Fog Heart

by Thomas Tessier

Book Overview

Two couples, both skeptical and desperate, are drawn together by a medium named Oona, a fragile, beautiful young woman who knows things that no other living person should know. Is her gift real, or is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0575064528
• ISBN13: 9780575064522
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Victor Gollancz
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Psycho

Though not particularly scary in a Stephen King sort of way, Fog Heart is an intriguingly different sort of mystery. Populated by a cast of psychologically crippled, twisted couples who are initially unknown to one another, the plot revolves around their coming together via their work with an exceedingly strange young medium, Oona. Is she gifted, or is she crazy? How does she know about her clients' deepest secrets? Are the visions that haunt these people real, or fragments of their own damaged personalities? Can Oona help them? Can any of them help Oona, who is tormented by a secret of her own? Fog Heart is ultimately about the nature of love, truth, reality, relationships, life, and death. It raises some intriguing questions, most of which don't have simple answers.

Tessier in top form

When Carrie Spence starts having visions of her dead father, she and her husband Oliver consult a young psychic named Oona Muir. Through Oona, they meet Charley and Jan O'Donnell, another couple who believes they are receiving messages from their infant daughter who died tragically in a fire. This eclectic mix of personalities generates disturbing results, as dark crimes from both the past and present are unearthed through Oona's traumatic seances. The truths revealed test the parties involved, driving them to madness, despair, and death.A book which promptly landed on many reviewers' short list for best novel of 1998, Fogheart is first rate work from a major talent. Tessier casts a dark spell through his gripping narrative--his characters live and breathe, the dialogue shines, and the atmosphere of dread he creates will unnerve even the most jaded reader. Fogheart proves that horror is alive and well, demonstrating that a familiar premise can gain new life in the hands of a capable writer. If Tessier remains "horror fiction's best kept secret" after this one, there is simply no justice.

Cold comfort

Oona, a strange, ethereal, suicidal young medium, brings together two married couples. Charley and Jan are haunted by guilt over the death of their infant daughter; Carrie is haunted by visions of her dead father and a murderous, faceless man, while her husband Oliver, blandly guiltless though hideously culpable, is haunted only by the thought that Oona may know more about him than he would like. And Oona, too, has a guilt and a ghost of her own, perhaps the deepest and most awful of them all. Three harrowing psychic episodes, steadily increasing in horrific revelation, entwine all these separate hauntings and bring them to a head. Perhaps, as Oona says, "ghosts are a kind of redemption"; if so, they exact a terrible price. Or perhaps, as Charley bitterly imagines, the "afterlife" is as aimless, chaotic and incomprehensible as life on earth. Which would you prefer? Characteristically, Tessier gives no pat explanations and no easy answers. The ending leaves the two relatively innocent characters alive but devastated by what they have witnessed (supernatural in one case, earthly but hardly natural in the other); however, although nothing is guaranteed, the novel is saved from utter blackness by the tentative reassurances which Oona gives to both survivors. Fog Heart is a superb, complex, bleak modern ghost story, written in Tessier's usual cool, clear style: anything but foggy and without a single wasted word. The characters are beautifully drawn, the set-piece psychic sessions utterly riveting, the visions of Carrie and Charlie described, like Oliver's murderous violence, briefly but with a poet's power.

The spirits of loss and betrayal haunt this novel.

Following in the tradition of some of the best British ghost story writers, the American Thomas Tessier (who has spent several years in Ireland) has produced an atmospheric and haunting novel of couples shattered by their failures to understand, communicate with, and love one another.Tessier's strengths lie in the subtleties of his characters and the ways in which he draws on setting and nuance to develop an overarching sense of loss and dread throughout the novel. We pity, hate, fear, and cheer the three pairs of haunted individuals whose lives intersect through the reluctant medium Oona. Across two continents, a series of unforgivable acts sends ripples of inevitable tragedy through their lives.By the end of the novel, Tessier's plot twists and spectral appearances have driven the story to a surprising and painful conclusion. But it is the only ending to which these people could come. This is a deep and intelligent novel that horrifies and resonates. Moving and highly recommended.

Creepy and Effective Ghost Story

Some writers write great short stories but don't translate that magic into novels. Tessier, for me, was such a writer...until now! FOGHEART blends the lyrical prose and masterful plot twists Tessier is famous for, into a book that slowly unfolds into sheer brilliance.FOGHEART is a novel of wanting something you can't have, but willing to give up everything to try to capture and own it. It's about three couples; Oliver and Carrie, Charley and Jan and Oona and Roz.Oliver is a firm believer in only what he sees, plus he happens to enjoy serial murder. Carrie, becomes a believer when she sees her father's ghost, naked and trying to tell her something about Oliver.Charley is another disbeliever in the occult. His wife, Jan carries the guilt of a dead daughter on her shoulders. And a message from a seance Charley's friend attended puts them in touch with their past.Oona is the medium who knows things nobody should know about these people. Roz is her "friend" who protects Oona after her "fits".Oona spills the secrets of these 2 couples in scenes that Tessier describes magnificently. You actually feel the pain and torment Oona goes through to get to "the other side". Once the story starts to unravel all of the knots Tessier throws in, the pages are a blur because you want to find out what happens next. Tessier's mastery of using dialogue to move the plot is evident when Oliver hires an investigator to get into Oona's past.The only problem with this work is the pace. It creeps very slowly until about 2/3's of the way. Then it's a fast read because all of the subplots merge together and it can be told through one character's eyes to speed it along. It's worth the wait, believe me. And the ending was one, I did not see coming but enjoyed since it fits into the layering Tessier put in the novel.Recommended.