The Influence cover art

The Influence

Fiction Without Frontiers

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The Influence

By: Ramsey Campbell
Narrated by: Chloe Massey
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About this listen

Now a major Netflix movie

"This is a chilling work and the fullest treatment of one of Campbell's recurring themes - the psychic violence family members wreak upon one another." (Publishers Weekly)

Queenie is the aging matriarch of the Faraday family, and even death can’t break her hold over her 11-year-old granddaughter, Rowan. She’s buried with a locket that contains a lock of Rowan’s hair, and soon afterwards, Rowan is befriended by a mysterious, uncannily intelligent girl of her own age. Only her aunt Hermione suspects how sinister this is, but will retrieving the locket save her niece? By the time anyone sees what effect the ghostly influence on Rowan is having, it may be too late for her. if the child who takes her place in the family isn’t Rowan, Rowan may be somewhere else not quite like our world....

Flame Tree Press is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018, the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners and exciting, original voices.

©2019 Flame Tree Publishing (P)2019 Flame Tree Publishing Dark Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Horror Literary Fiction Psychological Thriller & Suspense Scary Exciting

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All stars
Most relevant
The Influence has instantly become my favourite Ramsey Campbell novel, it's also the first audiobook that I've completed in 2 sittings, helped in no short measure by Chloe Massey's immaculate performance as narrator.
I wonder if the writer of Hereditary read this in his youth...

Wow!

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I suppose this is a well written story for what it is - except that I was expecting a regular suspense thriller. If I'd been looking for a tale of the supernatural, I'd have probably given it 5 stars.

It has all the things you would expect from a good ghost story. A large, old rambling house with lights that don't always work, a dying family matriarch, corpses rising from the grave, a child possessed...

Nice that is was all based in Merseyside around a somewhat dysfunctional family with money troubles. That gave a gritty reality to contrast with the unworldly events that seemed to be unfolding.

The author does not disclose exactly when the story was set. I would estimate 1970s, although there are a few anomalies.

Thriller based on the Supernatural

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