Synopsis
House of Small Shadows is the disturbing novel about a modern phobia – the fear of dolls and puppets – from award-winning horror author Adam Nevill.
The Red House: home to the damaged genius of the late M. H. Mason, master taxidermist and puppeteer, where he lived and created some of his most disturbing works. The building and its treasure trove of antiques is long forgotten, but the time has come for his creations to rise from the darkness.
Catherine Howard can't believe her luck when she's invited to value the contents of the house. When she first sees the elaborate displays of posed, costumed and preserved animals and macabre puppets, she's both thrilled and terrified. It's an opportunity to die for.
But the Red House has secrets, secrets as dreadful and dark as those from Catherine's own past. At night the building comes alive with noises and movements: footsteps, and the fleeting glimpses of small shadows on the stairs. And soon the barriers between reality, sanity and nightmare begin to collapse . . .
'Adam Nevill is a fantastic storyteller, a master of slow-building tension, and he's written a fever dream of a book. House of Small Shadows is chilling, disorienting, and deeply creepy.' – Scott Smith, author of The Ruins
Details
10 October 2013
9780330544245Reviews
As a ritual exercise in entrapment, both in the past and the present, a kind of hymn to how all our histories - vast and petty - constrain us, House of Small Shadows is often nothing short of mesmerising.Jeff VanderMeer, The Guardian
In House of Small Shadows, Adam Nevill explores a primal modern phobia - the fear of dolls and puppets - and spirals off into an exploration of a long-forgotten English folk tradition that is eminently believable at the same time as it is horrifying. A wonderfully creepy and disturbing novel.The Independent
Adam Nevill is a fantastic storyteller, a master of slow-building tension, and he's written a fever dream of a book. House of Small Shadows is chilling, disorienting, and deeply creepy. It has the feel of a cult classic, something horror fans will still be reading with immense delight fifty years from now.Scott Smith, New York Times Bestselling author of The Ruins
Modern storytelling...and old school terror. Very scary, highly recommended.Jonathan Maberry, NYT bestselling author
