Book: House of Dark Shadows
Author: Robert Liparulo
Lesson: Show, don’t tell
Okay, so it’s an old one, but man this book made me realize how important it was. The story is about a family who moves into clearly haunted house and discover that it’s not haunted, but there are several doors in a locked attic that lead to other worlds and times. So it’s a magically teleporting house, since there’s another door that just teleports them to school.
The thing that irked me about the book, though, was the main character. We are told that he is a teenager. We are told he makes movies. We are told that he left his girlfriend behind and didn’t want to move. None of his actions reflect any of this at all.
I kept thinking, how hard would it be to have him call his girlfriend back home? He’s a kid in modern times. Cell phone. Just call her. You can do loads of exposition there and cut that part out of his life entirely after that, since he never mentions back home again, nor does he even think to call anyone back there at any other time in the story. It all felt like exposition that was there because the author felt like it’s what teenagers should do, but none of it was acted out so I didn’t believe any of it. Like when that friend’s aunt tells you her daughter you’ve never met has a lovely singing voice. Nod, smile, hope something interesting starts soon.
It is also not hard to have him with a camera in his hands from the beginning. Or if he’s just got it on him more often than randomly in the latter half of the book. The only reason I even remembered he wanted to make movies at all is because that point bothered me so much at the beginning. He could be working on a script between the weirdness of the house, even, or trying to talk his brother and sister into being cast and crew.
Long story short, if I don’t see it, I don’t believe you. Show, don’t tell.
Hmmm….I remember Xander have him camera quite a few times AND calling or texting his gf once (explaining that she had already moved on). He uses the camera more in book two, but if he is calling his gf and filming things during the events of the book, I’d have him committed. I think this is a very well crafted series. One of my favorites.
*Xander having the camera
(sorry, writing fast)
I don’t remember him even having a camera on him until his brother went through one of the doors, honestly. And I would have liked to see him call one of his friends when the house starts turning weird, or even doing a video tour of the house to post on Youtube to show his friends back home. I remember when I moved, I called my friends back home frequently until school got back in, talking about how weird it was in my new place and I wish I was back there.
If it’s better in the second book, though, I may have to continue with the series.