Monasteries rising and falling. Heretics and stakes and fire. There were rebellions and revolution and tales of abundance and happiness and new beginnings. Within the book there were also lies and omissions and fallacies all designed to gloss over a dark past many had long forgotten. Many but not all. The vacation of a lifetime.
Les Vacances
By philsloman
Yup, I know what you’re thinking. Posting a review on Christmas Day. Bit much, yeah?
The truth is, I was going to wait until tomorrow, but I got a block of free time right now and wanted to dive in and get this posted while I had it fresh in my mind. A bonus – a lot of folks get Amazon cards as gifts for Xmas, so I figured maybe my review can sway a few folks to snap a copy of this.
Truthfully, this book wasn’t on my radar until a few days ago. I’d not even heard of this release, as shameful as that sounds, but Dave Jeffery has been posting his Top Ten reads of the year list, one each day, and this one was featured the other day. If Dave loves it, I wanna dive in.
What I liked: ‘Les Vacances’ is a very fast story (I read it in about 45 minutes) about a married couple who, having gone to the vacation spot for a number of years, decide to mix things up. Where usually they’d head to the English countryside, Frank suggests that they stay at a small villa in France. Lizzy reluctantly agrees and off they go.
Sloman has a way with words. I believe it’s listed at 60 pages and not a single word or paragraph his wasted. We get whisked away to the French countryside and arrive at a small farm.
As you’d expect – this is horror after all – things go horrible wrong soon after. They discover some grave stones, Lizzie sees some things and before you know it you’ve finished reading this thing. And then all of the depravity sets in and you can’t fathom what’s just occurred. It truly is like a car crash. You see it happen, you can’t believe it and then a few hours later more insane details pop up.
I really enjoyed the setting here and while Sloman gives us a small peck on the cheek of history, we can connect the dots as to how horrible this little village truly is.
What I didn’t like: God, I hope Duncan Ralston doesn’t read this. Because I HATED the character of Lizzie and he’s convinced I always hate one of the significant others in each book I read. NOT TRUE RALSTON. But, in this case, I did! I just didn’t enjoy how Lizzie immediately resorted to thinking Frank had the hots for the hostess and how irrational she acted from the second they arrived. The set up suggested she was excited to go, but then it came off as she never wanted to go and that Frank wasn’t the love of her life. Irksome but definitely needed to show how the area hooked its tentacles into the psyche.
Why you should buy this: As I said, this is a very fast, brutal read. If you enjoy my own works, you’ll dig this. But more than that, Sloman is a very talented writer and he’s crafted a story that could easily be taken as a relative of something Adam Nevill would create. The setting in here is divine and the way the finale rolls out was spot on. Sloman has really delivered the goods with this novella and you really should dive in and see just how creeped out this book will make you.