Lingering by Chris Coppel

​This is my fourth read by the author, which I suppose makes me at least something of a fan. At least, there’s a quality control and certain expectations established. Coppel doesn’t exactly do literary horror to wow you, but he does genre’s midrange pretty well.
This book is probably his least horrific out of the ones I’ve read; it has a certain mildness of tone, a certain quaintness of all-age-appropriateness, but it’s still a pretty entertaining read. Coppel does very well with describing day-to-day activities in an engaging manner, and so here you get to follow a married couple on their step-by-step journey of acquiring their dream house, finding out it’s haunted (because, of course) and then trying to sort out their ghosts.
The haunted house scenario, is of course nothing new, and Coppel’s only original takes on the granddaddy genre staple is doubling down the haunt itself and introducing a friendly (not Casper) ghost.
At times the overall quaintness and PG-ratedness of the tone overwhelms the BOO quality, but there are a few scenes of hallucinations gone rogue and creepiness that really work. Plus, like all Coppel’s books, it’s such a quick and easy read, that you’re probably not going to want your time back. Not the author’s best, by far, but…some fun was had. Thanks Netgalley.