One of the difficulties with slow reads is that my interest slows too. I think, because I’m a writer, I am geared to be looking ahead all the time, and when I put the book down after a couple of chapters, my brain keeps working on it.

Part of me is trying to write the ending I expect.  Or the confrontations I’m imagining. Or the horrors. And then I have to pick up the book again, and it’s a little disorienting, because wasn’t I past that point??

But I think I’d have had some slow down with this book anyway, because the alternating chapters are getting to me. I’ve done alternating chapters in books and there’s always a point where you’ve finished with protag one’s POV, and protag two has… nothing really going on yet. But you can’t skip time to the next interesting moment in protag 2’s life because that leaves 1 out of whack, and yet your brain also tells you that you can’t skip the alternating chapter because that’s the rhythm you’ve established and the reader will be confused…

I am here to tell you SKIP THE BORING CHAPTER. Have two chapters in a row from protag 1; the book will not collapse from the breaking of the pattern.

I am still far more interested in Mavi’s segments than Angel’s. I don’t know what Angel’s situation is (still); is she a ghost? Is she dead and her spirit visiting the past? Is this her personal hell (for committing some unspecified act of violence) or is this a chance at redemption? Is she even really a ghost? Spirit/Specter/Other… I can’t shake myself of the feeling that Angel is a technological mystery not a magical one. So then I start thinking about Stuart Turton’s The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle where the (SPOILER!) whole endless time loop is a literal prison/punishment for criminals, where the possibility of parole is dependent on them preventing a crime. I’m not actually sure Angel is dead—she may have just been disconnected from her mind. Yet she needs to feed, which suggests some sort of biological component, yet the “food” is memory.

Hmm.

Too much mystery surrounding Angel and not enough answers. It’s distracting me and not in a good way. But that’s when I’ve stepped away from the book. When I’m actively reading it? Faring’s writing is pulling me along.

Chapter 14: Angel 2020-1400 

Wait, do Angel’s numbers correspond to chapters?? Hmm. Not evenly.  I tell you, these chapter numbers need to mean something or I’m going to be put out. Of course, other readers may already understand it and I’m just slow. If so, tell me! 

The school is rotting around them.  Not metaphorically.  I kind of love that. Yes, some of it is the age of the building and the lack of maintenance, and some of it is the encroaching dampness of the ice fields. But a lot of it seems to be castoff from the curse.

Have we talked about the curse on the school yet? No, probably not, because I’m not loving that general premise: The gist being that the local natives (imaginary Zapuche, not real-world Mapuche) cursed the European interlopers with evil spirits that must be satiated by the sacrifice of a girl (it’s always a girl, always a young girl, hint hint virgin, so that’s an eyeroll).

The last time they skipped the sacrifice, the residents of the school died. And now these new residents need to make a sacrifice and either don’t know about it, or are planning to sacrifice someone out of Mavi’s earshot.

I have issues with this premise. I don’t like the evil natives aspect. I don’t like that they screwed up their vengeance and made it too strong. I don’t like the sense the book gives that the Zapuche revenge for their decimation is disproportionate and that the Zapuche were wrong to lay down the curse. There’s a lot of discussion of savages, which is a nails-on-the-chalkboard word when it comes to the indigenous people of the Americas.

And of course, the house on cursed native land is just very, very familiar (also not in a good way).

Which leaves me with disliking the premise of the curse even as I like the effects of it. And the Others really are insanely creepy.

Back to Angel and oh yeah, the reason this chapter brought on the rant about the curse. Because Angel learns the last time the curse took over the school, the girls that were sacrificed—were the native servant’s girls—Zapuche girls.

To be fair, Angel goes “urgh” right alongside me. But she’s now on the hunt for the Tenth Girl, who she and Mavi have both decided is the little ghost girl who is not an Other.

She eavesdrops. She visits the “sick” girl, Sara, who sees Angel even in her ghostly invisible intangible form and declares as Dom did, you can not have me. Apparently, Sara’s eyes have been opened, but at what cost? She is not well at all and is refusing to eat or sleep.

Angel flees and runs into the ghost girl. The ghost girl is anomalous because she is visible to all, but is also obviously a ghost. She is not an Other, and Angel tells her Angel knows she’s the tenth girl.  (writer sleight of hand? Or is this actually true and not just what Angel believes. I’m leaning toward Mavi being the tenth girl somehow.) The ghost girl doesn’t give Angel the time of day, telling her she won’t talk to her kind, before lunging out a window and falling into the icy craters below. She’ll be back.

