Tim's Reviews > Episode Thirteen

In tonight’s thirteenth episode of Fade to Black, we will be investigating the Foundation House and its many mysteries. A group of scientists decided to combine the occult and modern science, forming something of a hippie commune to conduct their experiments. They all disappeared. Did they find what they were searching for or did something else find them? Our intrepid crew of paranormal investigators will spend seventy-two hours inside this house and what they find will shock you to your core. Stay tuned as we FADE TO BLACK.

Oh man, how do I even review this one? Fun little opening advertisement for the show aside, this is actually a tricky one for me to talk about as I devoured all 433 pages quickly having to know more, but found myself frustrated with it as well.

First off, let me compliment the author as he pulled off something quite tricky. This is a found footage horror novel. Yes, a sub-genre of horror that should be exclusively for film, and he pulled it off as a novel. It’s written in an epistolary fashion, using a lot of journal entries, emails and text messages, but also a good portion of it reads like a script, with descriptions of what is being shown as if we are reading a transcript of the episode. It all works and makes for a fast-paced and fun book.

The characters are also really well done. I believed every single one of them and the direction they go in. Using the journal entries from multiple characters we see how they see themselves and the others around them, so while one may see his or herself in a certain way, we don’t question a seemingly out of character action (from their point of view) because others show us another side of them. It makes for a wonderful character study and shows different ways people react to both fear and obsession.

Which brings me to the reason I can’t give it more than three stars even though I had a lot of fun with it. Frankly the ending hurts it for me. Not because of where each character ends up at the conclusion (all fitting) but because the very nature of the structure makes aspects feel unfinished. There are questions brought up about characters pasts that we can interpret in different ways, but because of the structure being only episode thirteen, we are given no clear answers. For some this will likely add to the allure, for me I found it unsatisfying (particularly in regard to the characters of Matt and Kevin in which they allude to some things pre-show which I would have like to see much more of).

I’m also not a big fan of the final nature of the haunting, but that likely will be something a lot of readers like. So, I can’t say it hurts the novel, just my personal enjoyment of it.

In closing: Is the book good? Yes. Do I recommend it to my fellow haunted house fans? Again, yes. Overall, it’s a very satisfactory novel and I can’t even say that my negatives will be something that bothers anyone else. Give it a shot... but for me it’s an enjoyable 3/5 stars.