Product Description

All Nell's life, Olive has lived next door but one. And all her life, Nell has hated her. Even at school she had sparkled indecently, unladylike, turning heads. But that was before she gave in to gravity. Oh, she might have been a beauty once, Olive Owens, but now she is a fright - a fat old spinster, childless, senile, nursed by the lackey she calls a lodger. Nell has a son, her pleasure and her shame, though now she lives alone. She watched her husband die in the dressing-table mirror, and she talks to him still, at times has to slip him over to shut him up. Nell is sharp, in all the places Olive is round. When Wolfe moves into the house in between them, their quiet street is transformed. A lonely, spirited, eight-year-old boy, he knocks on their doors at Halloween and invites them to his bonfire party. As the ashes smoulder and the fireworks flare, he finds himself in the middle of an ancient conflict, grudges bared, and burning with a fury he could never have imagined.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58373 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Review
'A perfect, black little tale' OBSERVER

Independent on Sunday
'Glaister has the uncomfortable knack of putting her finger on things we most fear, of exposing the darkness within'

Sunday Times
'Glaister's writing is extraordinary: her tales of scarcely imaginable horror jumbled up with everyday comforts give rise to shivery laughter'

Customer Reviews

masterful characterisation
This is an odd little story. It feels rather like a set of character portraits woven together by a somewhat incredible storyline. I thought the different (and rather weird) characters were well drawn and surprisingly believable, but that the ending was a bit unlikely.

In some ways this book came across almost as an exercise in how to write a psychological thriller - here are the main characters (Olive & Arthur, Nell, Jim & Rodney), here is the old secret that's going to pop up and change things, here is the catalyst and his surrounding colour (Wolfe & his family), and here is the twist in the tail that is going to give the reader a surprise.

Overall, an enjoyable read, though.

To be spooked by Glaister is an unadulterated thrill!
I happened upon Glaister's Trick or Treat in a used book store, never having heard of her work. The cover drew my attention, and a quick browse peeked my interest. I live in The States and have to send to England, to relatives, to get her novels. Her work is remarkable, but that doesn't do her justice. She puts goosepimples to shame with the depth and insights of her subterranean world of passion and pain. Glaister can handle language like few authors, can breath underwater.

A black straw hat with cherries on top
Three terraced houses stand side by side. In one live Olive and Arthur - lifelong political activists and unmarried lovers, Olive is now enormously fat and sorry for herself, and poor old Arthur has shrunk with age, but they have their memories and Arthur at least still finds contentment in his allotment. In another house lives proud and aloof Nell, who talks to the framed photograph of her deceased husband Jim and spends most of her time on a cleaning fixation and half-dreading a visit from her son Rodney, recently released from prison. In the middle is the chaotic household of Petra, and sometimes her boyfriend Tom, plus three children, Buffy, Bobby and little Wolfe, who has eczema and wishes they had never left the Commune, where they lived until recently and where he felt safe.

It's Halloween, and the kids are dressing up to go trick-or-treating armed with shaving cream and a hope of sweets or money, preferably money, as the novel opens, but long-buried hatreds and fears are simmering in the breasts of Olive and Nell, about to focus around the catalyst of a black straw hat with cherries on top.

Light and breezy, full of potential comic moments, this short novel gradually becomes dark with menace - black humour is Glaister's forte and she hits the target with panache, with the skill to weave some real tension into the tale. It's a resoundingly enjoyable read.