Rarely have I gone back
and forth with a rating as much as I did with Edgar Cantero's The Supernatural Enhancements. On the
one hand, I liked the Blair Witch Project
style storytelling, told not through a straight narrative but through diary
entries, voice recorder transcripts, and even invoices. I feel that this made
it more suspenseful and jarring. Having said that, the plot itself is
borderline ridiculous; I adore a great ghost story but the plot was so far-fetched that I often found my mind wandering. Unfortunately, this was a book that I just "got
through" instead of truly enjoying.
A., a European, inherits a long-lost American relative's mansion and its contents, the
relative having just committed suicide. He brings along his teenage companion,
Niamh, to Axton House, which they soon learn is haunted. I never understood A.
and Niamh's relationship and to me, it seriously detracted from the novel. It
seemed inappropriate and was written quite seedily. They soon come across a
"big" secret that happens at Axton House every year, which is really
not that exciting.
I think The Supernatural Enhancements is a book
that you either love or not (just check out Goodreads). The plot wasn't for me,
but I still thought it was written in a creative way.
