I like how similar books are paired together in a way throughout our syllabus. First we had The Haunting of Hill House followed by Hell House, and now we went from The Amityville Horror to Grave’s End. It’s interesting to find similarities and differences between stories that are similar in one way or another. Anyway, back to the story at hand.
As we are to look at Grave’s End as a true story, I looked at it as just that. Call me gullible or simply a wannabe believer, you tell me something is true then I’ll think that it actually happened. I found Grave’s End to be a very believable story. As we all had our issues with Amityville, I found Mercado’s account to be more believable. I think that she starts the book validating her own story for us. Obviously, there are skeptics out there and I liked how the book opened with her telling us that we are about to read her story of what happened. I think that the fact of her letting us know that it took her a while to even think about writing the book proved her story for me.
Like The Amityville Horror, this book read the same. By this, I mean that it was more focused on the telling of the story/events than anything else. I liked that even though the main point was what went on in the house, Mercado still made me feel for her and her family – maybe it was the concern she had for her daughters, the fright and terror she felt, or her dealing with her husband/marriage. She let us into her life during this period of time. She could’ve written the story of the several incidents that occurred, but instead she mixed these incidents with everything else going on in her life. I felt bad for her dealing with the haunting of her house while also dealing with the stress of nursing school and the issues with her husband.
Although Grave’s End read similarly to Amityville, I found this story to be completely different in the way of believability. As I stated that I read it from the standpoint that it was true right from the beginning, the events that took place seemed more realistic and never seemed so out there that it was beyond the realm of being true. The parts that creeped me out more than others were when Mercado mentioned the footsteps she would hear, breathing in their ears, the feeling of being watched, and the suffocating dreams. Oh man, those suffocating dreams! These would definitely drive me out of a house – especially if it felt like someone/something was touching me and trying to pull my legs apart. Whoa is all I can say to that. I definitely give them credit for staying in that house for years. The whole timeline confused me a bit here and there too. Anyway, all of these occurrences seemed more likely to happen, and even scarier because of that, than those that happened in Amityville.
While overall I liked the book, there were some things that I didn’t like and/or confused me. One of the main things that stuck out to me was the deal with the tree in front of the house. What was the deal with it? Did she just like it? I guess since she mentioned it right at the beginning, and referenced it other times throughout, I kept expecting something to happen with the tree. I suppose it was just a little of a letdown with that. Something else I was sort of confused by was Mercado’s daughter Christine. I understand that her bedrooms were additions to the house and that’s why she didn’t have trouble at night, but she didn’t really have much interaction or problems in the house. She saw some things and had the water thrown on her, but not much else. It made me wonder why it seemed like Karin and Elaine had the most trouble in the house – I do give Karin props for staying in her rooms and not wanting to move, because if I was in her place, I would’ve moved in with my grandparents!
As I said, I liked the book. I read it from start to finish as a true story and enjoyed it. I think it started to get a little slow/repetitive about certain things in the very last chapter, but other than that I found it to be an interesting read.
3 comments:
Interesting point about the tree. I guess maybe it's because we're conditioned to things like that being intentionally placed in a story for a reason. I expected something to happen with the tree later, too, then I forgot about it.
I liked the story too. There was a heavier feeling attached to Grave's End for me than with Amityville. Amityville was dealing with some scary mother effers. But, Elaine and co had unrelenting annoyances. I don't mean to belittle the occurences, just point out that green slime wasn't oozing from the walls.
I also thought it was interesting that the "spirits" had more interaction with Karin and Elaine. And, I mentioned in my post that I felt Karin was much more intimately involved than she let on.
Anyway, I believe her story because I have no reason not too. I believe that there are infinite questions that cannot be answered in this life, SO, Grave's End was a unique tale, one that happened to Elaine and deserves to be heard. Didn't scare me so much, but I allowed myself to be in her shoes more easily than George and Kathy Lutzes'.
I agree with you, those suffocating dreams are scary. That's my breaking point...nothing else seemed so menacing except for those scenes when Elaine is in bed. I'd be too frightened to sleep.
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