Book Review: The Birthing House

Hoping to repair his damaged marriage, Conrad Harrison explores homes as far away from Los Angeles as he dares to go, winding up at a little town called Black Earth. Following the directions from a few of the locals, he makes his way to a large Victorian mansion that once served as a birthing house, a home for unwed mothers to have their children. Something about the house seems to click with him, and he decides then and there to make an offer, and within a few weeks, Conrad, his wife Joanna and their two dogs, Alice and Luther, find themselves moving into their new home.

While his wife is away at an eight-week job training in Detroit, the house's former owner, Leon Laski, drops by to give Conrad a crate of items that belong with the house, including an old photo album. Leafing through its pages, Conrad discovers with horror the face of his wife staring at him from one of the older pictures, a stare filled with hatred and malice. That's the night it starts: glimpses of the woman from the photo disappearing throughout the house, the sound of a mysterious baby crying, a small faceless doll attacking him in the middle of the night.

Something in the house has plans for Conrad, and in a series of terrifying events, he's about to discover the secrets buried inside The Birthing House.

Christopher Ransom has crafted an intriguing ghost story filled with both ghostly terror and psychological trickery, and set in a place I'd never even heard of before the book: a birthing house. (With all the life and death that must have gone on in such a place, no wonder he decided to use it.) The manifestations of the ghost from the small, faceless doll clicking across the bedroom floor to the dogs agitated and angry as they scratch and dig at a wall in the basement sent goosebumps coursing across my skin with each page. Throughout the novel, Conrad never seems to quite understand what's happening -- did a woman resembling his wife just disappear into the shed or was it his wife, who should be in Detroit? What happened to Laski's wife and all their children that made him eager to sell? Did the ghost leave a knife at the foot of his bed with a note attached reading other mother must go, or did he set the knife there himself? Conrad's confusion is very apparent but, at times, works like a double-edged sword.

While the confusion added to my empathizing with him, I also felt confused at some of the events. Through much of the book, Conrad discovers a strange attraction to his neighbor's pregnant daughter, Nadia, which appears to be mutual until they rush to her boyfriend's home. She says a few things that made me scratch my head as to her character's true intentions because they didn't mesh with previous fifty or so pages, but then it's glossed over as if it never happened. I re-read the scene a few times just to make sure I hadn't read it incorrectly.

Despite this, I enjoyed Ransom's story, wanting to see how Conrad's relationships with his wife Joanna, his neighbor Nadia, and the spirit of the house would play out. Anyone who enjoys a ghost story with filled with unexpected twists and turns will definitely find this a worthwhile read.

And I wouldn't want to find myself anywhere near that house!

Image from The eBook Store from Sony.