Thomas Tessier
Fog Heart (1997)
Author: Thomas Tessier
Genre: Horror (Ghosts/Haunting and Psychological)
Plot Summary:
Three “couples” are haunted by ghosts/hidden tragedies. Oona is a medium living with her half-sister. Charley and Jan, who lost a small child in a fire, visit Oona believing that their dead daughter has a message. Oliver’s wife Carrie is visited by her dead father. Carrie asks Oona for help deciphering his warning. Witnessing Oona’s savage trances and hearing the voices of dead relatives, Carrie and Jan believe in Oona’s power. Oliver and Charley are more skeptical until Oona begins to reveal secrets that only Oliver or Charley would know. Oona’s clients and their secrets threaten the lives of all involved. SPOILER: Oliver keeps several girls on the side who enjoy s&m; often, he kills them. His wife is clueless. She lives but finds Oliver decaying in an acid bath after he was wounded killing Oona’s sister, who tried to kill him because he found out Oona killed a girl at age 11. Jan’s 3-month-old was attacked by ravens when Jan left the baby for several minutes in the yard. Jan started a fire to get rid of her daughter’s body, hoping she would die, too. Charley didn’t know about the ravens, blames himself, and tries to save Jan from killing herself but fails. In the end, Charley and Carrie (mostly innocent) are the only ones alive.
Geographical Settings: NYC, Yale/Conn., London, Germany, Ireland, and India
Time Period: contemporary (1997)
Appeal Characteristics:
The book is character-focused, with much attention to personal histories and individual thoughts. Slow at times; secrets are revealed gradually. The author is descriptive with personal tragedies, death, and sex. The tone is bleak, although humor sneaks in very rarely. Charley studies Irish Lit., so many references to writers, poems, and alcoholism are included. Oliver is an entrepreneur who used to manage a British rock band--business and band lingo.
Red Flags: brief descriptions of s&m, sex between sisters, extramarital affairs; detail in describing violence, murder, suicide; ghosts and demons; lots of alcohol
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