House of Small Shadows is the disturbing novel about a modern phobia - the fear of dolls and puppets - from award-winning horror author Adam Nevill.The Red House: home to the damaged genius of the late M. H. Mason,master taxidermist and puppeteer,where he lived and created some of his most disturbing works. The building and its treasure trove of antiques is long forgotten,but the time has come for his creations to rise from the darkness. Catherine Howard can't believe her luck when she's invited to value the contents of the house. When she first sees the elaborate displays of posed,costumed and preserved animals and macabre puppets,she's both thrilled and terrified. It's an opportunity to die for. But the Red House has secrets,secrets as dreadful and dark as those from Catherine's own past. At night the building comes alive with noises and movements: footsteps,and the fleeting glimpses of small shadows on the stairs. And soon the barriers between reality,sanity and nightmare begin to collapse . . .'Adam Nevill is a fantastic storyteller,a master of slow-building tension,and he's written a fever dream of a book.House of Small Shadows is chilling,disorienting,and deeply creepy.'- Scott Smith,author of The Ruins

Publisher: Pan MacmillanISBN: 9780330544245Number of pages: 384Weight: 254 gDimensions: 197 x 130 x 23 mm

As a ritual exercise in entrapment,both in the past and the present,a kind of hymn to how all our histories - vast and petty - constrain us,House of Small Shadows is often nothing short of mesmerising.In House of Small Shadows, Adam Nevill explores a primal modern phobia - the fear of dolls and puppets - and spirals off into an exploration of a long-forgotten English folk tradition that is eminently believable at the same time as it is horrifying. A wonderfully creepy and disturbing novel.Adam Nevill is a fantastic storyteller,a master of slow-building tension,and he's written a fever dream of a book.House of Small Shadows is chilling,disorienting,and deeply creepy.It has the feel of a cult classic,something horror fans will still be reading with immense delight fifty years from now.Modern storytelling...and old school terror. Very scary,highly recommended.One of the most subtle and powerful writers of dark fiction - a unique voice.Adam Nevill is a spine-chiller in the classic tradition,a writer who draws you in from the world of the familiar,eases you into the world of terror,and then locks the door behind you. The House of Small Shadows grows darker and takes on more menacing life with each step forward.Nevill's latest horror is a compelling read where indistinguishable childhood dreams and fantasies merge with a surreal,nightmarish present.House of Small Shadows is highly likely to induce nightmares set to the sound of the pattering of tiny wooden feetHaunted-house maestros Shirley Jackson,Carlos Ruiz Zaf贸n,and Peter Straub would approve-this sets the bar for the best horror novel of the decade.Nevill's talent for horror resonates ominously in every scene,almost as if the theme from Jaws echoes when a page is turned.This emotionally intense,intellectually challenging supernatural novel explores secret geographies of conscience while raising hackles,and is addictively readable.Original,unsettling and genuinely scary,this is a book to be read only in daylight hours...As a seasoned reader of horror,I'm very pleased to say that House of Small Shadows is the most genuinely frightening book I have read in a very long time! In fact,I can honestly admit that I couldn't bring myself to read it alone,even though I thought I was long past being scared by a book.It is a mature modern horror novel and despite its supernatural trappings it never forgets there is an emotionally pain wracked individual at its core...Adam Nevill is driving the Ghost Train this year and I for one want to see where he takes us.Nevill's foray into folk horror is a nail-biting success.It will not be a surprise if plenty of new light bulbs are installed in readers'houses just so they never have to go to sleep in the dark again.Take it from me: reading House of Small Shadows late in the evening is likely to lead to some serious nightmares.Let's just say fans of the weird will find plenty of old dolls,grotesque puppets,twisted taxidermy and even worse things. Yet it is the expanding cloak of inescapable dread that Nevill conjures,like a coffin lid slowly closing over the reader,that is most impressive,leaving one breathless and more than a little disturbed. Horror novels don't get much better than this.House of Small Shadows - Adam Nevill: The best new horror novel I read all year.Adam Nevill is a continually compelling writer,in a genre that always needs a brave new voice in what might be called'mainstream'- breaking through with a technician's skill and a gift for setting,storytelling and characterisation that says strongly and with a fan's own intent,this may be the horror genre but it has emotional purpose and intelligence. In this sense,Adam Nevill is our answer at the moment.Another solid entry from Nevill who is becoming one of Britain's top horror writers and one that classic genre fans will enjoy.Part of you doesn't want to put it down because it's so good and the other part doesn't want to put it down because it's so scary.Reading about stuffed kittens all dressed up and taking tea is really creepy,believe me.I absolutely loved the experience of reading this book. Although,I've never been in a position before where I wanted to put a book down and walk away from it because of how creeped out I was. I got that this time. Totally new experience for me.Nevill exposes the reality of a natural human horror: falling deep into the bowels of insanity,never to find a way out.Dark fiction fans beware- reality and horror have never collided so seamlessly before. You may have to turn on a light.This is storytelling with substance,reinforced with a cast of well-drawn characters and a twisty good plot.I highly recommend The House of Small Shadows and,frankly,all of Nevill's work,to fans of horror fiction. He's an author whose work you will read once and become an instant,enduring fan. Highly,highly recommendedAdding his latest book to my reading blitz was a creepy delight. The book is twisted (to say the least) and to make this a simple blog post I will keep it to a one word description. "Creepy