Family by Ian Rogers
Earthling Publications (October 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms
When is a haunted house story not a haunted house story? Earthling Publications knocks it out of the park with this novel by Ian Rogers. Comparisons will be made to the classics such as The Haunting of Hill House and newer entries like A Head Full of Ghosts, but also to cinematic hits like Poltergeist and The Changeling. What’s the best description? All and none of them.
Rogers has written a fascinating novel that has had heads twisting in attempting to decipher what to do this entry in Earthling’s stellar Halloween series, which has yet to miss a beat.
Yes, the house is a major force here, but it’s the characters in Family who are the haunted ones and drive this into fresh territory.
The Bennett family moves into a new house for… reasons. Jack, Laura, Jessica, and Stanley epitomize the modern dysfunctional family. Jack, the patriarch. isn’t feeling great about much after a tragic accident that leaves him with a cane and incessant pain. His adjustment, both in life and with his personality, alters the family dynamic in rippling ways. Yet he’s only one of the factors here. Laura, the mother, struggles to find her way after losing her job. Jessica, the teenage daughter, has the typical issues, except for getting expelled from school. Then there’s Stanley, the youngest of the family, who is a hypochondriac and anxiety-ridden boy. How Rogers wove these characters together is beautiful.
When they settle into the new house, things quickly go awry.
It begins as a slow burn, feeling almost as if this might be a psychological horror novel (which it is) but the supernatural seeps in, bleeding from the cracks in their psyches and causing that foundation to crack and splinter. Events soon turn, and the story goes off the rails in a completely logical manner that wouldn’t work if the Bennetts were drawn any differently. Just as how The Shining is a masterpiece because of Stephen King’s characters, Rogers’ Bennett clan is what drives Family. Readers tumble into the dysfunction first, the empathy component wrapping its tendrils around hearts and minds, allowing the house to ease into the picture.
This could’ve ended there and it would’ve been just as successful, but Rogers delivers something different that the trope needed. Highly recommended from Earthling, as always.
