Epeolatry Book Review: The Possession of Natalie Glasgow by Hailey Piper
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Title: The Possession of Natalie Glasgow
Author: Hailey Piper
Genre: Horror
Publisher: indie
Release Date: 2nd September, 2019
Synopsis: Margaret Willow has never met an eleven-year-old as dangerous as Natalie Glasgow. Natalie spends her days comatose, but at night she prowls her mother’s home, unnaturally strong and insatiably carnivorous. With doctors baffled, Natalie’s mother reaches out to Margaret, an expert in the supernatural. But even Margaret is mystified and terrified by Natalie’s condition. She’s dying, and before she dies, she might kill someone. Has a demon clawed its way inside an eleven-year-old girl? Or does the source of this nightmare lie with Natalie’s dead father?
A tight, tense novella, The Possession of Natalie Glasgow twists the exorcism tale at every turn down to its final grave confrontation.
Possession stories have been huge in the horror genre, especially ever since Blatty’s The Exorcist novel and movie adaptation slammed into popular culture. We have many variations of Blatty’s story, but they are just that, only variations. But, on occasion we get something fresh. Standouts for me would be Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts or Sara Gran’s Come Closer. And now there is Hailey Piper’s The Possession of Natalie Glasgow.
Piper deals with themes of responsibility and family sins as she explores the consequences that Natalie’s father left behind for those still alive. The story is fairly short, so there isn’t a lot of space for character development, but this is not a weakness. Piper makes use of every page and paragraph of this compact story.
Piper has won the Bram Stoker for Queen of Teeth and published a handful of other titles. They are a rising star in the horror genre, and it’s worth checking out their earlier published work as you follow their career.
/5
Available from Amazon.
