“An absolute master of modern horror. And a damn fine writer at that” – Guillermo del ToroFeatured in Booklist’s Top SF/Fantasy & Horror of 2020.Patrick Torrington’s aunt Thelma was a successful artist whose late work turned towards the occult. While staying with her in his teens he found evidence that she used to visit magical sites. As an adult he discovers her journal of her explorations, … he discovers her journal of her explorations, and his teenage son Roy becomes fascinated too. His experiences at the sites scare Patrick away from them, but Roy carries on the search, together with his new girlfriend. Can Patrick convince his son that his increasingly terrible suspicions are real, or will what they’ve helped to rouse take a new hold on the world?
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THE WISE FRIEND, by Ramsey Campbell, is a slow-burn horror novel that delves into legends, folklore, psychological horror, and even touches on the occult.
Patrick and his teenaged son, Roy, have always been fascinated by Patrick’s “semi-famous” Aunt Thelma’s artwork. Her mysterious, inexplicable death only serves to heighten the aura of mystery surrounding her.
“. . . It felt as if she’d started hiding details in her work she didn’t want the rest of us to understand.”
Campbell’s eloquent writing style begins innocuously enough, but before you even realize it, the dread and fear begin to creep up on you.
“If you don’t go where other people won’t . . . you’ll never see what’s to be seen.”
Enter into their lives, Bella, a girl approximately young Roy’s age, that encourages him to retrace the last steps his Great-Aunt took in her quest for artistic inspiration. Although Patrick is . . . uneasy . . . for some reason, he is also pulled into her enthusiasm and obsession.
“. . . if you have to keep secrets you must know they’re better kept hidden.”
Campbell really builds his characters well. They become 3-D individuals as opposed to mere names on a page. The emotions he is able to evoke are one of the things–I feel–make him such a phenomenal storyteller.
The locations he choses also feel as if they have a life of their own. They are characters, of a sort, in their own way, and just as essential to the set-up of the plot.
“. . . I saw that the whole of the forest . . . was a single shade of lurid green, the expression of a solitary underlying presence . . . ”
Overall, I found this story to be deceptively clever in its execution. Things seem “innocent” enough, until the little tidbits begin to catch up in your mind.
Then, everything changes.
“. . . you can’t unlearn what you’ve learned.”
This is a solid tale of slow-building terror from one of the masters of horror.
Recommended.
The Wise Friend is a lyrical and trippy build of the uncanny to a crescendo of the weird. No one writes horror like Ramsey Campbell, or transforms the mundane world in such strange, ghastly and wondrous ways. Still the most distinctive living voice in the field. The Poet Laureate of the supernatural in fiction.
Ramsey is the man!
The Wise Friend was a slow burner of a horror tale and I must admit I did struggle to get into it to start with and I found the jump of each chapter time line changing a little confusing. The story itself was like a say a slow burner, Patrick’s aunt Thelma was a very successful artist and before her death saw her work take turn toward the dark and occult. Her death was ruled a suicide but some time later Patrick’s son Roy wants to know more about Thelma, and they embark on a journey of sorts to visit the landscapes she painted, each of which features a shadowy person, to see if they can shed any light on her life and ultimately her death.
I have to admit once I got going I did enjoyed this atmospheric horror, the places that Patrick and Roy visit are vividly described by Campbell and he has a knack of putting you there and all the feelings these places will evoke in you.
4 star read for me
‘The Wise Friend’ by the legendary horror author, Ramsey Campbell, is one of those dark, creeping tales that you can feel coming from around the corner. Instinctively, you know that just ahead out of sight, something bad awaits.. and you feel both averse to discovering what it is and in a hurry to get it over with.
This book is that scraping sound of something sharp.. but ragged.. being drawn along the inside of your walls as you pace along the outside listening.
It has been so many years since I’ve read a Ramsey Campbell story, I’d forgotten what it was truly like. I’d retained the summary of feelings. His name continued to stand out in my head as a hugely influential master of horror.. having helped shape my taste in the genre as a teen, but I’d never read a full novel of his that I can recall. They’d always been short stories included in other anthologies. Though, even here.. he’d been impactful.
I certainly wasn’t disappointed by this title either, which is loosely about the story of a man who’d discovered as a teen that his aunt at the time had possibly been visiting magical sites which had affected her paintings in a startling way. Now, years later as an adult, his son and his son’s girlfriend have become fascinated with the late aunt’s work and both have been going back and visiting those sites themselves.
The result is a slow build of cold fear, the kind you want to turn the lights on and chase away. Even as you begin to see what’s actually happening about midway through the novel, you realize that isn’t really what matters. The story is definitely about the journey and the helplessness you feel along the way.. the absolute uncertainty as to how things will turn out at the end, despite the wealth of knowledge you’ve garnered.
I’ve seen mentioned, here and there, that this book is difficult to get into.. but I challenge that statement. What initially gives that impression is the sheer density of Campbell’s writing style. Though the story is of average length, there’s so much more depth packed into the occurances than one typically sees in modern fiction.
Reading ‘The Wise Friend’ was like flexing a muscle I rarely use.. like re-learning the motor functions of a limb that’s been numb for too long. It made me realize how much current works have just made me a bit of a lazy reader. Even compared to my science or philosophy titles, things are just written in a much simpler, more direct manner today.. and Campbell still knows how to weave a tale expertly in that traditional structure.
If you’re a fan of classic 20th century horror authors like Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, and Richard Matheson, you do not want to miss this book. It’s a fantastic glimpse of what the strength of a writer can really exemplify. There’s less time spent on how a character looks and dresses to fill a page.. and more time invested in how they make others feel.. how those others might be affected by their very surroundings.. even their own memories.. at times.
Honestly, I can’t say enough good things about this book. I have been humbled by reading it and feel as if I’ll look on modern horror stories with refreshed eyes.
(More reviews like this at Betwixt The Sheets.)
(I received this title as an ARC. All opinions are mine and freely given.)
A truly thrilling and intriguing read. I loved the complexity and layers the characters and history added to the plot. This book was the first i have read from this author and it was great to read he is from Liverpool. The suspense throughout kept the reader on edge. Well thought out and researched book. Highly recommend.