Book Review: "The Haunting of Las Lagrimas" by W.M Cleese

When it comes to the modern gothic, there are certain things that I think you guys already know I love: atmosphere, character development and even more atmosphere. Descriptions are always key to creating one hell of a great gothic whether old or new. One aspect of that description, and a large portion of it, should be dedicated to making the atmosphere as perfect, dark and strange as physically possible. I think that this book does it really well and almost sounds like the modern gothic has been stripped raw. The atmosphere is a blend of old and new and the idea of the 'curse' is something classic alongside the more modern aspects of the narrative. The modern gothic has not only been exemplified here, but it has also been blended with Latin American beliefs and historical ideas which gives it the dark whispery nature of an Isabel Allende novel.

Ursula is a gardener and is applying for a job in a house called Las Lagrimas. One day, she is told by another person that Las Lagrimas, though glamorous and decadent, harbours dangerous and dark secrets within its walls. The house is apparently cursed. By what, Ursula isn't sure and whether it is, she is cynical towards. But, when things start to go bump in the night, people begin to change and the age-old curse of Las Lagrimas comes crashing down around her, Ursula is forced to confront the difference between reality and fiction. In this beautifully written supernatural novel, W.M Cleese brings the Latin Gothic to life with dark and strange happenings whilst keeping the feet of the book firmly in aspects of character development.

In some ways, I liken this book to The Turn of the Screw where a young lady is looking for a job and so takes one up in a place where strange things have been seen to happen with an absent and odd man who runs the show behind the scenes, there is no wonder as to why Ursula feels like she is losing her grip on reality as the nanny did in the Henry James novel. I also liken it to The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson since the atmosphere of the house is absolute madness and always shrouded in dark secrecy. This is something I absolutely adored about The Haunting of Las Lagrimas because it really harkened back to the 20th Century Gothic and made a point of being both old and modern at the same time.

An author that I liken W.M Cleese to in terms of writing atmospheric terror is Daphne Du Maurier because of how light and airy it seems at first and then, it descends into complete darkness in the blink of an eye. The whole 'everything isn't what it seems' and 'look beneath the surface' aspect echoes back to Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca and Jamaica Inn, and in some respects even My Cousin Rachel. I feel like The Haunting of Las Lagrimas is probably one of the better combinations of the whole aspect of the modern gothic I have seen in a long time.

All in all, I would love to read more by this author in the future and I'm looking forward to what they are going to be publishing next. A grand mixture between Daphne Du Maurier, Shirley Jackson and probably even Susan Hill, this author packs the novel full of dark glamour, sensationalism, madness and whispers. It is truly a work of incredibly atmospheric fiction that needs to be seen to be appreciated. It is something that is well and truly beautiful in a lot of ways.