The freakiest scenes of British screenwriter Will Maclean’s hair-raising, devilishly clever second novel, Solace House, could be attributed to psychedelic mushrooms, garden variety insanity or, if you squint, glitches in the matrix. On the other hand, some bad, otherworldly juju may be at play.
Alex, our narrator, is a 19-year-old student at The Ridge, a college found somewhere in Britain. As an orphan, the end of the term finds him with nowhere to go. Before the school kicks him out, Alex gets a job clearing out a former mental hospital called Marshlands, and later, Solace House, the ironically named Victorian gothic pile nearby. Soon he’s part of a memorable team of cleaning vagabonds, including Clive, the jolly, sarcastic, bearded pothead; Helen, the religious fanatic; Ruth, the goth girl; Malcolm, the party boy; restless Ella with her Pre-Raphaelite red hair; and Leo the proto-mystic. Finally, there’s Adam, another Ridge student with nowhere else to go.
There are some important things to keep in mind. The story happens in the ’90s, which means there are no smartphones. Also, the kids use drugs of such variety and quantity that it’s very easy for them to, as John Lennon put it, “visit the cosmos.” Solace House’s late owner and solitary occupant, Edwin Flayne, was a hoarder—imagine a 50-room mansion with trash piled up to the ceilings. He also filled journals with a cryptic epic poem and contemplations of the infinite during his very long life. Not only this, there’s a weird cave on the grounds that’s straight out of A Passage to India. The bored teenagers want to have their minds blown, and Solace House and its environs are the places to do it.
When explanations to the house’s mysteries do finally arrive, they’re a bit of a letdown. Still, the story is as unnerving as anything dreamed up by Stephen King. Solace House is an impressive work.