WILDWOOD ROAD

written by Christopher Golden

published by Bantam

ISBN-10: 055338208X

ISBN-13: 978-0553382082

 

reviewed by Adam Armstrong

07.12.2008

 

Nothing like a good old-fashion ghost story, without the old-fashion part.

Michael and Jillian Dansky have a wonderful life. They love each other deeply, have great careers that they enjoy, and have a house that they really want even if they can’t afford it entirely.  After a masquerade party, where Jillian drank way too much and Michael had more than he should, Michael falls asleep at the wheel.  He wakes in time to avert the car from smashing into a tree but almost runs down a little girl in the process.  Finding it odd that an eight-year-old girl is out alone in the middle of the night and wandering around the streets, Michael offers to take her home.  Only her home is a haunted house.  Michael lets loose an ancient horror that takes his loving wife from him and leaves him with an empty shell of a woman who is nothing but angry and bitter and he must find the pieces of the puzzle before his wife becomes something much worse than a psychopath.

Overall this wasn’t a bad novel.  A novel should be a story based off of many mysteries and this book accomplishes that.  The characterization was handled really well, but the novel falls short with some of the explanations.  There was a bit of repetitiveness and a few different ways that Golden could have gone with this story that I think would have worked a little better, but overall worth a look.

 

4 out of 5