Book review: Florence and Giles by John Harding

Florence and her younger brother Giles live in a largely abandoned homestead in 1891 New England. They have been placed there under the guardianship of their uncle, an ominous, omniscient presence throughout this old-school gothic tale, despite his physical absence.

Initially left to their own devices, the children lead a kind of magical existence lost for hours, even days, at a time in their fantasy world - until Giles is sent away to school.

Their uncle refuses to allow Florence to be schooled, so she educates herself, secreted for hours in the house's vast library, concocting convoluted escape plans and hidey holes.

Her imagination is captivated by Shakespeare's fondness for creating his own words and Florence begins to speak and write in her own made-up language, familiar enough that you can understand her, off-kilter enough that it lends her narration a chilly creepiness.

Giles, unable to cope with the rigours of a boys' boarding school, is sent home to be taught by a flighty, possibly gold-digging, governess. When she meets with an unfortunate accident she is replaced by the infinitely more sinister Miss Taylor.

From here the plot spirals into Edgar Allan Poe or Turn of the Screw-style spookiness. Florence is convinced the governess is an evil spirit hellbent on wooing the milksop Giles. Harding winds things nice and taut through about 85 per cent of the book.

That he has Florence narrate means you see events and people only through her eyes and described in her peculiar self-consciously odd language. It creates a brilliant tension where the reader knows something wicked is this way coming, but with little clue as to the direction. The eeriness pervades like a dank fog. Even in their happiest moments there is an oddness to these children that pushes you on even when the story arc lags a little.

Though this is a short book, there's a lot of set-up and Florence's language, although adding to the atmosphere, detracts from too close a connection with her as a guide. And then, suddenly, after all that slow creeping tension, the story explodes in a frenetic finale, which, while dramatic and startling, loses some impact and clarity in its hastiness.

Despite its flaws, this is a good, clever, modern take on old-style American gothic; a creepy haunted house tale in which the living are just as eerie as any real or imagined ghouls.

* Florence and Giles, John Harding, Blue Door, $29.99