Eldrith Manor
Leigh Rivers
by Linda Gordon Boroff
Young newlywed Dar Beaumont is trapped in a box of her own making that keeps growing tighter, smaller and scarier. On the surface, her life in the mid-1970s is blossoming. She adores her handsome husband Roc, who has just won his dream job of assistant district attorney in San Marcos, a town that resembles Santa Cruz on the beautiful California central coast. Amid
beaches, redwood groves and a lively hippie counterculture, Dar sets out to become the perfect wife to Roc. After a troubled adolescence, Dar had been admitted to Berkeley and earned a degree. She desperately wants Roc to be proud of her despite his father’s accusations that she has a “past.”
When she takes a part-time job writing for the local newspaper, Dar learns more of a recent rash of serial killings that haunt the lovely town. Roc, caught up in his new job, reads files to her about weird cults and bodies buried in the forests. Dar begins to fear a strange-looking young man named Chester, who looks prehistoric to her. Under growing pressure and to hide her
anxiety, she begins to sneak drinks in the long afternoons awaiting Roc’s return from the office, hiding the bottles in desperate fear of being found out. Since childhood, Dar has believed that traces and memories of a person who died many years ago have somehow found their way into her own brain. She even named it “The Remnant” and tried to get along with it. But now, The
Remnant is becoming more demanding, powerful and persistent: it has a life and a story, and it will not be denied.
August 4, 2020
At turns both humorous and surreal, Boroff's latest novel is a mesmerizing tale of a young woman's fight to protect herself from a troubled carnie's physical stalking and ultimately, his spiritual possession. Dar's inevitable descent into alcoholism is particularly realistic in its disturbing depiction. Boroff paints with both wide and pointillist literary brushes, deftly rendering for us the horrific in the ordinary and the lightness in the macabre. ) One person found this helpful
September 10, 2020
Linda Boroff's writing on this unsettling novella was engaging and more than a little disturbing as the protagonist falls deeper into her own self-generated fears. The young woman in pursuit of perfect marital happiness ironically travels in the exact opposite direction. Sometimes we make the very things we fear happen when we try too hard for perfection. ) One person found this helpful
June 14, 2020
…and riveting. We’re drawn into the life of a beautiful, complicated young wife and her handsome, ambitious husband as they begin a new life in a new town. Indelible characters and a story tinged with the surreal make this a great read. It’s filled with sly, self-aware humor and painfully familiar human frailty. Highly recommended. )
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