The New York Times bestseller by the author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas | Named One of the Best Books of the Year by San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, National Post, BookPage, and Kirkus Reviews Keep your eyes peeled for a small black iron door. Down the road from a working-class British pub, along the brick wall of a narrow alley, if the … working-class British pub, along the brick wall of a narrow alley, if the conditions are exactly right, you’ll find the entrance to Slade House. A stranger will greet you by name and invite you inside. At first, you won’t want to leave. Later, you’ll find that you can’t. Every nine years, the house’s residents—an odd brother and sister—extend a unique invitation to someone who’s different or lonely: a precocious teenager, a recently divorced policeman, a shy college student. But what really goes on inside Slade House? For those who find out, it’s already too late. . . .
Spanning five decades, from the last days of the 1970s to the present, leaping genres, and barreling toward an astonishing conclusion, this intricately woven novel will pull you into a reality-warping new vision of the haunted house story—as only David Mitchell could imagine it.
Praise for Slade House
“A fiendish delight . . . Mitchell is something of a magician.”—The Washington Post
“Entertainingly eerie . . . We turn to [Mitchell] for brain-tickling puzzle palaces, for character studies and for language.”—Chicago Tribune
“A ripping yarn . . . Like Shirley Jackson’s Hill House or the Overlook Hotel from Stephen King’s The Shining, [Slade House] is a thin sliver of hell designed to entrap the unwary. . . . As the Mitchellverse grows ever more expansive and connected, this short but powerful novel hints at still more marvels to come.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Like Stephen King in a fever . . . manically ingenious.”—The Guardian (U.K.)
“A haunted house story that savors of Dickens, Stephen King, J. K. Rowling and H. P. Lovecraft, but possesses more psychic voltage than any of them.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Tightly crafted and suspenseful yet warmly human . . . the ultimate spooky nursery tale for adults.”—The Huffington Post
“Diabolically entertaining . . . dark, thrilling, and fun . . . a thoroughly entertaining ride full of mind games, unexpected twists, and even a few laughs.”—The Daily Beast
“Plants died, milk curdled, and my children went slightly feral as I succumbed to the creepy magic of David Mitchell’s Slade House. It’s a wildly inventive, chilling, and—for all its otherworldliness—wonderfully human haunted house story. I plan to return to its clutches quite often.”—Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl and The Grownup
“I gulped down this novel in a single evening. Painstakingly imagined and crackling with narrative velocity, it’s a Dracula for the new millennium, a reminder of how much fun fiction can be.”—Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
“David Mitchell doesn’t break rules so much as he proves them to be inhibitors to lively intelligent fiction.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz
more
Good haunted house book. It didn’t grab me initially, but gets better with each chapter. By the time I got to 1997 I couldn’t put it down.
Quite a bit different spin on the ghost story. I really enjoyed the twist on the paranormal.
Boring
Was somewhat interesting, but ultimately not that satisfying.
I don’t want to spend time in a universe with unstoppable soul vampires. Give me dementors any day, at least people with powers can deal with them.
Down a back alley is a small door, leading to an improbably large garden and exceptional house. Over decades, people are lured inside, with the promise of fulfilment. Fulfilment lurks within, but not for them.
Mitchell has often stated he’s writing an ‘über-novel’, with each of his books as chapters in it. Characters reappear, themes recur, motifs abound and certain questions are addressed from a variety of angels. Slade House is a whimsical chapter, an example of the author extrapolating and enjoying himself by delving into a plotline overtly from The Bone Clocks but less visibly, Cloud Atlas.
This ghost story began life as Mitchell’s Twitter tale, told in 140 character chunks. Its origins and length make it perfect for a dark and stormy night in front of the fire. Nods and winks to conventions of storytelling, haunted houses and fantastically alluring predators reminiscent are familiar. The author’s trademark brilliance with voice and character sparkles as the victims’ stories are told through the prism of their own egos. References to the various periods are subtly flagged making this an ideal Christmas Eve TV adaptation.
There are some goosebumpy, skin-shivery moments, an increasing sense of menace and several hearty laughs. It’s not quite the Michelin feast of Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green or The Bone Clocks, but it is extremely satisfying, rather like cheesy-beans-on-Marmite-toast.
A twist an turn story, that has you question what’s real and what’s not.
Wonderfully described details, put you right in the action. Found the story very original. Typically not the type of book I would read, but was glad I did.
A bit too weird. I found it hard to suspend disbelief.
I usually enjoy reading haunting stories but this one, for some reason, was rather boring to me and I was glad that I finally finished it. I suppose others would enjoy this as it is a bit of a different type of ghost story.
This book is a trip – in the best possible way. I finished it relatively quickly, in part because it’s easy to read, but mostly because it’s so engaging. You never entirely know what’s going down, but more and more pieces are revealed as the book progresses that you’re rooting for the ending. Great read.
Enjoy his writing. Have enjoyed others more.
A different take on vampire stories. Well written, unusual in concept, and well-executed.
really original concept. It will stay with you after the last page.
I hated this book stopped reading
not mitchell’s best…but an engaging read, and cleverly done ghost story.
I did not find this book to be up to my expectations. Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clock were both fascinating, in which I found his command of the English language to be superb and riveting. Slade House was pedestrian in comparison.
This book was the same story over and over again. I was disappointed in it.
Suspenseful. Interesting take on ghost story.
Very suspenseful.
The premise of the book is too fantastic to even begin to be enjoyable. The writer skips back & forth from different time periods & expects the reader to follow with very few clues what is happening. There wasn’t a single character (among the way too many) presented in a way that I could empathize with. The book is not well written – could be something conjured up by a first year creative writing student.