Blair's Reviews > Cottingley
Cottingley
by
by
Blair's review
bookshelves: historical, ghosts-and-horror, 2017-release, read-on-kindle
Oct 16, 2018
bookshelves: historical, ghosts-and-horror, 2017-release, read-on-kindle
The cover belies the contents of Cottingley: this is a historical novella which depicts a slow slide into horror, not the lurid gore-fest you might expect if you spend too long looking at that skeleton-fairy-thing.
The plot is based on the real (well, 'real') story of the Cottingley Fairies. We see only one side of the correspondence between Lawrence Fairclough, who has recently settled in the village with his daughter-in-law and granddaughter, and Edward Gardner, a member of the Theosophical Society and friend of Arthur Conan Doyle. Fairclough has had his own experiences with the local fairies, and is eager to give his account to the men who made the Cottingley photographs famous. But as Fairclough and his family attempt to make further contact with the strange beings, they begin to see a darker side.
Cottingley is compelling partly because of Fairclough's naivety. He's reluctant to accept the true nature of the fairies and slow to realise that perhaps Gardner doesn't truly intend to introduce him to Conan Doyle. Being one step ahead of the narrator makes the epistolary format more satisfying than it might otherwise be. Ultimately, our view is confined to what Fairclough tells us: his account could of course be unreliable. There could always be a rational explanation. But it's hard to convince yourself of that when the creeping horror of Cottingley is so effectively unsettling.
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The plot is based on the real (well, 'real') story of the Cottingley Fairies. We see only one side of the correspondence between Lawrence Fairclough, who has recently settled in the village with his daughter-in-law and granddaughter, and Edward Gardner, a member of the Theosophical Society and friend of Arthur Conan Doyle. Fairclough has had his own experiences with the local fairies, and is eager to give his account to the men who made the Cottingley photographs famous. But as Fairclough and his family attempt to make further contact with the strange beings, they begin to see a darker side.
Cottingley is compelling partly because of Fairclough's naivety. He's reluctant to accept the true nature of the fairies and slow to realise that perhaps Gardner doesn't truly intend to introduce him to Conan Doyle. Being one step ahead of the narrator makes the epistolary format more satisfying than it might otherwise be. Ultimately, our view is confined to what Fairclough tells us: his account could of course be unreliable. There could always be a rational explanation. But it's hard to convince yourself of that when the creeping horror of Cottingley is so effectively unsettling.
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Reading Progress
October 13, 2018
– Shelved
October 15, 2018
–
Started Reading
October 15, 2018
–
Finished Reading