Hanover House

I hereby solemnly admit that I chose this one because of its cover. A foreboding building against the backgound of a dark sky, and the word ‘‘House'' in the title. It practically called for me. When I read the blurb, my interest wasn't diminished. I am very interested in psychiatry and I have read many essays and books concerning serial-killers and psychopaths. What worried me a little were the hints of romance dropped, and I found out I was right to worry.

This is a novella that introduces us to Evelyn, a psychiatrist with a fervent interest to understand the darkness in the minds of serial killers. She decides to built an institution to examine some of the most serious cases closely, and perhaps, find the reason that humans turn into monsters. Furthermore, she has many of her own, vicious demons to exorcise.

The premise is really good. The danger Evelyn faces throughout the novella is eminent and well-described. I admit I was nervous for her while I was reading, even though there were some predictable moments. What was actually off, in my opinion, was the romance factor. It was flimsy, the dialogue between Evelyn and Amarok has many moments of the most horrible clichés, and extremely repetitive. I mean, we read books, I like to think we are clever people, how many times must we be told of the age difference - which isn't a significant thing, at all- or the desire of the main characters to have sex with each other? We get it, just move on to the story! Amarok was too soapy for my liking. I was far more interested in Jasper's thoughts and motives than in Amarok's teenage rumblings.

Perhaps, this focus on the romantic expectations of the characters was more evident because of the small length of the novella, i don't know. There were some other quite weird choices on behalf of Evelyn, but nothing too annoying. I will read the following book Her Darkest Nightmare, and I hope that we will get to see Evelyn's method and delve deeper into the harrowing world of serial killers. However, I did my homework and found out that Novak is, mainly, a romance writer...