"When
you're Dead," Samantha says, "you don't have to brush your
teeth."
"When
you're Dead," Claire says, "you live in a box, and it's always dark,
but you're not ever afraid."
Claire
and Samantha are identical twins. Their combined age is twenty years, four
months, and six days. Claire is better at being Dead than Samantha.
Right from the beginning, The Specialists Hat draws
you in with an eerie atmosphere. The story plays on some creepy aspects of the
simplicity of childhood. It is centered around a game that the twins play,
known as the dead game. The dead game consists of 3 rules:
1. Numbers
are significant
2. The
game is not played in front of grownups
3. The
most important rule. When you’re dead, you don’t have to be afraid of anything.
The story tells about
the twins Claire and Samantha, who move with their dad to a mansion known as
Eight Chimneys after their mother passes away. Their father has moved there for
the summer to research an unknown bad poet named Rash, who lived in the mansion
many years before. But the story then stated that the father began to spend
more and more time out in the woods than he does researching the poet. The
caretaker of the mansion, Mr. Coeslak, tells the children not to enter the
woods outside the mansion, or the attic. The woods are filled with copperhead
snakes, and the attic is haunted. One day the father decides he is going to the
woods later that night to have dinner with a woman he met there, and calls on
the caretaker to babysit the twins. The caretaker doesn’t dare stay in the
house overnight, but tells him that he will find someone to watch them.
The
babysitter arrives that night and they begin to play games with her. When they
decide she doesn’t seem like an adult, they invite her to play the dead game
with them. She then reveals to them that she had lived in the house once
before, and knows how to get into the attic. Once up there, the babysitter
shows the twins what she calls “The specialists hat”, an object that can make
any sound that you can imagine. But she also explains that it belongs to the
specialist, a mysterious figure that will take you away and eat you if it
catches you.
This
story is written with the simplistic tones of a child, creating a story that
explains things in a matter-of-fact way, but at the same time reveals nothing
about the world around the twins. It’s a very good story, but ends in what I’m beginning
to see is a Kelly Link specialty; leaving the story open ended and unresolved. But
instead of leaving the reader upset, it is done in a way that adds to the
mystery in the end.
I would recommend this story to
anyone that enjoys a good ghost story, but who won’t get too upset when only
one or two of the 10+ questions get answered.
To read this story, head to:
Chuck, I have to agree this is a very intriguing story. I really like the ghost story feel that it had through out the entire story. I thought that Kelly Link did some interesting things in this story.
ReplyDeleteThrough out the entire story there is an emphasis on numbers. This carries through. There is also lots of the bad poets poetry scattered through out. I liked this because each time it happened it broke up suspense, and added to the overall mystery of the story.
One thing I noticed is that it was in third person, but only had close connection with Samantha, never with Claire. I don’t know if there is any significance to this or nit, but I thought it was odd that only one of the twins got any close psychological attention.
The ending did frustrate me a little, because it was so open ended. There are thousands of things that could happen once the story ends. My guess is as good as any as to what really happened.
I enjoyed this story. I forgot how much I really like ghost stories until I read this. Thanks for reviewing it.
I really enjoyed reading this piece. I am developing a thing for Kelly Link's stories. I loved The Library and can definitely see the similarities in the writing style between the two stories. One thing that bothered me a little was the ending. Although The Library was open ended, I was more intrigued in the descriptions and complexity of the world she created than focused on figuring out what actually happened. However, in this piece I really did want to find our who exactly The Specialist was, and who was the father seeing in the forest. Was the babysitter the daughter of the man who lived there years ago? I got the impression that she was dead, and that possibly the twins were dead, at least by the end of the piece. I would have liked to have a few more things answered.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find most interesting about Kelly Link's writing is her imagination. I loved how one girl had grey eyes like cat fur and the other had grey eyes like the ocean after it rains. I also loved how Mr. Coeslak could tell the difference between them because of their eyes being two different kinds of grey instead of two different colors. This was really creative. Also, though it may seem a little morbid, I love the creepy details. Kelly Link makes this story have the perfect strangely creepy feel. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's not a normal creepy. Whereas some stories might say the man poisoned his wife, stabbed her, or strangled her to death, the man (not sure exactly who he is) gives his wife snake blood to drink and then they are born inside her and eat her alive. I thought that was awesome. I also love Kelly Link's subtle hints about what is going on, though I do wish she finally revealed more at the end. I like where the babysitter references rule number three that you aren't afraid of anything when you're dead. I am not sure I am correct about this, but it seemed to hint that the babysitter was actually dead.
Another thing I really liked about the piece was the very simplistic writing style. I am not sure how to explain it, but I feel her writing is down to the point. It isn't clouded with too many adjectives or description and it flowed really well. She goes on little tangents here and there, but they all mean something for the plot. I love the little poems placed throughout the piece. The only thing that I wish would be different is how everything comes together at the end. I wanted more resolution, at least a little!