Episode Thirteen - A paranormal journey into the scary and unknown

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Episode thirteen by Craig Dilouie 

My January started with a hankering for something new… something different… something I wouldn’t normally do… So, I decide to be a little adventurous..

I’ve never been a horror fan. Anyone who knows me, knows that I run away from anything that is scary… but I have enjoyed epistolary novels in the past. I also like dramatized audio books, especially if they have a full cast. So, when this one showed up on my suggestion page, I thought why not.

For those who don’t know what full cast narration is… it’s like listening to a movie. They have multiple narrators, and they also usually have background scores. If you ever had any experience with old-time radio shows, you know what a full-cast narration is. It’s an audiobook but more enjoyable. Of course, I know people who don’t like them. Consider them to be … not books. But in my eyes, the point of reading is to experience a story, and the audiobooks fit the bill…

 

So, in my let’s try something different mood, I picked up Episode Thirteen by Craig Dilouie.

Episode Thirteen is a story of a ghost hunting show, titled Fade to Black. It’s a brainchild of Matt Kirklin. Who is accompanied by his wife, Claire, and a motley crew consisting of a cameraman, a sound recordist and an eager intern. The team is about to shoot their 13^th episode. Episode Thirteen takes them to every ghost hunter's holy grail: the Paranormal Research Foundation. It’s a mansion, now derelict located in Rural Viginia. It’s a place where some questionable and mysterious experiments were conducted on people in the 70’s by a group of scientists… who themselves have vanished without a trace. Spooky… I knnnooowww, right?

 

The book opens up, in the “found footage” setting. Where we are wading through multiple medias. Tapes, footages, diaries. We learn about all major players, through these. The founder who believes he had a paranormal encounter when he was young. His wife, who doesn’t believe in Ghosts but works with her husband, being the logical, rational .. doubter of the group. The only one who does not believe. We also meet the cameraman, who is gruff but loyal. Sound recordist, who believes he can do a better job than his boss, and an intern who is just trying to get an acting role. They all are asked to write diaries, as a part of the show… a way to express themselves without other’s influence. And we get to learn about them as a people through their own words.

 

The novel progresses through the character’s backstories weaving them in the current happenings… current till the time it was being recorded, nonetheless. WE, as readers / or listeners in my case… are only seeing all this through the found footage of the show.

 

The book has some great elements working for itself. And we are treated with some real creepy and scary things in the first half of the novel. The experience of untold and unseen horror, works really great in the audiobook. And frankly, I think it’s the absence of physical elements that makes this a wonderful experience. The idea of scare is usually more potent than the actual horror. And the book does justice to that… halfway through the book though, I lost my interest. In my opinion when actual paranormal shows up.. it isn’t as scary as the mere hint of it’s presence is. 😊

 

After 50% of the novel, the story loses it’s grip for a while. For a short while, it drags. Gets too scientific, too technical… too verbose. I know it’s silly to call a book verbose, but that’s exactly what this novel becomes. It becomes too heavy to enjoy. I think about 70% into the story, author lost track of actually what he was aiming for. Novel lost it’s eery feel and then it just became a 2-bit slasher pic. There were flashes of brilliance here and there… however the end, actually left me feeling, rather… unsatisfied. I felt cheated out of a goof conclusion, especially because the beginning was so brilliant.

 

But I’m glad, I picked this up. My “let’s try something new” mantra brought some real good results. I can proudly say now that I read a horror story and completed it without covering under my blankets.

 

So, what’s the conclusion?

It’s a good experience. The epistolary style is great. The cast is brilliant. In fact, I have to give it to the author, that each of his characters are drawn out brilliantly. You understand them and their actions. Even when the conclusion makes you feel cheated, the journey is fun. So if you are looking for something different, in a new genre… Give Episode Thirteen a try… you never know, you might find yourself enjoying a ghost story…