Julian's House

by Judith Hawkes

Book Overview

Already compared to Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, and Stephen King, first novelist Judith Hawkes' Julian's House features a haunted house--but is no ordinary ghost story. Newly wed parapsychologists David and Sally are not afraid to move into a haunted house, until they find that there is no safe place in the house--especially not in each other's arms.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0899199062
• ISBN13: 9780899199061
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Ticknor & Fields
• Length: 354 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Elegant supernatural thriller

A husband and wife team of parapsychologists spend the summer in a haunted house in hopes of recording supernatural phenomenon. Hawkes uses evocative language and intricate character developement to make this simple premise come to life. Replete with eerie lights, sceances, and apparitions, this book is probably the best ghost story since "The Shining." Recommended for fans of Shirley Jackson and Barbara Michaels

Developed characters and the science of the paranormal

I enjoyed reading this book because it was interesting to read the scientific theories around parapsychology. Additionally, the characters were well developed and quite human, and the story was interesting. Its best ghost story I have read since House of Echoes by Erskine.

A very good ghost story

I suspect the reviewers who didn't rate this highly prefer their scary stories in the gory tradition with more obvious shocks. Julian's House is more suble than that, and ultimately, far scarier. You learn more about the inner lives of the characters than in most shock novels. If that is not your cup of tea then you may not like this one, but it is indeed a scary book.

A terrific book, in a great tradition

I'll go out on a limb and say that this is the best book of its type since Henry James's The Turn of the Screw. That is, it's an excellent literary novel as well as a genuinely terrifying ghost story. Hawkes's account of the professional and erotic tensions in a young marriage would be worth reading even if it didn't have ghosts in it. But the supernatural elements don't just spice up the story; they're an integral part of it. The ghosts feed off the human tension in the book, and vice versa. It's a beautifully constructed book, too, one of the rare, successful novel-length ghost stories. The only book that comes close is Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and this is better.

Absolutely stunning.

I am a reader with a lifetime passion for ghost stories, and Julian's House is one of my all-time favorites.This one is not to be missed.Sally and David Curtiss, a young married couple with some unresolved issues between them, lease the house of the title to conduct psychical research. While both are scientists, Sally herself is also psychic; David suspects that she senses something in the house despite the failure of their equipment to record anything tangible. Deep down, he is envious of her ability and wishes desperately to share in the experience of a true haunting.The narrative shifts seamlessly between viewpoints, and as the mystery of the house's tragic past unfolds we are not sure whose perspective is accurate. The house itself is almost another character - Hawkes weaves the language like a master and creates a place that resonates with past events; an incredibly evocative setting that almost lives and breathes.The conclusion of the story is intensely satisfying - by then, we know what happened to poor Julian all those years ago. What we do not know is precisely what took place today, in the present. That is Hawkes' genius: the elusive quality of what David and Sally experience in that house is echoed by what the reader is experiencing. The book's impact of quiet terror hits on some deep, almost subliminal level, after having stolen up behind you some time before so that you're not quite sure why you are so afraid.This, of course, is the very nature of a haunting. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.