An enjoyable suspenseful ghost story
4 out of 5 stars
This was my first book by Ambrose Ibsen, but I don’t think it’ll be my last. I’m really picky when it comes to horror since I love to hate horror books and movies. Most of the time they are way too scary and revolve around the all to familiar jump scare. Whispering Corridors was like a great suspense/thriller movie or book with a little bit of paranormal/ghost story thrown in.
Whispering Corridors revolves around Eric and Lydia who are unlikely college friends that decide to check out the house where the Upside Down Man is supposed to live. The house is old and full of stories. And all the stories revolve around disappearances that happen three days after the person or people have entered the house.
I’ll start off with what bothered me. Eric and Lydia seemed like very unlikely friends. If Ibsen had thrown in some kind of sexual tension or even just an “I used to like her, but now I realize we’re better friends” type of an explanation, I think this story would have been more enjoyable. They didn’t have a lot of back stories and I really couldn’t tell why they were friends.
The story itself revolved around their relationship and their back and forth as they decide (she decided) to go into the house or not. And after they enter the house during the daytime, whether or not they should tempt fate and go back after it’s dark. The bickering felt important and needed for the story since any normal person wouldn’t just willingly go into a known haunted house for fun. (Okay, some people would, but I’m definitely not one of them).
I think my favorite part about Whispering Corridors was the fact that the Upside Down man didn’t have much backstory and that he was more of an unknown “where is he” rather than an “oh crap, there he is, RUN!” type of a monster. In a discussion on Sci-Fi and Scary about this book, the narrator Joe Hempel described the Upside Down Man as a “disease, not a jump scare” which I thought was perfect. He was always there, but you didn’t know where or when.
Overall, I thought that the story was good. The relationship didn’t make sense to me and annoyed me at times. Lydia was really unlikeable during parts of the book. But, I thought that it was really good. The thing that jumped out to me was just how good Ambrose Ibsen is at writing quick and suspenseful stories. I couldn’t get over how little detail was wasted in this story.
The narration by Joe Hempel was really enjoyable. He helped bring out some of the suspense in the characters and the story. He really helped Ibsen’s words to ooze into my ears. I couldn’t put the audiobook down.
Book Description:
Whispering Corridors by Ambrose IbsenNarrator: Joe Hempel
Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
on April 6, 2017
Genres: Horror
Also by this author: Asylum (Afterlife Investigations #1), Forest (Afterlife Investigations #2), The Occupant (Afterlife Investigations #3), The Conqueror Worm
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I’ve enjoyed some of this authors book and this one sounds good, plus it’s narrated by Joe Hempel!