Influence

Rating:
Summary: One of the finest and most chilling modern ghost stories
Review: THE INFLUENCE is perhaps the best demonstration yet of Campbell's skills as a novelist. Like INCARNATE and THE NAMELESS before it, this book sees Campbell writing at the peak of his abilities both as a sensitive chronicler of ordinary lives threatened by unpredictable forces, and as a literary conjuror of spine-chilling spectral terrors. In addition, this may be Campbell's most understatedly eerie novel since THE DOLL WHO ATE HIS MOTHER; but even so, some particularly frightening scenes and images in the latter half of the book may well be among the scariest that Campbell--or any horror writer, for that matter--has committed to paper within the last fifteen years at least.

Offering a haunting perspective on death and dying and a unique, skewed vision of what may lie beyond that proves both chilling and chillingly plausible, THE INFLUENCE is ultimately an intelligent, moving, terrifying meditation on loss, regret, and our need to come to grips with our own mortality--the result being arguably Campbell's most perfect novel so far.

Rating:
Summary: One of the finest and most chilling modern ghost stories
Review: While The Influence is by no means a bad read, it certainly does not represent Ramsey Campbell at his best. An old matriarch named Queenie has managed to summon her family around her in her dying days, exhibiting a conspicuous amount of attention to her great-niece, whom she summons just before she dies. As her family settles down in the house for the next few months, young Rowan begins to change, becoming more and more like the late Queenie herself. Queenie had always had a terrifying influence on the family, particularly upon her nieces Hermione and Alison, Rowan's mother, once scaring Hermione so badly with a vision of death that the girl had to spend some time in hospital. After Queenie's death, an acquaintance of the family supposedly kills himself after having tried to contact Alison about "the child." Rowan also finds a new playmate named Vicki whom no one but Hermione ever actually sees. She, unlike her sister, is deeply suspicious of Queenie's motives even after death, knowing the old lady all but swore she would never really die, but everyone else thinks of her as just a little too unstrung by events. Naturally, Rowan continues to take on more of Queenie's ways, eventually coming home a changed little girl after a traumatic night with her Aunt Hermione. The story takes something of a weird turn here, one which ends up slightly problematic in my eyes. The events of the last several chapters are thrown together a little haphazardly, with Campbell conveniently avoiding several thorny issues that I believe he really needed to elaborate upon. The actual shift in focus is handled quite well, revealing itself rather surprisingly to me, but the novel's momentum increasingly falters at the very times it should be heating up. Another plot device I didn't particularly embrace was the author's tendency to shift back and forth in time between characters; something would happen to one character in one chapter, then the next chapter would shift backwards and walk the reader up to the same established point through the eyes of another player in the events; this isn't necessarily a bad technique, but I found it a little awkwardly done at times.

The Influence has plenty of potential to interest and even please the potential reader, but it doesn't seem the type of novel one might find exhilarating; I basically watched events unfolding without ever finding myself really sucked into the drama. Ramsey Campbell fans will surely want to read this novel, but there are several more impressive Campbell novels better suited for those wanting to try Campbell for the first time.

Rating:
Summary: A decent read that is far from Campbell's best
Review: While The Influence is by no means a bad read, it certainly does not represent Ramsey Campbell at his best. An old matriarch named Queenie has managed to summon her family around her in her dying days, exhibiting a conspicuous amount of attention to her great-niece, whom she summons just before she dies. As her family settles down in the house for the next few months, young Rowan begins to change, becoming more and more like the late Queenie herself. Queenie had always had a terrifying influence on the family, particularly upon her nieces Hermione and Alison, Rowan's mother, once scaring Hermione so badly with a vision of death that the girl had to spend some time in hospital. After Queenie's death, an acquaintance of the family supposedly kills himself after having tried to contact Alison about "the child." Rowan also finds a new playmate named Vicki whom no one but Hermione ever actually sees. She, unlike her sister, is deeply suspicious of Queenie's motives even after death, knowing the old lady all but swore she would never really die, but everyone else thinks of her as just a little too unstrung by events. Naturally, Rowan continues to take on more of Queenie's ways, eventually coming home a changed little girl after a traumatic night with her Aunt Hermione. The story takes something of a weird turn here, one which ends up slightly problematic in my eyes. The events of the last several chapters are thrown together a little haphazardly, with Campbell conveniently avoiding several thorny issues that I believe he really needed to elaborate upon. The actual shift in focus is handled quite well, revealing itself rather surprisingly to me, but the novel's momentum increasingly falters at the very times it should be heating up. Another plot device I didn't particularly embrace was the author's tendency to shift back and forth in time between characters; something would happen to one character in one chapter, then the next chapter would shift backwards and walk the reader up to the same established point through the eyes of another player in the events; this isn't necessarily a bad technique, but I found it a little awkwardly done at times.

The Influence has plenty of potential to interest and even please the potential reader, but it doesn't seem the type of novel one might find exhilarating; I basically watched events unfolding without ever finding myself really sucked into the drama. Ramsey Campbell fans will surely want to read this novel, but there are several more impressive Campbell novels better suited for those wanting to try Campbell for the first time.