4.5 "insightful, melancholic and atmospheric" stars !!!

2015 Honorable Mention Read

Mr. Harwood has written a very, very fine book here.

This book will appeal to those readers that love a Victorian Gothic that has elements of mystery, the supernatural, romantic and familial love and deeply etched characters that think thoroughly, feel deeply and reflect on their own and others actions.

At first I thought this book was a series of interconnected novellas and then they merge into a story that is dark, sad and full of an atmosphere of deep fog and chills both in the physical and psychological senses. Despite this characters are drawn to each other with a deep hunger for connection despite many losses, prolonged grieving and feelings of inferiority for some and malignant superiority in others.

I read this on a beach at 90 degrees Fahrenheit and yet I could honestly say I would shiver when reading this. The writing was that authentic.

I feel that the author truly understood the motivations of all his characters and despite their deep flaws could have them all come together to create a story so multilayered, complexly interesting and full of suspense and interesting parallels.

This book was only a few inches short of perfect. I won't state the slight flaw in it as I don't want to detract to how excellent I found this.

Mr. Harwood you have found yourself a new fan. I look forward to adding another one of your novels to my to be read list.four-ana-half-stars-books94 s karen3,994 171k

okay it is high time i remove myself from the victorian gothic for a little while - everything is blurring together... this one was fine, not great. there was just something a little cartoony about it - big house, hidden passages, suits of armor, harnessing lightning, mesmerism... the usual. good rainy day book though.

come to my blog! 47 s Kimberly1,789 2

THE SEANCE, by John Harwood is a gothic, Victorian-style mystery. I have to say that I really enjoyed the author's writing style, and will be searching out other books by him in the near future. Using the technique of telling the tale with a series of narratives written by various people, we are taken further back in time to the legends and stigma surrounding Wraxford Hall. This decaying manor is somehow traced back through the lineage and left to a young woman, Constance Langton--recently orphaned by parents that she never really felt "bonded" to.

Through the various diaries and narratives, we are given pieces of a puzzle going back decades, entwining many lives through its mysterious pages.

The menacing air hits immediately, and we are mere witnesses as Constance delves in deeper, determined to get at the root of what happened in that manor to make its reputation so bleak.

A great, slow-burning story for those who to build upon the atmosphere and characters while leading to the ultimate conclusion of a tale that has never been known before.

Recommended!gothic-style mystery victorian31 s Scarlett Readz and Runz....Through Novel Time & Distance470 464

I just finished this as part of a book group read and is not my usual type of read. As a fact, it’s my first “ghost” story I read….besides kids spooky Halloween comics.

Set in the later eighteen hundreds, Constance lost her sister and her grieving mother. At first it was my impression, that “The Séance” would take off as Constance takes her mother to see one, to make her feel better about her lost daughter. But that wasn’t so. The book is divided into many parts, timelines, and person’s views. It really gets confusing.

So according to the jacket of the book it reads: “…a gripping gothic thriller set in late Victorian England. It is a world of apparitions, of disappearances and unnatural phenomena, of betrayal and blackmail and black-hearted villains – murder.”

I can attest to the gloomy atmosphere, with fog, candlelight, dusty libraries, dark cellars, creaking floorboards, tombs and creepy churchyards. That all came well across by way of HarwoodÂ’s writing style.

“We think of the mind as enclosed within the narrow compass of the skull, but we could equally imagine a cavern filled with dark water and connected by some subterranean passage, to the limitless depths of the ocean, and think of each individual mind as a droplet of one great oceanic Mind which contains everything: all the gods and demons, the paradises and underworlds of every religion on earth, all history, all knowledge, everything that has ever happened. A mind upon which it could truly be said that nothing is lost, not so much as the fall of a sparrow...”
? John Harwood, The Seance

It was so confusing. I had a hard time reading it. But I finished it. Maybe someone else enjoys this kind of writing or I really just did not get it. I found the story to be not "gripping" me, and somehow I must have missed the climaxÂ….cause for me there was none!20 s Tony20 2

