Review: Miramont's Ghost by Elizabeth Hall

Miramont’s Ghost

By Elizabeth Hall

Published by Lake Union Publishing (an Amazon imprint), January 2015

Free as part of Amazon Kindle First for Prime members
Link: Amazon

Rating: Two Stars (out of five)

NOTE: This review contains mild plot spoilers.

I didn’t like this book.  I didn’t dislike it because it’s badly written (it’s not) or because all of the characters are horrible people (some of them aren’t).  I disliked it for two story-related reasons: it is relentlessly gloomy and it uses sexual violence and exploitation as cheap plot points.  The main character, Adrienne, has inherited her maternal grandmother’s clairvoyance, and her tyrannical Aunt Marie fears she may spread family secrets to the world.  Most of Miramont’s Ghost chronicles Marie’s attempts to silence Adrienne, and because Marie is virtually the only character with a backbone, reading this novel often feels like watching a dictator take over a small country.

The novel begins by describing Adrienne’s childhood in late-nineteenth-century France, including her close relationships with her grandfather and her governess.  In the middle, there’s a brief and rather sweet romance plot, in which Adrienne falls in love with the son of a diplomat.  Each of these relationships introduces some light into Adrienne’s life and into the novel, but each of them is taken from her in a more or less traumatic fashion.  Eventually, Marie takes Adrienne to Manitou Springs, Colorado, removing her even from her indifferent father, weak-willed mother, and powerless though affectionate siblings.

Marie’s son, the priest Father Julien, also lives in Manitou Springs.  While Marie is Adrienne’s primary antagonist, Julien commits the worst violence against her and robs her of her will to fight back against Marie.  Marie’s dominance of Adrienne (and everyone else) is unpleasant to read about, but it makes sense in the overall scheme of the novel.  Julien’s violence, however, feels like it was put there simply to justify Adrienne’s passiveness in the face of Marie’s machinations. 

I recognize that Hall is attempting to dramatize the history and legends surrounding Miramont Castle in Manitou Springs and is therefore somewhat constrained by fact.  However, while history may excuse the novel’s gloom, it doesn’t make the (graphic) sexual violence any less gratuitous. Ulitmately, Miramont’s Ghost is not a story about the effects of sexual violence.  It’s a story that uses sexual violence to make a bad situation worse, and as a reader I felt both depressed and manipulated.  Were it not for the manipulation, I would probably have given the book three stars, as it is reasonably well-written and engaging enough in spite of the gloom to keep me reading until the very, very bitter end.