It’s filled with clocks, so that the housekeeper knows exactly when to start turning on the lights, and the occupants never have to be in dark or even dim light before they go to sleep. It’s designed so that the bright side captures and reflects all the available sunlight, from dawn until the very last moment of the sunset. Hyperion House is not just a well-lit house with big windows.

The house itself is interesting, and I particularly like the way the author entwines setting, plot and character. It moves very slowly and takes a while to build up any kind of tension or intrigue, but when Callie finally starts exploring those dark rooms, it’s incredibly creepy. But the fear of an unseen presence, in the darkness, at home, is something primal that just comes to me naturally (I’m sure everyone thinks about it at some point), so a story about ghosts in mysterious locked rooms is pretty likely to keep me up at night.Īnd this is one of the things that I thought the novel did well. Bizarre science experiments can offer great ideas, but it’s a bit remote for someone who doesn’t work in that field. Zombies might be interesting, but I don’t seriously expect to see one. When it comes to horror, the stories I find most disturbing are the ones that cut closest to the bone. At first Callie only catches glimpses of these ghosts, but they become increasingly malevolent, and she’s convinced that what they want is to escape and take over the happy lives of the people living in the light. Her fear might not be unfounded – there seem to be ghostly people living in the back of the house, caged in the darkness. However, the dark rooms at the back awaken her nyctophobia – fear of the dark – and exploring them fills her with dread. With no job and no obligations except looking after her husband’s young daughter, Bobbie, Callie decides to investigate the mysteries of the house and write a book about it. The house is isolated from the nearest village but comes with a gardener and housekeeper who have worked there for their entire lives. It’s a fascinating, unique piece of architecture – built into a cliff, most of the house is designed to be flooded with sunlight, while the smaller section within the cliff is left in total darkness. With no reason to want to stay in London, she’s happy to Andalusian Spain as he has longed to do, and is even more excited when she finds Hyperion House. Source: eARC from the publisher via NetGalleyĬallie, an unemployed London architect, has just escaped her troubled life and infuriatingly critical mother by marrying a charming, wealthy Spaniard.

Nyctophobia by Christopher Fowler