There is a good story here but it is buried beneath the tedium of excessive Victorian pleasantries and feints too clever for their own good. The late Nineteenth Century setting is perfect for this sort of story as superstition and mystery are still commonplace although being gradually worn away by the advance of science and technology. The characters attempt to provide rational and scientific explanations for phenomena but retain the hopes or beliefs that something supernatural may account for the goings-on, providing a fertile ground for charlatans and showmen to prey upon their imaginations. Things we take for granted today--and even those we don't yet understand--were easy pickings as avenues for knowledgeable people to control those with less inquisitive minds.

The story is told from the eyes of three different speakers, each one more depressing than the last. They are layered an onion (abcba) in such a way that by the time the reader returns to Constance's time (a in the onion), it is very easy to forget who she was! The sheer number of meaningless characters introduced in each section makes following who did what a chore. This can be desired in a more mundane whodunit, but the promise of something fantastical renders them annoyances. Couple this with a thoroughly unsatisfying ending and I'm afraid I cannot recommend or appreciate this work in its current form.

This is an enticing early draft of what could have been a solid homage to Doyle's Holmes. Another pass or two, including a weaving of the narratives rather than the current bookending of Constance's current timeline, would have created a much more immersive and enjoyable read.18 s Vanessa891 1,214

This book was a strange one. I went into this with low expectations, as I'd seen a review prior to picking this up which emphasised how little of the supernatural was present in the storyline. I honestly think The Séance as a title is incredibly misleading, implying ghosts and visions. This book is not that. It is a story set during the Victorian period, and is more of a mystery than anything else. The tagline is a more apt title.

It took me a while to read this, and it took a long time to get into it. I found with each part my interest intensifying, but it never got to that point where I couldn't put the book down. In fact, every time I did put it down, it made it a lot harder to pick back up. The story was interesting, but I never felt drawn to the characters, and although I was interested to see what twists and turns were ahead, I put it down with a sense of 'meh'. It was good but nothing special.17 s GigiAuthor 40 books1,359

This definitely satisfied my urge for a gothic mystery. gothic thriller-suspense13 s Michael423 53

Review from Badelynge
The Seance by John Harwood is set in the 1880s and is the story of Constance Langton. She becomes involved in spiritualism in an effort to lift her mother from the crippling grief of losing a child. Constance, due to the lack of regard and love from her parents has always had the nagging feeling that there is some mystery about her heritage, believing herself to be a foundling. Through diaries and journals and the aid of a world weary solicitor called Mr Montague she discovers a frightening legacy linking her to a crumbling deserted manor, Wraxford Hall, with a dark and murderous history. It's a brilliantly written homage to the Victorian mysteries and ghost stories of such classic authors as Wilkie Collins, Dickens, A.C. Doyle and M.R. James etc. It's full of styles, motifs, little references, names etc that will be familiar to fans of this area of literature. My personal favourite segments are those featuring the testimony of John Montague; with such a name it shouldn't surprise anybody to discover the style during these segments is an almost perfect homage to the ghost stories of Montague Rhodes James. It's a style I've seen attempted many times (I've tried it myself), but Harwood nails it flawlessly, bringing to mind stories Count Magnus, The Mezzotint, Lost Hearts and others. If the book had been able to maintain its creepy, portentous atmosphere throughout I'd have given it 5 stars but the last third, as it attempts to resolve the various strands of mystery, does become a little more pedestrian in style. It's still one of the best book I've read this year so far. 2011 ghost-story mystery ...more12 s Joe513 973

I made it as far as page 34 before giving up on The Seance. I can't tell you if the novel gets around to dealing with the supernatural in a practical way, or is more about a teenage girl dealing with spiritualism and the death of her sister in London of the Victorian Age.

