ALC Review: I'll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong
Release date: 1 October 2024
Rating: 3.5/5
Narrator: Jennifer Pickens
Synopsis: From New York Times Bestselling author Kelley Armstrong comes a spellbinding new tale of supernatural horror involving a haunted-house, seances, lost loved ones, and a sinister spirit out for blood...
Nicola Laughton never expected to see adulthood, being diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a child. Then medical advances let her live into her thirties and she met Anton, who taught her to dream of a future… together. Months after they married, Anton died in a horrible car, but lived long enough to utter five words to her, “I’ll be waiting for you.”
That final private moment became public when someone from the crash scene took it to the press—the terminally ill woman holding her dying husband as he promised to wait for her on the other side. Worse, that person claimed it wasn’t Anton who said the words but his ghost, hovering over his body.
Since their story went public, Nicola has been hounded by spiritualists promising closure. In the hopes of stopping her downward spiral, friends and family find a reputable medium—a professor of parapsychology. For the séance, they rent the Lake Erie beach house that Anton’s family once owned.
The medium barely has time to begin his work before things start happening. Locked doors mysteriously open. Clouds of insects engulf the house. Nicola hears footsteps and voices and the creak of an old dumbwaiter…in an empty shaft. Throughout it all she’s haunted by nightmares of her past. Because, unbeknownst to the others, this isn’t her first time contacting the dead. And Nicola isn’t her real name.
That’s when she finds the first body....
In this atmospheric, thrilling new ghost story, Kelley Armstrong's full talents are on display to thrill, chill and leave the reader guessing how Nicola escapes with her life--if she can.
Review
I’ll Be Waiting promises all kinds of spookiness for this October. It certainly gives off chills and provides some much needed haunted house vibes, but the synopsis gives a different kind of impression than the experience readers will get in the book. There’s a mystery somewhere in the book to be puzzled, but the plot doesn’t so much twist and turn as much as bounce around zig-zag trying to make up its mind what it wants to be. The ending comes out of left field, much like a 90’s R.L. Stine book, and I’m not really sure how well the overarching conflict resolves itself in the end.
My biggest peeve has to be a synopsis that does not give an accurate representation of what readers will get from the book. It happens frequently, and when it does, I always point it out because many times it feels like a false advertisement/expectation setting for the book. First, spiritualists do not hound Nicola. Nicola actually has a problem constantly going to them. She desires desperately to speak to Anton again and understand what he meant by his final words. It becomes an addiction for her. Second, the synopsis gives the false impression that this is some kind of slasher horror with, “That’s when she finds the first body.” This I won’t debunk too in depth—it will spoil the story—but bodies don’t just drop like flies all over the place, and they certainly don't start dropping before the main part of the story starts.
At its heart, I’ll Be Waiting is a ghost story, but it’s also a story about grief, loss, and the desperate attempt to find out if there is an afterlife—and what it is if there is one. I quite like this aspect of the story, as it shows compelling emotional depth. If Nicola’s journey through mourning were the only aspect of the story, I would rate it 5 stars. Armstrong shines with dramatic writing.
But the drama isn’t the only part of the story. I’ll Be Waiting is a supernatural horror novel. It’s supposed to be scary, malevolent, and creepy; it is—up until the end. All the twists and turns and bumps in the night lead readers to a conclusion that just takes all the scary out of it. The dénouement reminds me of the endings of Stine’s Fear Street series. Ultimately, the force Nicola and her friends find themselves up against comes from out of nowhere. There’s no foreshadowing or buildup. It just gets dumped on readers and left there. And the conclusion to all the searching she’s done for Anton? Anticlimactic.
Jennifer Pickens provides excellent narration for Armstrong’s novel—the pacing and cadence match the theme perfectly. Pickens’ voice serves as a great impression of Nicola, deep and somber, pulling listeners in with sadness and chilling them for the horror. I highly recommend listening to this one for those who love spooky stories. Bonus points for putting the headphones on/earbuds in at night and giving it a go.
Overall, 3.5/5 for the story and 5/5 for the narration. I’ve read too many haunted house/ghost stories for this to stand out among the crowd.
My thanks to Macmillan Audio and St. Martin's Press for the ALC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.