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    Servants
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    Servants
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    Servants
    Ebook234 pages2 hours

    Servants

    By Michael Marshall Smith

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    For young Mark, the world has turned as bleak and gray as the Brighton winter. Separated from his real father and home in London, he's come to live with his mother and her new husband in an old house near the sea. He spends his days alone, trying to master the skateboard, while other boys his age are in school. He hates the unwanted stepfather who barged into Mark's life to rob him of joy. Worst of all, his once-vibrant mother has grown listless and weary, no longer interested in anything beyond her sitting room.

    But on a damp and chilly evening, an accident carries Mark into the basement flat of the old woman who lives at the bottom of his stepfather's house. She offers tea, cakes, and sympathy . . . and the key to a secret, bygone world. Mark becomes caught up in the frenetic bustle of the human machinery that once ran a home, and drawn ever deeper into a lost realm of spirits and memory. Here below the suffocating truths, beneath the pain and unhappiness, he finds an escape, and quite possibly a way to change everything.

    A richly evocative, poignantly beautiful modern-day ghost story, The Servants marks the triumphant return of Michael Marshall Smith—the first novel in a decade from the multiple award-winning author of Spares.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 6, 2009
    ISBN9780061982576
    Unavailable
    Servants
    Author

    Michael Marshall Smith

    Michael Marshall Smith lives in north London with his wife Paula, and is currently working on screenplays and his next book, while providing two cats with somewhere warm and comfortable to sit.

