Grave's End, by Elaine Mercado, R.N.

I'm fairly certain that Ms. Mercado included her R.N. designator to assure us that she is an intelligent woman of science. A medical professional and not a wingnut. That's fine, I'm okay with it. Wingnut or not, this entry is about the book, and not Ms. Mercado's credentials.

Written less as a novel, and more like a memoir, Grave's End tells the tale of Elaine Mercado, her daughters Christine and Karin, and for a time, her ex-husband Nameless, as they live out their lives in a house that's desperately trying to get their attention.

They move in in 1985, nearly two years after buying the place. Why? Because there's a grumpy old man and his doe-eyed wife living in the basement. I just want to prepare you now, Elaine and her family are about the slowest moving group of people on the planet. It requires many years of a problem to move them to take any sort of action. You'll see.

Let’s take a look at that year again. 1985. Remember it. Write it down on a piece of paper, fold it up nice and tight, and tuck it in your front pocket. Ready?

From the start, they experienced nearly every haunting phenomenon in popular culture today. It’s like watching an entire season of Ghost Adventures in one book. And it takes like 12 years to watch it. From orbs to whispers, to paralyzing dreams. We see full body apparitions, mists and shadow creatures. There are ominous forces focusing on the basement and she and her two daughters are constantly under “attack” by the entities in the house. This starts from Day 1. I take that back; her youngest daughter Christine isn’t subjected to one-on-one haunting. She only experiences the hauntings if her mom or sister are around.

It takes Elaine 12 years to finally get a medium or paranormal psychic to come visit. I get that this took place before Al Gore invented the Internet, but she draws everything out like a neurotic. She fears any kind of judgement or confrontation… Unless that confrontation is getting molested in the middle of the night by a ghost. She seems totally cool with that. I mean, why else would she let go on for so long? Elaine sets women’s rights back to pre-suffrage times, and I really dislike her for that. I know it’s not fiction, but a strong lead is important to any story. Imagine if Elliot spent two hours locked in his room with E.T., hand-wringing and tisk-tisking himself for not being stronger? You’d never watch that move. Elaine is about the worse protagonist I’ve ever encountered in a book. I didn’t want her to win, I just wanted her to do something!

 For example, she throws a Halloween party. This is great! She can show off her ghosts ala the Deetz’s. But, no. The one friend who senses and sees something, swears she’ll never come back. So what does Elaine do? She completely avoids the topic with her for the rest of the time they worked together. Why, Elaine? Why would you stop talking to the one person who might be able to tell you what’s going on? Oh, you don’t want to risk losing her as a friend. Well, Elaine, you have to break a few ghost eggs to make a ghost omelet.

 Now, keep in mind that was about 10 years after moving in. That’s right. It took 10 years for help to arrive, unannounced, and Elaine clammed up.

 The next year she asked her brother for help, and it took him another year to find a medium and a parapsychologist. And they cleansed the house in about an hour.

The book itself is little more than an encyclopedia of paranormal phenomena, and shouldn’t be read for entertainment value. If you’re very interested in haunted houses, it’s a decent read. Ms. Mercado could have benefitted from a – pardon the pun – ghost writer in this case. There’s are a lot emotional events in the book, but Mercado glazes over them in a matter-of-fact way.

Except for her fear of being alone. That she dwells on for 12 years.