At first the unpleasantness and petty meannesses appear simply spiteful, calculated to destroy Edward ‘ s equanimity. At Iyot Lock, a large decaying house, two young cousins, Leonora and Edward are parked for the summer with their ageing spinster aunt and her cruel housekeeper. The remoter parts of the English Fens are forlorn, lost and damp even in the height of summer. Doesn ‘ t this sound too familiar ? Rating : 2. Somebody finally musters up the courage to stand up to Emily and the mere courage finally vanquishes and banishes Emily from the house and all is well. The finale` effectively extinguished any little interest I might have had in reading more of Patricia Clapp. While this book might have ” thrilled and chilled ” the previous generation, several of the plot sequences are now often seen in our horror movies that they no longer can shock the modern reader. Little Emily satisfied me as an evil personified child and surprisingly shocked me with her cunning & temper tantrums than the ghost whose actions were downright tame. While the writing is engaging and keeps the reader invested in Jane ‘ s fate, Emily ‘ s antics as the malevolent spirit does not pack the punch to shock the reader ( atleast for me ) – a few were very much predictable. One simply covers them up, hides them somewhere, builds a wall so they cannot be discovered. Times when the chill within us comes not from fears we know, but from fears unknown – and forever unknowable. “ There are times when the midsummer sun strikes cold, and when the leaping flames of a hearthfire give no heat. or she will lose her innocent, helpless niece forever. Now Emily has dark plans for little Jane-a blood-chilling purpose that Louisa, just a girl herself, must battle with all her heart, soul, and spirit. Many years earlier, a child of rage and malevolence lived in this place. Jane stares into a reflecting ball in the garden - and the face that looks back at her is not her own.

Jane is nine years old and an orphan when she and her young Aunt Louisa come to spend the summer at Jane’s grandmother’s house, a large, mysterious mansion in Massachusetts.

Emily was a selfish, willful, hateful child who died before her thirteenth birthday.

Jane emily by patricia clapp