<b> Plague Review 16: Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand </b>

<i> "The whole time we were there, it was like being in a dream. Everything conspired to keep us from
waking up. The weather and drugs and alcohol, the occult talk and crazy books, and sexual tension.

And that house—you could just get lost in it." </i>

A documentary filmmaker interviews the remaining members of a 70s rock band Windhollow Faire, as
well as their manager and former associates, concerning the mysterious disappearance of the band
frontman Julian Blake while they were recording their album at the isolated and mysterious country
manor, Wylding Hall. Will the truth about Julian Blake ever be revealed? And what does the mysterious
girl in their eventual album cover have to do with anything?

Wylding Hall sounds like an intimidating and unfinishable book from the lonely and neglected subgenre
of "literary horror"; I could not have been more wrong. <b> Wylding hall is an immensely fascinating,
subtly chilling, and ultimately haunting novel. </b>

The book takes the form of a talking-heads documentary, with each chapter filled with reminisces from
two or sometimes more persons. This format is boring to most readers ("I don't want to read a
documentary!"), but I found it to be useful in the build-up of the dread. Most of my favorite writers, for
example, Thomas Tessier or Lisa Tuttle, frame their stories in reality while gradually adding in the
supernatural elements. What better guise of (fake) reality, then, than a documentary film aimed at
uncovering the truth about a possible supernatural occurrence? Hand adds the supernatural
occurrences/ testimonies at an unhurried pace, making each one startling and shocking. But before the
whole thing turns into an all-out bloodfest, we hauled back to the world of rockers trying to make a
living. Everyone chalks it up as a one-off hallucination. They, of course, should have known better.

The writing is very accessible and engaging; you never feel disconnected even when the various talking
heads are discussing the triumphs and frustrations of music-making. The characters Hand portrays read
like real humans; they have a burning desire to conquer the world and express themselves through their
music that they turn almost a blind eye to the bigger picture of what the real costs are of staying at
Wylding Hall.

If I had one complaint about the book is that I was expecting more discrepancies and inconsistencies in
their recollections of the events. Nevertheless, I was surprised at the final revelation from a character
that might shed light on the whole affair despite the shortness of the encounter.

What is certain, however, is that this is a great book.