Sprawled across the wall of my history classroom back in secondary school, in letters standing at least two inches high, was that famous George Santayana quote: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This book has a similar message and puts it across even more strongly, perhaps in letters three inches tall that sparkle slightly in the sun.

Actually that may be oversimplifying things.

The Drowning Pool is the debut novel of Syd Moore. The slightly cringeworthy blurb on the back of the promotional copy I won from Goodreads assures me that the book "will delight fans of modern horror fiction such as S. J. Bolton." Alas, I'm not S. J. Bolton, but I did enjoy the book.

The story is loosely based on the real life story of an Essexian sea-witch, called Sarah Grey in the book, though this is a kind of anti-nom de plume for the actual figure whose name was Sarah Moore. A change enforced by a publisher presumably worried that the reader might get discombobulated if both the author and central character shared a surname. In the book, the ghost of Sarah Grey haunts her present day namesake for the same reason ghosts always haunt people: to devour their soul. No, wait, I mean to right some past wrong and find eternal rest. Sorry.

Sarah Grey (the ghost) deciding to haunt Sarah Grey (the widow with a young son and a drinking problem) is not just coincidence though. We learn of the ghost's life through various flashbacks, old journal entries, and letters, which brings us to the aforementioned theme: that of history repeating itself. This theme is gently alluded to early in the story, eyebrow-wagglingly hinted at by the mid-way point, and repeatedly used to slap the reader upside the head with by the story's slightly rushed climax. Indeed, this slight overdoing of The Book's Message and the pacing of the book are the only two issues I had with an otherwise fun and occasionally spooky read.

Pacing is always tricky in horror books. Horror films can easily get away with building tension for two hours before some pants-threateningly scary shenanigans precisely because the viewer is forced to sit there for the two hours becoming increasingly on edge. This is much harder to pull off in print, partly because even a really good, short book will take a few hours more than your average film to get through, and maintaining tension not just while reading the book but between readings becomes necessary. Not an easy task. This book sidesteps the issue somewhat by not being a full on ghost story, it's as much about historical detective-work as ghosts, and even develops a romance subplot towards the end. However, aside from some spookiness early on, all of these things only seem to get going late in the story. Once the story gets going it's pretty riveting, but boy does it take its time.

Overall then, I liked the book. (Three stars on Goodreads, after all, means "I liked it", despite some people seeming to think that anything worth reading to the end is worth five stars.) The snippet included from Syd Moore's next novel promises more Essex-based spookiness with a dipsomanic heroine. If it's as good as this book I dare say I'll be giving it a read. ( )

Sprawled across the wall of my history classroom back in secondary school, in letters standing at least two inches high, was that famous George Santayana quote: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This book has a similar message and puts it across even more strongly, perhaps in letters three inches tall that sparkle slightly in the sun.

Actually that may be oversimplifying things.

The Drowning Pool is the debut novel of Syd Moore. The slightly cringeworthy blurb on the back of the promotional copy I won from Goodreads assures me that the book "will delight fans of modern horror fiction such as S. J. Bolton." Alas, I'm not S. J. Bolton, but I did enjoy the book.

The story is loosely based on the real life story of an Essexian sea-witch, called Sarah Grey in the book, though this is a kind of anti-nom de plume for the actual figure whose name was Sarah Moore. A change enforced by a publisher presumably worried that the reader might get discombobulated if both the author and central character shared a surname. In the book, the ghost of Sarah Grey haunts her present day namesake for the same reason ghosts always haunt people: to devour their soul. No, wait, I mean to right some past wrong and find eternal rest. Sorry.

Sarah Grey (the ghost) deciding to haunt Sarah Grey (the widow with a young son and a drinking problem) is not just coincidence though. We learn of the ghost's life through various flashbacks, old journal entries, and letters, which brings us to the aforementioned theme: that of history repeating itself. This theme is gently alluded to early in the story, eyebrow-wagglingly hinted at by the mid-way point, and repeatedly used to slap the reader upside the head with by the story's slightly rushed climax. Indeed, this slight overdoing of The Book's Message and the pacing of the book are the only two issues I had with an otherwise fun and occasionally spooky read.

Pacing is always tricky in horror books. Horror films can easily get away with building tension for two hours before some pants-threateningly scary shenanigans precisely because the viewer is forced to sit there for the two hours becoming increasingly on edge. This is much harder to pull off in print, partly because even a really good, short book will take a few hours more than your average film to get through, and maintaining tension not just while reading the book but between readings becomes necessary. Not an easy task. This book sidesteps the issue somewhat by not being a full on ghost story, it's as much about historical detective-work as ghosts, and even develops a romance subplot towards the end. However, aside from some spookiness early on, all of these things only seem to get going late in the story. Once the story gets going it's pretty riveting, but boy does it take its time.

Overall then, I liked the book. (Three stars on Goodreads, after all, means "I liked it", despite some people seeming to think that anything worth reading to the end is worth five stars.) The snippet included from Syd Moore's next novel promises more Essex-based spookiness with a dipsomanic heroine. If it's as good as this book I dare say I'll be giving it a read. ( )

Modern day, widowed Sarah Grey and her young son Alfie move to Leigh to rebuild their lives. 19th century in Leigh and another Sarah Grey is known as a witch.

This is a ghost story that I have to say has been told many times but with different scenarios. In this tale Sarah Grey has visions, dreams and ghostly sightings of the past Sarah Grey. So to lay her soul to rest she has to uncover her story.

For me I would have enjoyed the story more had it have been told from the point of view of the two Sarahs. The present Sarah narrates the story, and past Sarah is presented from the visions, dreams and trances of present Sarah. I liked the narrative of Sarah and found her quite chatty but did find her grabbing the bottle quite a lot to say she had a young child.

The reasons why at the end of the book for me was so so. I would have preferred for the perp to have been someone else to give the story that darker edge to it and a better twist. I also would've liked to have seen more of the witchcraft side in the story being as past Sarah was accused of being a witch and based on the true Sarah Moore, Sea witch of Leigh.

Overall an ok read that did pass an afternoon, but needed a little darker edge to it. ( )

A very enjoyable, atmospheric, and at times, downright chills-down-your-spine scary novel. The ghostly supernatural doings were believable and very nicely done. Syd Moore is a name to watch in the quiet horror realm. ( )

Please don't read this book! I spent a week dreading every moment of trying to read it. It's so repetition and boring and slow. The guardian states it's
'a stunning reinvention of the ghost story'. Well there is nothing remotely stunning about it. Predictable, not scary, no loveable characters. Just pants! ( )