Will Maclean's Solace House is an immensely fun gothic horror novel with a psychedelic twist, set in a dead poet's cluttered mansion. The story is a heady brew of magic, mystery, and mushrooms that keeps readers engaged from start to finish.
A Self-Deprecating Wink
One character remarks on seeing Solace House for the first time: "Gothic always tries too hard." This self-deprecating wink is typical of a novel that throws everything—including the kitchen sink—at the problem of writing a good old-fashioned piece of gothic weird fiction. The present of the novel is the summer of 1993, though as timey-wimey events unfold, that phrase becomes harder to sustain.
Alex Lane's Predicament
Alex Lane stays alone in his university hall of residence after other students leave for the holidays. He is broke, lonely, and freaked out by a sinister pale boy named Adam, the only other student on campus. Unable to go home due to an unspecified family trauma involving what he calls "The Last Day" and "The Annihilator," Alex faces eviction. Just in time, he is offered holiday work clearing out an old asylum called Marshlands, next to a decrepit gothic mansion named Solace House.
The Clean-Up Crew
The weird pale boy Adam is also on the clean-up crew, alongside early 90s student archetypes: Helen the Christian, obnoxious stoned Clive, goth Ruth, new-agey Leo keen on psychedelics, beautiful gay Malcolm, and red-haired bewitching Ella, with whom Alex falls into bed, much to Adam's apparent rage. Joints are smoked, cheap red wine and spaghetti bolognese are consumed, and pretentious banter is exchanged.
The Mad Poet Edwin Flayne
Solace House was the home of Edwin Flayne, a recluse and hoarder who died at 102. He was madder than Mad Jack McMad, winner of last year's Mr Madman competition, and also a poet. His blithering epic in terrible quatrains is reproduced as chapter epigraphs. The house is stacked floor to ceiling with old newspapers and knackered knick-knacks, with tunnels barely wide enough to navigate. A mysterious telephone rings unanswered somewhere deep inside.
Occult Mysteries
Solace House stands at a "thin place" where emanations from other worlds seep through. Edwin Flayne pursued demented maths and dark magic, mysteries man was not meant to know. His beloved mother was a redhead named Ella, and both Adam and Alex's full names, as acrostics, spell out the name of Flayne's father Abel. There is a hedge maze, an ancient cavern, and everyone's grip on reality becomes hinky. Eventually, everyone takes a massive amount of magic mushrooms.
Comparisons and Influences
The strongest comparator is the TV franchise True Detective, but behind it stand Arthur Machen, Charles Williams, and HP Lovecraft. Other flavours include The Secret History and House of Leaves (though it is no House of Leaves). There is even a whiff of The Children of Green Knowe and some occult territory shared with Francis Spufford's Nonesuch. It is a great hotchpotch of all that good stuff, working hard to entertain and spook the reader. The 500-odd pages whip by.
Final Verdict
If you had to mark it down, you would say it is a bit overstuffed, and Maclean scrabbles when trying to gesture at ineffable mind-mangling realms beyond time, space, and human comprehension. But that is the nature of those realms. Gothic tries too hard, and it has to. If this is your jam, you will love it. There is a clever and satisfying twist towards the end that even makes sense of the terrible poetry.
Solace House by Will Maclean is published by Atlantic. To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