It wouldn't make any difference to me if this was a classical ghost story or not if the story grabbed me. Either Hardwood is a tedious writer, or his editors approved the first 50 pages being tedious.

The entire novel reads a prologue better off being cut: "I had hoped that Mama would be content with regular messages from Alma but as the autumn advanced and the days grew shorter, the old haunted look crept back into her eyes ..."

Events are summed up and skimmed through as if Hardwood is in a hurry to get somewhere, but as near as I can tell, the entire novel is written this. A magnificent cover design wasted on a book I'm abandoning and an author I'll probably never read again, unless I need a sleeping agent.abandoned11 s1 comment Tracey432 91

How do you your Victorian gothic ghost story mysteries?
What makes it cut the mustard?
Do you need a big old ramshackle, spooky mansion? What about a haunted wood with the ghost of a monk that if you see you are as not to die? And don't forget spiritualism, lighting strikes, menacing villains, untimely death, clairvoyance. a suit of armour, a slow building but not plodding plot reminiscent of Wilkie Collins The woman in white and don't forget mesmerism.
Well John Harwood has managed to recapture this in a story that could have been written in the Victorian times.
It is brooding and has plenty of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the end.
The multiple narrators which at the start felt to me stories within themselves all came together and were interwoven with some skill by the author.
All in all a very satisfying read. For me it captures the feeling and the genre in buckets.
4 ****11 s Hannah798

I rated John Harwood's debut novel, The Ghost Writer, 2 stars, but this second novel is definitely a big improvement, and kept me interested (and creeped out) the entire time I was reading it.

The Seance is certainly a send up of all the classic Victorian gothics of the 19th century, (without all the flowery and overly melodramatic dialogue). Harwood's prose is almost flawless in it's execution, and he is a master in drawing the reader into an implausible world and making them believers in it.

From the very first paragraph, I was hooked on the story, and could hardly bare to put it down late last night, even though I was too sleepy to continue. Yes, it was that kind of good, and deliciously spooky as well. I would have given it a full 5 stars had the ending been as tightly woven as the rest.




Thanks to my GR friend Amy S. for pointing me in the direction of this one. It was certainly one of the better gothics I've picked up in 2011.
2011-reads gothics spookies9 s Blair1,841 5,220

After a somewhat dry and uninspiring start, this book developed into an excellently crafted and superbly chilling cross between a period mystery and a ghost story. I was impressed with the author's handling of both plot and characterisation; though the narrative is composed of personal accounts written by different characters at different times, it flows perfectly, and the ending ties up a great deal of loose ends without seeming implausible. The only thing I was unsure about was the juxtaposition of Eleanor Wraxford's suffering at the hands of her husband with the ghosts-and-spirits creepiness of the rest of the story - the former was frightening in a very human way and I don't think it sat too comfortably within a pleasurably spooky read this.2000s-release ghosts-and-horror historical ...more8 s Beth The Vampire321 21

ACTUAL RATING 3.5 STARS

The Séance was a nice little gothic story will all the usual tropes of the genre; a haunted house, a haunted heroine, and a mystery. While I did find the second act much too long, and the ending of the story had a few holes in it, it was a mostly enjoyable tale that did hold a lot of tragedy, a dash of suspense, and just a tinge of death.

The story is initially told from the narrative of Constance Langton and her unhappy adolescent years caring for her mother as she grieves her youngest child. After her suicide, and feeling that she doesnÂ’t have anything left, Constance finds she is the last remaining female relative of the current owner of Wraxford Hall, and she is due to inherit the hall and the Monks Woods surrounding it. The lawyer for the estate, John Montague, comes to find Constance and to tell her about the troubled history surrounding the Hall, and begs her to destroy the home once and for all.

Sell the hall unseen; burn it to the ground and plough the earth with salt, if you will; but never live there.

