Epeolatry Book Review: Shadow Manor by Candace Nola
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Title: Shadow Manor
Author: Candace Nola
Genre: Gothic horror/Ghost Story
Publisher: Uncomfortably Dark Horror
Publication Date: 15th June, 2024
Synopsis: A stranded young woman seeking shelter from a violent storm discovers a journal written by the former lady of the manor. As the storm rages around her, something more than shadows shakes the girl to her core.
Will she be able to solve the mystery of the manor before time runs out?
A gothic work is often defined by the atmosphere created in its pages. It has to be dark, tense, and claustrophobic, and much of this is driven by the building or setting in which the story is placed. This is where I find Shadow Manor by Candace Nola differs. I finished it over a couple of days, although if I’d had the time, it would’ve been one. I put it aside and pondered the nature of the oppression delivered by her lines. And yes, the manor house is a major factor in that, but ultimately, it is the claustrophobia of grief, a heavyweight blanket of emotion which wraps itself around you and delivers the effect usually created by the setting alone.
In fact, much as I say the land is a character in its own right in folk horror, I would say that in this story, grief becomes an entity in itself as it walks alongside our protagonist, Sinclair. Whilst initially this emotion is generated by the ghost of the lady of the manor – betrayed and bereaved – it also emanates from Sinclair as she considers her own behaviour towards her mother in light of the words written in the diary she has discovered. The journey through the diary pages, the tasks set by the ghost for Sinclair to complete in order for her to find peace, become a form of catharsis for Sinclair too. Setting the past to rights, also resets Sinclair’s present with a re-evaluation of what truly matters. Despite the horrors described in the diary, Sinclair considers it all in context, the unbearable circumstances in which the lady committed her terrible deeds, and judges her with compassion and understanding.
And because Sinclair’s fears gradually disappear, you would think that this book does not qualify as a horror, but you are wrong. The horror lies in the suffering of the lady of the manor, the mental trauma which triggered her actions, and the lack of understanding towards her during her own time. This is redemption horror, thoughtful and moving, and all the more enjoyable because of it.
/5
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Stephanie Ellis writes dark speculative prose and poetry and has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies. Her longer work includes the folk horror novels, The Five Turns of the Wheel, Reborn, and The Woodcutter, and the post-apocalyptic/horror/sci-fi The Barricade, and the novellas, Bottled and Paused. Her dark poetry has been published in her collections Lilith Rising (co-authored with Shane Douglas Keene), Foundlings (co-authored with Cindy O’Quinn) and Metallurgy, as well as the HWA Poetry Showcase Volumes VI, VII, VIII, and IX and Black Spot Books Under Her Skin. She can be found supporting indie authors at HorrorTree.com via the weekly Indie Bookshelf Releases. She can be found at https://stephanieellis.org and on Blue Sky as stephellis.bsky.social.