Chapter 15: Mavi

Problems continue to plague the school. It’s freezing cold and the food has gone to hell—no more gourmet plates for anyone there. Mr. Lamb has suffered a heart attack outside and been brought in to recover. Sara has supposedly recovered and is back in Mavi’s class, but her favorite student, Michelle, is now ill and absent.

And Sara… well, Sara is not herself. She is cruel, crass, and terrifying, and the lesson is abruptly ended.

Mavi goes to see Michelle. Michelle worries her and tells her “When I’m awake I feel this ice in my bones. It’s easier to sleep but I don’t get any rest when I do. I—I go to this… place… It shines like scales and there are other people there. She’s okay, Mavi,” she whispers, a weak grin spreading across her face.

So I’m still stuck in SF territory in my head, and given Sara’s abrupt change coupled with her previous terror of sleep and not being taken… I am almost wondering if this is some sort of process to hollow the girls out and put new minds in. A technological possession factory, processing souls into the past for some odd reason? I don’t have any clue; it’s just where my mind is going. The Others feed on memory, after all.

Mavi is still at odds with Yesi, ostensibly over Mavi’s “conspiracy” thinking, but seems to be more about her friendship with Dom(Angel). I wonder what hell Dom put Yesi through before Angel took over his body.

Dr. Molina tells Mavi that the girls are dreaming of men coming to them in the night, touching them, and giving them illness. Mavi and Yesi are both appalled, but Molina thinks it’s the virus coupled with group hysteria. Mavi and Yesi both think that Molina should insist on sending the girls home. As she is about to agree, Molina is (to the reader’s eyes) possessed by an Other, who dismisses all concern and leaves a welt on Mavi’s wrist when she touches her.

Furiously unhappy and scared, Mavi goes to dinner, and Dom/Angel smiles at her, which makes her decide to stay. Oops, did you mean that to happen, Angel? She would be better off fleeing.

Chapter 16: Angel 2020-1600

Angel argues with Charon about the tenth girl. He tells her she couldn’t have seen a tenth little girl. Then they argue about Angel’s motivations. Angel makes more vague allusions to her past.

Angel becomes Mavi’s confidant about the Others and the ghost girl. “Dom” tells Mavi he saw the girl too. Mavi tells Dom about the night her mother was taken which is good, except I already knew the big picture, and the details, while nice, don’t really deepen the issue. I’d rather have heard about Angel’s past which is being kept for some grand reveal that, at this point, will probably fall a little flat.

Obviously, her beloved brother Rob died, probably through foul play, potentially at her brother-in-law’s hands, potentially at her own. Seems more likely to be Angel’s if she feels this much shame over it.  Really the big picture moment here is that Angel and Mavi are united in a cause: to help the girls.

Chapter 17: Mavi

Mavi visits Lamb and they discuss ghosts over brandy. Later, Mavi and Dom sneak out of their rooms in the night to visit Michelle’s sick room. Mavi is partially reassured that she’s sleeping peacefully, smiling in her sleep.

Mavi thinks about souls and bodies and how in the end, the bodily features mean nothing at all, which makes me think I might be on the right track with possessing spirits taking full ownership of the bodies in some other space. Other space? Charon ferrying the malevolent dead spirits back into the living bodies? To what purpose?

Also Mavi gets a clue that she doesn’t understand at the moment: a glow that suffuses Dom’s skin, a febrile touch of his hand, hotter than normal (shades of Dr. Molina?) a sign that Angel is in residence?

On their way back to their rooms, an Other briefly possesses Mavi, walking her body along. A lot of medical imagery here: pincer, rubber glove, oculus (also a pop culture VR system). No wonder I keep thinking SF instead of ghosts.

Mavi shakes them off with Angel’s help, and is horrified. The Others are no longer a theory to her, but a painful, undeniable reality. In her relief, she kisses “Dom”, who tells her she’s drunk and sends her to bed. I really need to think of a way to describe Angel as Dom and Dom on his own. Original Dom? Angel!Dom? Which just looks like a tag on Ao3.

