1 out of 4 stars
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A Haunting From Beneath by Dennis A. Morris is, at its core, a haunted house story. The primary events take place in modern day, following one family’s move into a mansion on a remote property. As typical in ghost stories, strange and supernatural occurrences begin almost immediately upon their arrival, steadily building in intensity. One of the three children in the family, the teenage Shelby, appears to be the focus of a majority of the ghostly activity. As she begins to exhibit symptoms of something resembling possession, the plotline of the novel splits and a second parallel storyline is introduced. This second plot appears to the reader primarily through flashback-like dream sequences, telling the story of the previous inhabitants of the house, and throughout the course of the novel helps explain the strange events.
Because of the introduction of this second historical storyline, which dates back to the era of slavery in America, the novel branches out from being a simple ghost story and aims to teach and remind the reader of lessons learned from some of the darker seasons of history. This is a story of a family coming to terms with the truth about what took place on their property long before they were alive, and of the curse that follows the inhabitants of the house afterward. Each character in the novel is portrayed with his or her own distinct experience and viewpoint about the events that take place.
The story itself does not ever fully transition into a typical horror tale; at first the experiences of the family members are mysterious and creepy, then as more is uncovered about the causes behind the phenomena, the events are simply grim and almost sad. The ending is a typical “deus ex machina” situation, which is also somewhat cliché but not unexpected within the larger framework of the plot.
My main issue with this book was the writing style, which was seriously off-putting. This book needs some heavy editing and revision. It does not appear to have been proofread at all, as pretty much every single page contains multiple grammar and/or spelling mistakes. A spelling error literally appears within the first sentence of the book, and is followed by dozens more. The sentence structure is simplistic and repetitive, the descriptions are heavy handed, and there are many errors throughout (like missing or made-up words, names of characters switched around, improper use of pronouns, etc). The verb tenses are inconsistent, and the writer repeatedly inserts unnecessary ellipses mid-sentence. There are also many instances of improper use of punctuation and capitalization, incomplete sentences, and ungrammatical abbreviations. These errors in combination were so abundant and so distracting, that I believe even the most patient reader would have a hard time focusing on the plotline of the story.
Unfortunately, the main impression I was left with was that the author was careless in his execution, not taking the time to edit the story or even get a second opinion from someone who would have been honest about its current state. As I was reading, I wondered what it was that motivated the writer to complete this work, as it did not seem to me (given the number of errors) that writing is something that comes naturally to him. Perhaps the events within this book have some sort of personal significance to the author, but for other readers this is not a book that I would recommend spending time on. I have rated this book 1 out of 4 stars.
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A haunting from beneath
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