Review -- Little Sister Death

Little Sister Death by William Gay

**Disclaimer: I have received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

I will be honest with you dear blog reader: this book has defeated me. By this, I mean that I just do not know what to make of it. Do I like it? Do I not like it? I actually have no idea...

Little Sister Death is one of the "lost" novels by American writer William Gay, which have been found recently and will be published in the coming days. It is described as an eerie Southern Gothic novel inspired by the famous 19th century Bell Witch haunting of Tennessee and follows the unravelling life of David Binder, a writer who moves his young family to a haunted farmstead to try and find inspiration for his next book. 

The story is told from different perspectives in time and therefore the reader is frequently catapulted between 1785, 1933, 1956-1965, 1980 and 1982 in order to follow the lives of the families who have successively inhabited the haunted farm. Now, I would usually agree that time jumps add rhythm to a narrative and can make it more entertaining; however, I found this device quite confusing here, especially due to the sheer number of characters thus portrayed in the book. 

This book had started so well, especially the first few chapters set in 1785 which were very gripping (despite the fact that I needed my dictionary at hand every two minutes) and the subsequent stories set in 1933 and 1956-1965 were equally entertaining. However, I was left cold (not ghost cold unfortunately) and disappointed with the narrative set in the 80s. To be honest, I was expecting the story to turn all Shining-like at some point, which it sadly did not. 
Now, it has to be said that Gay possessed undeniable narrative powers and his descriptive skills were incredible as evidenced in this book. Unfortunately, his writing style was just not my cup of tea as I found it too elaborate most of the time.

The Bibliovore's verdict 2.5 ⋆
Since I am between two minds here and do not really know what to make of Little Sister Death, it seems fair to give it an average 2.5 stars, especially since I have actually enjoyed the time jumps set in the 18th century and early 20th. If you happen to read this book, please let me know what you think of it. I would be glad to hear a dissenting opinion.