Chapter 18: Angel 2020-1800

Angel is appalled by Mavi’s possession, not just on Mavi’s behalf but witnessing the process from the outside, so to speak.

And that’s really it for the plot, so we finally, finally get another specific piece of Angel’s past. A scene with her mother, drunk after a terrible case where a man killed a little girl. Apparently her mother is in some sort of social service or criminal justice job. I can’t recall if I knew what her job was before.

But somehow this memory prompts Angel to decide to confess who/what she is to Mavi. Later.

Overall, kind of a rough few chapters. I adored Mavi being possessed. I really liked her thoughts on flesh/soul, and while I complained about already knowing how her mother was taken by the government, I loved Mavi’s realization that her mother’s “last words” had been carefully composed for just this occasion.

About halfway through, but I’m definitely going to have to pick up the pace! The book is due back to the library on the 22^nd!

Chapter 8: Angel 2020-300

This is a game changing chapter. Angel finds Dom mutilating pictures of Mavi, and in her attempts to stop him, finds herself inside him. Possessing him. Exciting!

Chapter 9: Mavi

Angel’s possession of Dom’s body is apparently not a one-off. “Dom” seeks out Mavi and they begin a flirty friendship with multiple secret rendezvous. This can’t end well. Sooner or later, Angel won’t be piloting Dom when Mavi ends up alone with him. Really, this is nothing but trauma waiting to happen. At best, it’s hurt feelings; at worst… well, it’s like Angel is training the deer to approach the hunter.

On the school side, Mavi finally gets the student files from Morency, and it’s a series of tragedies thrown into contrast with the earlier personal essays that barely touched on the realities of their lives. Mavi begins to make inroads with the students—commiserating with Lucinda over her dying mom. And after Michelle has a near-fatal accident when something unseen pushes her on one of the school’s icy, rocky paths, Mavi makes a project of her. Keeping an eye on her, the girl who reminds her of her classmate murdered by her mother’s guerilla fighters.

That’s also not going to end badly.

Chapter 10: Angel 2020-1000

Okay, so first off, I obviously have no idea what those numbers refer to, since it jumps from 300 to 1000. I will have to wait for illumination.

Angel is really doing the heavy lifting regarding the Others and the actual events happening in the school. She’s the one who can see the packs of slobbering Others feasting on the girls. She’s the one who can see that as the ice season progresses, more and more Others arrive. And Angel is the one who has heard the truth about the curse laid on the school: that it can be mitigated each generation by the sacrifice of (of course) a young girl.

In the meantime, things are getting worse. Angel sees the Others possessing the students in a gruesome scene of exaggerated human actions. And she sees the teacher Mrs Hawk in sleep paralysis, aware of and horrified by the Others feeding on her. 

It’s a grim little chapter, full of horror, and the only light spot is her moment with Mavi—which involves them talking about such cheerful things as dead relatives and the nature of ghosts.

Chapter 11: Mavi

Mrs. Hawk abandons ship and flees. Though there is a lot of concern about how, exactly, she left, but Morency and Carmela aren’t discussing it. Also, one of the students—Sara—is sick from the Others’ attentions. Carmela’s fragile mental state becomes a little clearer when Mr. Lamb has a serious case of foot in mouth and suggests one of these girls might be a successor to Carmela’s legacy.

And Mavi finally has “proof” that something very wrong is going on at the school, besides bad feelings, nightmares, when a ghost girl shows up in her room. A pre-teen, who resembles Domenico. And she’s a new anomaly in the book: not whatever Angel is, not an other, but a previous (presumably) victim of the curse. She tells Mavi about the Others, and that Sara’s not sick, but drained. She tells Mavi she should leave and take all the staff and students with her. But Mavi, in the best traditions of horror book protagonists, has a slew of reasons to stay.

But Mavi is now stirred and worried. Yesi is no help, because she’s caught up in the book she’s writing. She talks to Dom. And “Dom” confirms that Mavi didn’t have a nightmare and that Sara doesn’t have a virus.

So she’s even more worried at the end of her chapter.

It’s getting harder to keep myself to a couple chapters at a time.

So obviously, I should say, SPOILERS. This isn’t a review, but a read along, and appreciation (so far!). That means I’m going to talk about the events with varying levels of details.

That out of the way, let’s talk about chapters four and five!

Previously.

