The Skipton Haunting: Tale of the Red Ribbon Witch
The Skipton Haunting:
Tale of the Red Ribbon Witch
By Andrew John Bell
The Sexton’s musings (spoilers a plenty):
First chapter down and while I don’t care for the characters it’s already going better than the previous read The Skipton Haunting: Curse of the Red Ribbon Witch. These characters are present in the follow-up story so I am familiar already with these folks. If I had not read the other book first I would not have a very positive opinion regarding Hannah. At first glance she seems like a real controlling bitch. But then again the history between these two people is not known as yet. Not only that but financial stressors can always bring out the negative side of one’s personality. Same impression of John only with him I feel weakness, a person that is easily manipulated. While well intentioned I have a feeling that he has always been just sort of the mark in his life. I suppose we will see where this story takes them.
Well quarter of the way through, even though I don’t want to make a habit of reviewing a book in sections I feel the need to make a note. In the first book I read with these characters (albeit the sequel to this one and they were secondary characters) I actually liked Hannah. I thought she seemed like a pretty well put together person. However in this one I want to smack the shit out of her! So John has his first nightmare and is pretty disturbed by it. Hannah asks him about it and he tells her about the dream. Then she ends up having a dream that is a lot like his and blames him for her nightmare. Making statements like “I’m going to kill you John”. Um bitch you asked him about his dream, even if that was the cause of your nightmare (which of course it’s not, it’s Sabina the raging bitch witch) you can’t be mad at him for it. It’s little irrational reactions like this that are pissing me off. It’s also hard to get a read on her feelings for John. I can’t tell if she hates her husband, likes her husband or loves her husband. Now we know that she is probably pregnant with their second child and in fact because I read the series out of order (because I thought, based on it being said it could be read as a stand-alone novel that it was okay) I know that they have a second child and that it was during their time at 71 Skipton Road that she discovered she was pregnant. I do understand her concerns regarding the financial strain another child can bring however I’m not sure why none of these women work. I mean if they are so hard up why is she not trying to find a job? Same issue I had with Amy in the other book. If money is such an issue then why can’t you work. It’s not like these events are taking place in the 1950’s. We are talking the 2000’s here people. Woman have been part of the working world a very long time at this point! Plus child care is available for children of all ages (Olivia at 8mo) so take advantage of it! I’m not as irritated with the characters here and Hannah is a far cry from pathetic Amy but I’m still not loving her attitude. I guess we’ll see how things progress.
Okay so a bit over halfway through. I’m still feeling the same way about Hannah. I just cannot get a read on her. She is all over the board. Still acting like John is making everything up as a joke, which is ridiculous! Plus she’s having dreams and hearing the witch bitch while awake and she is still acting as though it’s all because of John’s anxiety and need for medication. Now while he does seem to struggle with anxiety and depression the occurrences at the house are agitating it horribly. John has what I call an addictive personality, or to put it another way he becomes easily addicted to substances to help curb his anxiety and depression. He uses alcohol and nicotine to self-medicate like a weak asshole. The interesting thing is that he seems to have a solid support system within walking distance. But because he is a big dumb man he doesn’t tell anyone anything, not wanting to worry them, and digging his hole even deeper. Personally I feel that if they (John and Hannah) would both just get their heads out of their asses and just sit down, talk about what is going on, be fucking honest with each other for once that the situation could be resolved so much more quickly. I mean for crying out loud Lucy, the five year old has names, descriptions, symbols that she has no reason to know and they are still in denial about everything. Especially Hannah. She just wants to ignore it because it frightens her. But ignoring it is not going to make it go away. In fact, it’s making the entire situation worse. So instead of fighting, denying and generally being a moron about the whole thing, pull up your big girl pants and be an adult. Face the fear together because that is your only hope. Truly there is a lot of repetition, not nearly as bad as the second book however, and there is more background to the characters, but when it comes to Sabina and her influence it is always the same thing and it grates on ones nerves like having your teeth scaled at the dentist (I hate having my teeth scaled). For me she is just not a strong antagonist, she’s an annoying, pain in the ass antagonist! She just needs to get the fuck over herself and move on. I mean her own daughter, who’s death is the cause of all of this, is on the side of the family and hates her mother for what she has become. Doesn’t that tell the bitch something? It’s just unbelievably frustrating. The irrational hatred that seethes from her makes me want to drown her all over again. And again, and again.
So one other observation…John is an idiot. When they go on their little seaside family outing why does he buy a Ouija Board and a statue of Baal? I mean never mind that Hannah asks him not too and they have no money to be spending on shit like that, why would he want to do a dumbass thing like that period? He also keeps talking about the occurrences and entities at their home when they took this outing to get away from it all…Hannah getting angry with him, and rightfully so but then for him to get pissy with Lucy because she is talking about it too pisses me off. I’m not a fan of a double standard even when it’s with a grown man and a five year old! And then, having figured out her secret that she’s pregnant again, Hannah asks him to keep it quiet since it’s still early days and he just blurts it out while they are eating getting Lucy all excited. At this point I’m not really sure that he really thinks. Like uses his brain. At all.
I have finished! Honestly it ended so much better than the second book. Honestly and to no offense to the writer, don’t even bother with the second book! While I had several moments where I was like these people a freaking dumbasses, it was far less frustrating then the second book. It has nothing to do with the fact that the antagonists win but everything to do with believability. The fact that Amy was not willing to tell Sabina to fuck off, for the sake of her family (John’s favorite statement to some reviewers angst) she gave in, just did not jive with me (even though she was completely pathetic and worthless you would think that she would hold on to her bond with Isaac fiercely, but this was not the case). And then the epilogue was even worse in that regard. After reading this book there is no way in hell Baal would get a hold on John after all that time simply because he tried to help Chris and Amy. No fucking way! It does not make sense. None at all. There was no bond between Baal and John, it was Sabina and John that I understood were “bonded” and even then the bond was not completed after what we have learned about the ribbon and the bond it created not only with her coven of followers but also with Amy in the second book. So the possession of Baal over John in the epilogue of the second book is not something that is consistent with the stories. Now if that happened to Chris I may just have bought it but not John. My advice, leave out the second book. Enjoy the fact that this family found their peace, even if Sid (fucking wanker) did conjure the worthless, immature entities again. It was interesting at that late stage to find out that Sid was the landlord of the property. I should have realized that being he seemed to be gaining some form of income and had this obsession with the witch but it just never occurred to me.
The parts with Henry, John’s grandfather at the end were really nice considering there was strife the entire way through. Almost brought a tear to my eye. And getting to know Eliza a bit more was also welcome. She does not play much part in the second book even though her name is said millions of times! And really based on what happened between her and her mother I am surprised that the whole second book is about her trying to reunite with her. Eliza made it very clear that she did not want to have anything to do with her damned mother.
Once again the writing itself is decent. The use of the local dialect really adds to the atmosphere. I had absolutely zero issues understanding what was being said. I do watch a lot of British TV and Movies but still the context is really all you need. I can appreciate that this story is partially based around real life experiences of the author and his family. I truly wish that he had written that account instead of writing a work of fiction. I do recommend reading these books in order. They really are sequential regardless of if they can be read as stand alone.