We then switch to John MontagueÂ’s narrative, and then we hear from Eleanor Unwin, who later becomes Nell Wraxford. Their narrative tells the tale of Cornelius WraxfordÂ’s disappearance, and his nephew Magus taking over the Hall, and then his disappearance, along with Nell (his wife) and their daughter. This is where it all becomes quite confusing, with Nell framed for the murder of Magnus, as well as her child, but Constance believes that neither are really dead, and that she herself is the daughter of Nell Wraxford. There is a lot of attempting framing, diversions, and lies, and it all seems overly complicated at times. I was surprised at the ending, but then I was left to wonder what it was all for really. I mean, Nell did escape from a horribly emotionally abusive relationship, but why did Magnus fake his own death, and what did he really believe came of Nell? The final confrontation at Wraxford Hall did feel a bit contrived towards the end.

Eleanor, or Nell, was the perfect Gothic heroine. Since I just studied the Female Gothic, there were a lot of patters I could see, specially her seeing marriage as a way out of her dire situation, and how she was trapped inside her home with the baby all the time who people felt she was building an unhappy attachment too. There was also her fear of being put in an asylum, by her mother or her husband, and trying to determine whether she herself is seeing things or if she does have some kind of ability. The supernatural element was more subdued that I would have d to see, but in the end it served NellÂ’s rouse about her disappearance. But still, it left a lot unanswered about this side of the story.

The novel was well written and had some very thorough characterisation, but the mystery itself was a tad convoluted, and the ending wasnÂ’t the climax I was hoping for.gothic stand-alone-novels7 s Ashlyn Hunt59 6


The Séance was a case of mistaken judging-by-cover. I proclaim that I'm savvier than buying a book based on the design of its marketing leaf, so I must add that I did read the synopsis, as well. But it mislead me too.

John Harwood is a beautiful writer - he truly captures landscape, and is gifted in the art of description. But the plot itself was over-processed with a very large finale fizzle. I felt that the story was humdrum. The Victorian research was brilliant and even the story had potential - but it just lacked in that pull-factor. I held on because I'm an author who loves a talented word conceptualist - and I was lured by his skill. However, the creative aspect needed a caffeine boost.

I recommend this story to aspiring authors seeking writing models, but not to the reader seeking entertainment. ~ Ashlyn Hunt
7 s Terry387 87

I enjoyed this quite a bit. It was a good mystery, and each time I thought I knew which way it was going, it went a totally different way. By the end, it all made sense though. I thought the writing was very good, and I really enjoyed the Victorian setting. It felt right to read this in October. Thanks to my friends for an excellent buddy-read as well!2018-book-challenge horror7 s Hilary225 37

Almost the best thing I can say about this book is "I d the cover". It's a pastiche of the great Victorian Gothic novel, with overtones of Wilkie Collins. Sadly, the great Victorian public had more patience and more time on their hands than I do, and had also been less exposed to popular culture (there having been less of it around at the time) and were thus possibly less able to predict every. Last. Word of the storyline. There are no twists and no surprises: it does exactly what it says on the tin.[return][return]To be fair, I quite enjoyed the first section, the saga of poor, sad Constance with her unloving father and her melancholic mother and how her urge to help said mother leads her to the fatal path of spiritualism, but as disaster and woe piled on disaster and woe I was, once again, irresistibly reminded of Edward Gorey. When the perspective shifted and the next narrator took up the story I found myself skipping and, in the end, just read the last section, in which Constance picks up the narrative again, and found that, actually, I had missed almost nothing at all.[return][return]I will give it credit for this. On learning that her nursemaid's mother had had five children die, Constance naturally assumes that she must have been even more grief-stricken than Constance's own mother, who had lost only one child. "But no, said Annie, there had been no time for mourning; her mother had been too busy looking after the rest of them." Melancholia was and, I suppose, still is, strictly a middle-class privilege.fiction goes it ...more6 s Marie Helene70 15

Here comes Wraxford Hall, and estate with a past...

First of all, The Seance was a buddy-read, and a very enjoyable one
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