What lingers afterwards is how wonderfully creepy this novel is. Readers will find These Things Linger a fantastic combination of paranormal horror and literary fiction. It is a tale of a haunting, but Franklin’s delivery and the depth of his characters make this a unique ghost story. Franklin unspools the terror in a fashion reminiscent of contemporary gothic literature, The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas or Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, except that the protagonist is male.
Alex is a young man on the edge of his future. He is starting a new career and building a prosperous, fulfilling life with his fiancé, Raychel and their soon-to-born child. He abandons a past and a world that he no longer belongs to, but then a family crisis forces him to confront those he has left behind. The novel immerses the reader in the trauma of its protagonist, framing the horror as deeply personal and intimate. Readers of classic gothic horror and literary fiction will appreciate the reflexivity and character-based approach Franklin takes; indeed, the unraveling of Alex’s sanity is what makes These Things Linger so successful as a horror novel.
Story aside, the novel is well-crafted. Franklin’s prose invokes more than just imagery, it builds an affect of fear, successfully persuading this reader to keep reading well into the night. Despite an occasional clichéd metaphor or turn of phrase, Franklin’s authorial voice is clear, confident, and distinct. Independently published novels often suffer from fractured writing, fuzzy characters, or clipped stories; but, These Things Linger does not. Alex, Lacey, Raychel, Uncle Matty, and Buzz are fully tangible characters. The novel’s tempo is swift (here is where it diverges from the typical gothic horror); the pace at which the secrets of Alex’s life are revealed to the reader produces a compulsion to read on.
These Things Linger deserves a spot in your To Be Read List. If it is already on your TBR, it ought to be moved up in the queue.
Dr JoAnn LoSavio 