Chapter four brings us Angel’s POV again, and I’m assuming at this point we’ll get alternating viewpoints until the end.  But straight off the bat, we learn two things: Angel is in a sort of hell space spiritually after an act of violence—on an undisclosed someone, maybe herself? (There’s something about the phrase “a moment of violence by my own hand” that is hard to parse.) And also? She’s there to feed on the living people at the school. As Charon says, “You’ve got to suck one of the meat bags bone-dry before you jet out of here for the night. You’ve got to shuck its pretty little skull like a corncob.”

Eek!

As an aside, Charon makes me feel like one of those annoying reviewers who likes to leave one sentence reviews on goodreads that say things like, “This book had too much swearing in it, I couldn’t finish it.” Or worse! The reviewer who says something along the lines of “Oh, the writer shows obvious skill, ’tis a pity she can’t refrain from using such foul language.” It always makes me roll my eyes and grit my teeth at the same time.

That said, Charon really does have a foul tongue, and it’s strident against Mavi’s restrained voice. Jarring, still. I’ll get used to it. I think it’s not actually the swearing; it’s the hostility he seems to emanate. He makes me nervous. Which, I suppose is the point.

The writing is, as before, really precise and effective.

I shouldn’t call her that [ghostfucker]. I shouldn’t. She’s Yesi. … But I know it would be easier to feed if I branded her as one single thing and disconnected—choosing simplicity of thought over curiosity in the complexity of human nature. The less aware I am of her nooks and curves—the more I view her as a paper cutout of a human being—the easier it is to flatten her into nothing, all for my agenda. Flick—there goes the paper doll, smoothed to nothing at all. I’ve been the paper cutout before. I guess now I’m the flicker.

p. 57, The Tenth Girl

Nice psychology on the page, excellent imagery, and oh that little twist of being a flicker—both the act of careless dismissal, and the flicker of light that brings ghosts to mind.  Love it.

And things get worse. Angel goes to feed and sees that Yesi’s already being fed on. Like a buffet, the Others are swarming Yesi. It’s creepy as hell.  Good job, ghost story! You made my skin crawl.

We also see that the Others can steal the stolen energy from Angel, even as she’s stealing it from Yesi. It’s a whole horrible parasitic sort of creepiness. The chapter ends with Angel slipping into Mavi’s room to watch her sleep. There are suggestions that Angel knows Mavi’s future, but whether it’s just the near future of being fed on by spectral scavengers, or whether Angel actually knows Mavi’s personal history is not yet clear. Either way, Mavi, unlike poor Yesi, sleeps peacefully and unmolested.

Chapter five is hard on poor Mavi. It starts auspiciously enough–a well-laif banquet, sunlight, friendly faces of fellow teachers (and weirdos)–but it plummets quickly. On her problem-riddled arrival, a young man had looked out the window, seen her stranded outside, and sneered at her. Now, she learns that he is Domenico de Vaccaro, the spoiled son of the school’s owner, and that he’s even more horrible than she thought. His mother, Carmela, isn’t much better–abstractly menacing, superficially polite, and yet….

Here, we get the tenth girl of the title. Carmela tells Mavi she will have ten girls in class, but only nine arrive (nearly half an hour late, lacking all respect). When Mavi asks about the remaining girl, the nine girls tell mocking, contradictory stories about where the girl is: some rude, some violent, all unkind. Mavi gives up, more worried about another revelation: she was told the students were novice English speakers; instead, they’re at the same skill level she is. And she’s going to have to teach them. There’s another weird type of horror for you–the “oh god, my imposter syndrome is actually true!”

A bad start for Mavi, but a great chapter for me, reading this.

These few chapters in, and I have to say, I definitely enjoy Mavi’s chapters. She’s so sympathetic. I’m not sure how I feel about Angel, yet. Maybe it’s that Mavi’s fears and problems are so concrete: she needs this job, the students are trouble, the whole set up is trouble, yet she came from worse, so she won’t walk away. Mavi is the classic hero of the haunted house novel—the one who stays because they lack the resources to go elsewhere. Angel? She’s sympathetic, but also morally weak, and her world is much more shapeless than Mavi’s. A ghost world for a time ghost girl.

I am having some trouble keeping myself to a couple of chapters at a time. But I will persevere! For one thing, I’m really enjoying thinking about each chapter after reading it, instead of blindly rushing forward on a wave of story emotion.