Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: Haunted by the Past
AUTHOR: Pelaam
PUBLISHER: Breathless Press
LENGTH: 44 Pages
BLURB:
Jared didn’t believe in ghosts or love, until he moved into his new house and found both.
Finding a house that suits him, Jared makes the move to reclaim his independence. However, he doesn’t expect to find himself both attracted to and concerned for the almost-reclusive gardener, Evander.
Jared believes Evander is hiding an eating disorder. But the appearance of old photographs and love letters in the house cause him to wonder about the stoic man. As their friendship becomes more, he wants to help and uncover the secrets he knows Evander is hiding. Each of them are haunted by something, and it’s not the house.
When a ghost from Jared’s past appears, they must fight for their own happiness, even if it means exposing themselves and the truth.
REVIEW:
There isn’t a lot I can say about this story without doing spoilers, since there is an awful lot mentioned in the blurb above. I like the story, it was an interesting fast morning read this morning.
There was one thing that I didn’t really understand in this short story though. When it first said that Jared isn’t allowed to go into the Mausoleum or the basement of the large Victorian house he is renting, I was like “huh?” where would you find a Mausoleum in the backyard of a house? Maybe on a large private estate, but the locale didn’t match that description. Then the Mausoleum isn’t really mentioned much in the rest of the story until near the end. It seemed like an unnecessary component in the book which either needed more explaining or deletion completely. I understand from the end of the book why it was there, but it still left me confused and detracted from the story.
I looked past that though and just focused on the story itself. As usual, the author writes well. The conversations flow well and the story flowed well. Personally, I would really have liked a lot more detail. I think the author does herself an injustice by writing novellas of this length. I finished reading it and was kind of like “I liked it, but would have loved it if there were just more…..”
As I said above, there isn’t much else I can say without doing major spoilers. If you’re looking for a fairly quick read on a quiet afternoon, this story would work for you.
RATING: 
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