Book of the Week #55 "For Elise"

For Elise

by Hayden Wand

When the narrator's great aunt passed away, she left him a large sum of money, simply to keep her more bothersome relatives from obtaining it. Coming into the money, the narrator quit his fast food job and bought a Queen Anne Victorian house upon learning it was haunted. The great house seems to be the perfect place to launch his writing career given the folklore attached to it. He expects tattered white dresses, rattling chains and eerie moans, yet instead he finds that his ghost has a taste for Frank Sinatra and editing with a red pen that is mightier than any sword. He is surprised when he finds a teenage girl has been haunting him. Recovering from his shock, he goes to the local library in hopes of finding out why Elise has been in his house for so many years.

This novelette is delightfully quirky. It'd be the perfect thing to read as you are waiting for guests to arrive for your Halloween party this year. It's humorous and touching at the same time. I love the witty style Hayden writes in as the narrator seems to be joking at his own expense. And the setting.... I love Victorian houses, and reading a book that is based around one was a treat for me. Plus all the little details, like the narrator using an old fashioned typewriter for his first drafts, and Elise, having passed in the 1940s, still dressed in the fashion of her youth. It's all-together charming.

All in all, For Elise is just the thing to read on crisp fall day. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a humorous ghost story with an air of mystery.

I give this book a 4 out of 5.