits in the car, until a terrible noise urges her inside. Rose isn't there, but a murdered is. Another shot rings out, and Sylvie awakens at the hospital with tinnitus, an orphan. Released into the care of her angry, wild older sister (who has finally turned up), Sylvie must try to come to terms with her new life, her estranged relationship with Rose, the mockery of the town for her parents' questionable livelihood, and all that she never really knew about her parents.
The synopsis and blurbs from other authors suggest that this will be a scary haunted house tale or riveting thriller. These statements are somewhat misleading. There is certainly an undercurrent of menace running through the novel. The Masons are involved in very mysterious activities, giving lectures on spirit activity and meeting with supposedly haunted people. They're loosely based on Ed and Lorraine Warren, ghost hunters involved in many supernatural investigations throughout the 70s and 80s. The occult museum in the basement and haunted doll locked in a case are borrowed from the Warrens. The gothic elements of the story add a spooky tone throughout, but this is where the `ghost story' plotline ends. The real plot is Sylvie's journey: her sister has little to do with her, the police are pressuring her to swear under oath about who she saw in the church that night, she's mocked by the town kids because her parents `were weird', her only other living relative is AWOL, and she has several strange encounters that make her question her parents, their work, and the family relationship she thought they had. A brilliant overachiever, the good daughter, the responsible kid, Sylvie embarks on a journey to learn the truth about her parents' career and their death.
Suspense is created by the complex construction of Searles' narrative. Sylvie's memories are interspersed with present day happenings, but Sylvie's memories are not chronological and are often muddled. The reader is encouraged to try to piece together the narrative timeline and work out seemingly unconnected occurrences. Sylvie, as much as she wants to better understand her parents and the events leading up to their death, is also afraid to learn the truth and shatter her illusions about her family. She will start and then stop parts of her investigation, leaving the reader wanting more information or clarification.
We feel very tenderly for Sylvie--her childhood was tough, she was under a lot of pressure to be the opposite of her sister, her mother's time and effort were often taken away from her by all of the people in the Masons' lives coming for help. Sylvie had to be selfless. She had to be good. She was taught to respect her parents and not ask questions. Her very investigation seems to Sylvie like a betrayal of her parents, even if it's in pursuit of their murderer. Though sometimes unrealistically precocious, Sylvie is likeable, vulnerable, and wise beyond her years.
A word on Searles' prose style. As I said above, I was completely lost in this book. Searles has the rare gift of utterly disappearing from his text, and this is a wonderful thing. Some authors are intrusive: they insert themselves into the text, make asides, make their politics known, etc. Searles deftly constructs a narrative that unfolds seemingly by itself, without authorial guidance. Instead of employing hackneyed metaphors and similes, Searles uses such moments to insert anecdotes about Sylvie's life. Rather than saying, "Sylvie's heart beat quickly" he tells the story of Knothead, the bunny Sylvie's sister Rose had as child, fed carrots and living out in the backyard, wanted by Rose and then forgotten. It had a tiny, frenzied heart that went tic-tic-tic. Sylvie's heart beat like that. In this way Searles beautifully and unobtrusively builds up the characterization of his players and provides their backgrounds. I felt like I knew these people, I had become so wrapped up in their lives. The ending was so poignant that I wept.
At the heart of fantastical (the murders, the hauntings) is a troubled family, which can sometimes be the most frightening thing of all. How well do we know our mothers, fathers, sisters? Would we still love them if we truly knew them? These are the questions Searles poses with subtlety. Help For the Haunted is a beautiful , transporting novel, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
"Each of us is born into this life with a light inside of us..."
By Denise Crawford
Sylvie Mason is a bright eighth grader living with her parents and sister in the tiny town of Dundalk, Maryland. They are anything but a normal family, however, as Mr. and Mrs. Mason have quite the unusual line of work -- they help the "haunted" -- souls in need of prayer or something to guide them to peace. Calls often come in the middle of the night -- and Sylvie's parents put on their "costumes" and head out to meet a desperate someone or prepare their basement to receive a guest in need of further intervention. On the night Sylvie hears this particular call, she doesn't realize that her life will change forever and she will be come embroiled in the mystery of discovering what happened to her parents on that fateful winter night. Older sister Rose who has become the legal guardian to Sylvie is abusive and self-centered. Rose and her parents had fought hard and often, and Sylvie senses that Rose has no compulsion to seek answers to how their parents came to be found shot dead in that cold church. Sylvie has a bit of hearing loss as she witnessed the shooting but her memory is faulty and she backtracks to relive the moments that brought them all to the fateful night.
What great characters in this book! I really felt for orphaned Sylvie and detested Rose. Others were not always what they seemed at first exposure. We come to the truth slowly as the narrative is told in the first person by Sylvie and shifts back and forth in time revealing tidbits and teasers. The atmosphere is slightly Gothic and there are shivers and chills when certain pieces of information come to light.
I thoroughly enjoyed the writing and think this book will really appeal to teen and young adult readers as well. The only part of the book that fell a notch short was the conclusion; I was a bit disappointed in the whodunit. Despite that, I was quite satisfied with this and I'll be recommending it!
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