Grandma’s Little Darling by Stephen R. George

Ancient evil. As a historian and horror fan I have always enjoyed stories that display something ancient and unknown that has been living with mankind, especially if it calls into question our understanding of the past. Even better, I love it when some of the unsolved mysteries from history are explained within the story, the previously unknown entity claiming responsibility for events that have puzzled historians for decades. The ‘what if’ questions that follow such tales are wonderful as well, and really get my mind thinking about various things from the past and the possibility that history has gotten it wrong. Such speculation is always entertaining, at least for me.

In Grandma’s Little Darling by Stephen R. George an ancient entity exists, one that has left its mark all over history, the most famous being its involvement in the Jack the Ripper murders. It all began with an Egyptian woman named Lamena in 300 BC. Jealous of her beautiful daughter who is to be marrying a well to do Egyptian prince, she finds a magician who shows her how to switch places with the girl. The price of this knowledge: Lamena, once married, needs to convince her husband that the magician should be appointed to his palace rather than having to stay out in the desert wastelands. Lamena doesn’t do this, however, her fear of her secret being revealed getting the better of her. Angered, the magician tells the prince who his wife really is, which in turn causes the prince to burn all his wives to death, his fear being that she may have switched bodies with one of them once her secret was revealed. Switch she did, but not with one of the burning victims.

Fast forward to August of 1990 where a twelve year old girl named Nora is being taken to a prospective family to be considered for adoption. Orphaned after her parents were killed, Nora has caused herself to be rejected by so many families that this latest placement is her last chance before being sent to a different orphanage where she will have to live until she is an adult. Realizing she needs to make this placement work, Nora does her best to fit in. Unfortunately one member of the household has her eye on Nora, well, an eye on her body. It seems Lamena has recently switched places with the grandmother of the family, one who is pretty much on her death bed. Such a body was not the type Lamena usually jumped into when making a switch, but forces beyond her control made it necessary. Now she wants Nora’s body and will do everything she can to get it, first by tormenting it with mental probes into the mind to weaker her resistance, and then by jumping into it one day. Once this happens Nora’s mind is left in the feeble body of the dying grandmother, one that can barely function. Needless to say she doesn’t like this and wants to right what has happened, but will she be able to convince the family and her counselor Cheryl of what has occured, or will her mind eventually fade away as the body dies, thus leaving Lamena to experience life as a twelve year old girl? Even more pressing, if she does convince those around her of what happened, will she be able to figure out a way of switching back?

My first experience with Stephen R. George came when I read his novel Nightscape earlier this year, which I believe was published right after Grandma’s Little Darling. Nightscape was a fast and exciting read, therefore I was looking forward to my next reading adventure with his work, and dove into Grandma’s Little Darling fairly quickly after it arrived. Sadly it wasn’t as exciting as Nightscape had been, and what started out as an interesting and compelling read quickly faded into one where I had to force myself to sit down with the book, my only goal being to finish it so I could move onto something else. This happened at about the halfway point, which was when Lamena made the successful switch into Nora. After that happened the novel really bogged down, the only interesting moments being when Nora looked into the leftover memories of Lamena and saw some of her experiences from the past. Now, this dull reading experience hasn’t turned me off from Stephen R. George, not when I enjoyed Nightscape. I just hope the other works that I have coming will be on par with Nigthscape rather than Grandma’s Little Darling. If not I will be really disappointed because I know the talent to tell a good, exciting story is there. Fingers crossed.

Anyone else out there read any of Stephen R. George novels? If so what did you think about them? Also, do you have any titles you would recommend to me? I have pretty much everything he wrote for Zebra Horror coming, so chances are I will read it all at some point, but if anyone has a title suggestion I will start with that.