A haunting short story about a young girl named Iris Villiers, who lives with her twin brothers and disturbed mother and grandfather in an isolated, bleak old mansion, Belerion Hall. Old Man Marsh warns Iris that dark forces stir within the mansion's tomb and that they are best left alone. After tragedy strikes, Iris ignores these warnings and delves into forbidden rituals in efforts to reverse the loss which has occurred. A dark but predictable Victorian novella, with nice pen drawings. ( )

At once I was sucked into this tale for it's light atmospheric effects and it's heavy, though lightly painted, themes of myth and classic horror tales rolled into a singly well-drawn story.

Classic horror themes abound, of always paying the dead their price, tying the Osiris/Isis story to old Irish legends, only to be tied to the christian by the end.

It's perfectly reasonable to tie christian characters back to a christian moral, of course, and the images and the feelings of awe and its reverse were quite delightful. I was reminded of what could have been a truly classic ghost story with risen zombies and resurrections all placed nearly a century ago more than a modern tale of horror. The time and place lends itself fine for that interpretation, with daddy going off to fight in a world war to leave the children and mother behind. Alas, not a problem. It's classically written, classically told, with a deft touch with all the myths bursting out from every page.

It's also scary, and delightfully so, with particularly good characters filled with complex psychologies and loss.

It was a great setup and even though I am fine with the christian interpretation, I find myself wistful and rather having wished for an actual Isis/Osiris theme to come home to roost. But still, I find no faults with how it actually turned out, because it was very effective.
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Beautifully written supernatural tale. Douglas Clegg has been one of my favourite authors for some time and this novella cements that position. A quick but wonderful read. ( )

I am uncertain as to why this book was offered on its own rather than as part of a short story collection. The illustrations were very good (sort of a Dore/Gorey combination), but the story itself wasn't terribly compelling, and felt incomplete. If it were to be offered as a stand-alone book there were many pieces that should have been expanded (the brothers, the nanny, the father, the mother--clues and inferences, but no completion). ( )

The novella concerns a young girl living in a manor in England with her family. After a horrible tragedy, the young girl tries to call up the forces of the dead to solve her life, and to see a loved one again. As the book says numerous times 'death has a price', and she finds out deaths price in a fairly gruesome way.

It was marked as a suspense, though to be honest I didn't find it all that scary. A younger audience would probably be more frightened by the cautionary tale.

Regardless, I thought it was a really interesting little story. It was imaginative and there were some great supernatural elements. As I said, I didn't find the book to be scary, however it was thoroughly entertaining. It was also beautifully illustrated throughout. The whole novella was actually quite visually beautiful.

So, while a younger audience might be frightened by the story, I think an older audience would appreciate this novella as an unusual fairy tale about consequences and death. I absolutely recommend this novella. ( )