Wylding Hall by Elizbeth Hand

Author: Elizabeth Hand
Publisher: OPen Road Media
Date of publication:  February 2015

When the young members of a British acid-folk band are compelled by their manager to record their unique music, they hole up at Wylding Hall, an ancient country house with dark secrets. There they create the album that will make their reputation, but at a terrifying cost: Julian Blake, the group’s lead singer, disappears within the mansion and is never seen or heard from again.

Now, years later, the surviving musicians, along with their friends and lovers—including a psychic, a photographer, and the band’s manager—meet with a young documentary filmmaker to tell their own versions of what happened that summer. But whose story is true? And what really happened to Julian Blake?

 Wylding Hall was another random pick from my library's Overdrive site.  I didn't really know anything about the book going into it.  I was hoping I was going to get a spooky ghost story.  Sadly, I didn't find it here. I honestly can say that I really didn't care for this book.  I only finished it because it was so short. The premise of the story is that in the early 70s, a band retreated to a house in the country to work on a new album. By the end of the summer, the lead singer, Julian, disappears.

The story is told in documentary interview style.  I'm not sure this really worked for me. It was hard to remember who was talking.  The same parts of the story were retold a few times making it kind of redundant. The multiple points of view made it hard to get a feel that something was really wrong with the house.  There is a little gotcha (maybe sorta) moment in the end, but it just fell short. I was left with more questions in the end and still have no idea what happened to Julian.  This could have been such a great ghost story.  Sadly, it just wasn't.