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    Reviews for Servants

    3.5/5

    109 ratings13 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Billed as a modern day ghost story, I enjoyed Mark's "below stairs" paranormal experiences, even if parts were on the strange side. The fact that Mark can see the spirit servants (and they can see him) makes for a level of creepiness but not in an immediately horrific, scary kind of way. Loved the Brighton setting (even if it is the off season), the old house and the little old lady who lives downstairs (every seaside story should have such a neighbour). Given that the story is told from Mark's point of view, there is a lot of adult information and conversations the reader is not privy to, so it takes a while to figure out what is wrong with Mark's mother. For me, Smith has captured the anger, frustration and loneliness a young child must experience when his family life has suddenly turned upside down and he is not privy to all the details about his mom. As for what is wrong with the house, you will have to read the book to find out (I will give you a hint: That is probably why some readers have tagged this story as a horror). Overall, a different coming-of-age/YA story that may appeal to readers who like stories set in Brighton, or enjoy ghost stories with a fair bit of symbolism built in.
    • 3/5
      Touching children's book.
    • 3/5
      Mark has a new stepfather, and a new home in a new town, far away from his father. His mother is ill, and there is nothing to occupy his time. He has no friends in the town yet, and Brighton has pretty much closed up for the winter. So Mark spends his days practicing his skateboarding and annoying his stepfather David. I remember what it was like to fit the rest of your world into your own perspective. To have that one person you didn’t want to like, so in your immaturity you made him the enemy of your life, constantly scheming against you. The smallest things would be completely blown out of proportion, because life was, after all, a huge conspiracy against you. I don’t miss those years, but I remember them. And reading this book, relived them again. Unfortunately the resolution to the story didn’t make any sense to me. That was a big drawback to my enjoyment of the book overall.
    • 4/5
      Eleven-year-old Mark has moved to a large eighteenth century house on the Brighton seafront with his seriously ill mother and his new stepfather. For some reason Mark hasn't started school in Brighton, so his days are sent learning to skateboard and trying to get the better of his stepfather. Not realising how ill his mother is, Mark thinks his stepfather is deliberately preventing his mother from doing anything interesting, and restricting Mark's access to her.But once Mark meets the old lady who rents the basement flat in their house, he finds that strange things happen when he goes through the door from her flat into the unconverted servants' quarters.This short book was a birthday or Christmas present from my brother. The author is new to me, but apparently he mostly writes science fiction, so this ghost story was a bit of a departure for him. It has been nominated for both the British and World Fantasy Awards.Spooky but not scary, "The Servants" is a book that grew on me as it went along. The only thing that annoyed me about it was that house was described using the American usage 1st floor/2nd floor instead of ground floor/1st floor. Since the house was in England and Mark was English, it really jarred.
    • 2/5
      I read this book in one day, but was disappointed that it wasn't all I'd hoped for. I was attracted to the plot line that the main character discovers the ghosts in the old servants quarters in his home. While this was the case, the author didn't really take the plot in the exciting direction I would have liked.The main character was a young boy dealing with the breakup of his parents, and his ill mother marrying an American and moving to Brighton. There is a lot of skateboarding out in the cold weather that begins to take its toll on the reader, and not enough about the boy's discovery in the old ladies' flat in the basement.The end was abrupt and the 'twist' that I thought was coming never arrived, which made this a disappointing read.
    • 3/5
      The Servants is the story of an 11-year-old boy, his mum and stepdad. They've moved from London to Brighton into a house with an old lady living in a tiny flat in the basement. Mark, the boy, accidentally befriends her and she shows him something quite amazing.I love this book for two reasons. First it's a very simple tale told well. Most of the action concerns four characters and takes place in the house. It's told from Mark's pov so the writing is straightforward but that makes it clear, spare and elegant rather than simplistic. Second Smith does that thing of showing us things through the eyes of a character that the character himself does not see, at least at first.
    • 2/5
      I got this book through the amazon vine program. It sounded like an interesting premise to a story. Thought the story was well-written, the plot was slow moving, boring, and somewhat anti-climatic.Mark is forced to move out of London to the vacation town of Brighton with his mother and new step-father. Mark sees his step-father as controlling and doesn't understand his mother's constant illness. This takes a stranger turn when Mark is shown the servant's quarters underneath their new house by an old woman who lives on the bottom floor. When Mark visits this area alone strange things happen; could these events somehow be connected to his mother's illness?This is a very quick read and a very short book. That being said somehow the story is still very drawn out and somewhat vague. Although the writing style is great, I found myself getting as bored as Mark was. Maybe that was the point. Even as events unfolded under the house I found myself bored. I figured out the link between the house and Mark's mother almost immediately; so I didn't even have that surprise to look forward too.Overall I found this book to be dull; this book probably could have been cut down to novella size and made a great story. To me this was more of a short-story than a book. I don't think I will be keeping track of this author in the future.
    • 4/5
      The novel is definitely aimed at young readers. The main character is Mark, an eleven year old who is bored and restless. His parents have divorced and his mother has remarried. They recently moved to Brighton, a beach resort town. It is the off season and there aren’t many things for him to do. The weather is bad and his mother and stepfather never leave the house because his mother is very ill. Mark constantly argues with David, his stepfather. The house they live in has a basement apartment where a little old lady lives. Mark gets to know the lady and she explains to him that the basement of the house is where the servants lived and worked. He takes the key to the door that leads to the servant’s area and discovers that they are all still working there.The servants working below stairs are an allegory of what happens when people struggle against one another instead of working together. The below stairs becomes a disorganized mess and Mark explains to the servants what their rolls are so that they can function smoothly again. He learns to stop constantly pushing to live the way he did when his parents were together. He starts to flow with the changes instead of struggling against them. This symbolism even stretches to his skateboarding where he learns to relax instead of trying to hard.The story is written well and it was a very fast read. I bought it because it was nominated for the 2008 World Fantasy Award. The problem is there isn’t much fantasy here. It’s more about a young person learning to deal with life’s ups and downs. The story isn’t frightening and the servants aren’t ghosts. They are just there to illustrate a point.
    • 4/5
      My expectations are too high for me to actually enjoy this.It was alright, not a proper return to MMS's form but more interesting than the Micheal Marshall books he's been writing lately.
    • 5/5
      To start this review I think I need to say that this story is not frightening in the way I expected it to be. Anyone expecting vengeful ghosts in the attic will be disappointed. But hopefully they will then realise, like I did, that they are reading an absolute gem of a book and decide they don't care that it is so different.Eleven year old Mark lives with his mother and step-father in a mostly converted house in Brighton, a place he has previously taken holidays with his mum and real dad. Mark's mum is sick and David, his step-father, doesn't seem to care about Mark unless it is a way to impress Mark's mum. Mark is left to wander the streets and meets the nameless old lady who lives in a self contained flat in the basement of their house. She reveals a secret to Mark that soon becomes a spooky obsession.I found the book to be charming, spooky in places and scary in a more human way than any amount of ghosts and phantoms could have made it. It was well written and the characters were believable and I think it showed perfectly how helpless and angry a child experiencing divorce, remarriage, illness and isolation can feel. It was a great read for me and perhaps even one that my eleven year old nephew could also enjoy.
    • 4/5
      This is a lovely little ghost story told from the point of view of an 11-year-old boy whose parents have gone through a divorce and remarriage over the past year. He's been forced to leave London for a cold lonely life in Brighton and fears that his mother's new husband has less than good intentions. Visits with the old lady who lives in the basement apartment distract him and then transport him to another world that is also falling apart before his eyes. I read this the day I bought it over the course of about 2.5 hours. The horrors downstairs at first echo the anger upstairs but perhaps get a bit heavy-handed towards the end, then the story wraps up very quickly, bumping it from 4 stars to 3.5. However, it was a very good read and something I will recommend to friends.
    • 5/5
      When I became aware of some of the symbolic significances in this book I realised it was a much deeper book than I first thought.
    • 1/5
      The Servants tells the story of a young boy simultaneously resolving the fetters of the ghosts that haunt his home and coming to terms with his step-father. Michael Marshall Smith writes well. His skill shows in The Servants by creating a very distinct atmosphere with a minimum of words. Excellent craftsmanship doesn't save this book from boring this reader. Nothing frightening happens in this story. I'd call The Servants as worthwhile reading only if you want to study technique. Otherwise, skip it for something scary.