Umm, could someone please explain A House at the Bottom of a Lake to me? Because I sure as hell don’t get it.
Admittedly, that could just be me. This could be another Bunny situation going on, where I’m just not existential enough to understand what I just read.
This novella by Josh Malerman (of well-deserved Bird Box fame) is a horror story…kinda. Two teenagers row out to some hidden lake where they go swimming and discover an actual house sitting at the bottom of the lake.
And it’s not just some old, dilapidated house that might have been swallowed up by a sinkhole or something reasonable like that. No, no. It’s a “living” house: plates rest on tables; pictures hang on walls; nothing floats in the water like it should; the insides of the house are rearranged every day by unseen forces; the doors and windows even seem to open and close on their own, beckoning you to come inside and wander through the house…
WTF, right??? It’s a pretty cool premise and certainly unique. A House at the Bottom of a Lake is fueled by a ton of imagination.
While the concept of an underwater “living house” is pretty creepy, most of the novella isn’t scary. Not really. When the scary parts do come, they make your blood run cold. Because what is happening with this house is so far from normal – though, you tend to forget that when you’re below the water’s surface with the main characters.
Most of A House at the Bottom of a Lake is…interesting. There’s a lot of investigating, a lot of diving talk and swimming through the house. The two teens exploring a new world and discovering the wondrous secrets it holds. *ahem* While they simultaneously explore and discover each other, because A House at the Bottom of a Lake is also about two teenagers falling in love.
Despite the creepy premise and here-and-there chill-inducing moments, I’m not quite sure that A House at the Bottom of a Lake fits neatly into the supernatural horror genre. However, I’m not quite sure what I would call it. I ran through the novella quickly, and although the story’s action isn’t particularly action-y, I felt compelled to keep reading.
I’m not sure about the ending, either. Maybe it just went over my head.
A lot of book reviews wax poetic about how the entire story is an amazing metaphor for burgeoning young love. I love a good, extended metaphor as much as the next English major, and I can appreciate what Malerman did with one, quite expertly, in A House at the Bottom of a Lake…
But I still don’t get the ending.
When it comes to A House at the Bottom of a Lake, I think there are two camps of readers: those who are left going “Nice story, but huhhhh???” and those who are completely mesmerized. Dive into (ha! get it?) this one with an open mind and the expectation of a story that will stretch the boundaries of your imagination. It’s a fascinating tale unlike anything you’ve read before.
Hmm, I’ve just taken a look at this on Goodreads, and it sounds like the story is pretty much open to interpretation. Not sure I’d want to read this though; I like there to be a definite ending! That said, have you ever read ‘In Watermelon Sugar’, by Richard Brautigan? That has a very existential plotline to it, but it’s one of my all-time favourites, just because of the beautiful imagery and the strange yet gentle characters (well, some of them are gentle… there are a few baddies!).
Hi Nicola! Yeah…there’s an ending to this story…i’m just not sure I understood it, LOL. Oh, well. I’m not very existential. 🙂 I’ve never heard of Watermelon Sugar, other than that song on the radio. 🙂 I’ll take a look at the description on Goodreads, thanks!