I have not been to my favorite used book store in a very long time (prior to summer). So, I recently took a little jaunt down the street during my lunch break. So far, I think I have been pretty clear that I love used bookstores, I love books (especially classics), and I rarely ever buy anything that is not on sale (in general). So a used bookstore where every book is less than $4 is my heaven!

Going to the store was not exactly on my list of things to do that day, so I didn’t have my go-to list of books that I wanted to read. Oh shucks, I had to look through every book in order of author’s last name. Oh my, what a sad, sad day. HA! Anywho, I stumbled on some great classics and found a few modern novels that intrigued me but I was not about to pay sticker price for them (The Red Tent, looks amazing and can’t wait to read).

So, I found a Henry James novel entitled Turn of the Screw and read the cover which characterized it as a new rendition of a scary tale. It was $2 and a little over 100 pages so I thought “why not?” Out of all the books I had, I started this one,  not only because it was scary and I was in the mood for scary, but also it was short. Well, it’s a James’ novel, which means that just because it’s short does not mean that it’s going to take a short time to read.

A week later I finished it and I can say I enjoyed it, not as much as I initially thought, but I did like it. In general the plot was well-developed and succeeded at being shocking, but not scary. Granted, I have never been scared by a book. Shocked, yes, but scared, no. Turn of the Screw is about a brand new Governess coming to teach two children who are orphaned and in the care of their uncle. The uncle has the children live at a large house that is not cohabited with himself so the reader never meets the uncle but only reads correspondence he sends. The two children, a boy and girl, and interesting characters. Naive, innocent at times, and conniving at other times. The Governess herself is a rather interesting character and the plot surrounds her transformation from a simple lady trying to educate the children to a woman who becomes so paranoid with situations. Now, there are two ghosts: Miss Jessel and Peter Quint. Both are past employers within the house who had interactions with the children both as ghosts and when they were alive.

As I said, the basic plot surrounds the evolution of the Governess. Essentially she becomes more and more crazed when she begins seeing the ghosts and starts being paranoid as to why she is seeing them and what they mean to do to her and the children. I will be very honest, the novel is ok (not great) and in order to understand a lot of the hidden themes and whatnot I had to read sparknotes. In all honesty, I have done this quite a bit. Usually, I completely understand the plot line but it’s the deeper meaning of a novel and why the author has this symbol, or what kind of themes other readers interpreted out of the novel that interest me. Just to get other takes on events is rather fascinating to me, and lets be clear, I’m a scientist and not an English PhD.

There’s really not much to talk about because the novel was so short, and I essentially told her the plot: Governess goes crazy. But, it was rather interesting to consider how much thriller stories have changed from 1898 when Turn of the Screw was first published to films like “Paranormal Activity” in the modern day. Almost as if James focused more on the psychological impact of the characters and the fright in considering that these characters are losing their mental faculties because of ghosts rather than actually being frightened by the ghosts as in modern day scare tactics of films. In the end, Halloween is approaching, so I would take a moment, pick James’ novel up and take a look. It’s not too scary, but it’s nice to read some original fright literature to start your Halloween theme early!