“Where They Wait” by Scott Carson – Song from Beyond the Grave

Short Summary

Scott Carson doesn't seem like he will run short of ideas for his horror novels anytime soon, with his most recent one, Where They Wait, mixing together modern technology and ghost stories. The plot follows a journalist who begins using an app for guided meditations, which includes a sad and disturbing ballad sung by a woman with a hauntingly beautiful voice. Though it is followed by a rejuvenating sleep, it also marks the beginning of nightmares, the star of which is a dead woman.

Scott Carson Starts a Technological Nightmare

Only a few decades ago the growth of our technology seemed like a limitless benefit to society, the path forward leading to the betterment of all mankind. Today, I don't think I need to tell you just how frightening our technological progress has become, opening the doors to both joy and suffering in equal measures. In Where They Wait, Scott Carson explores modern technology from a horror perspective, through the tale of a recently laid-off war correspondent.

Nick Bishop doesn't really have many choices when it comes to earning money, and in need of something to make him a quick buck, he takes a job which seems like it was manufactured specifically for his situation. The work would simply involve him writing a profile of a new app called Clarity, centred on helping its users achieve self-improvement.

The money is about as easy as it gets, and the gig does afford him the opportunity to return to his hometown for the first time in a number of years. The app itself seems rather innocent, and perhaps even destined for failure. It seems to simply rehash old ideas, offering guided meditations and white noise to help its users sleep.

However, that's not all the app has to offer. There are also the so-called “Sleep Songs”, consisting of a woman singing sad and soothing ballads with some sort of disturbing quality to them. Perhaps even more alarming, the songs seem to really work, giving their users long nights of uninterrupted and rejuvenating sleep.

Unfortunately for Nick, the nightmares soon begin to follow those songs. In them he sees a dead woman who whispers to him, trying to guide him towards something. When he hears her voice outside his dreams and she spills into his daily life, Nick begins a race against the clock to find the terrifying truth, before he gets committed to an insane asylum, or possibly even worse.

An Injection of the Paranormal into the Mundane in Where They Wait

We all obviously have our own tastes and preferences when it comes to the various approaches authors can take when dealing with the paranormal, but in my opinion, it is at its most successful when subtle and mixed in with daily reality. Subtlety can help turn this element which most of us (I generously assume) don't really believe in, into something capable of crawling its way under our skin and making us feel uncomfortable.

For the most part, I would say that Scott Carson manages to stay the course of subtlety in regards to the paranormal elements. He doesn't bombard us with grandiose scenes of ghostly manifestations and magical powers, but rather, treats the dead woman's presence in Nick's life as a mystery with many possible solutions.

I do want to clarify that I don't think horror novels are meant to outright “frighten” the reader; real life is a million times more terrifying than any work of fiction. What they are meant to do is inject their readers with ideas and concepts which will make them feel uneasy, thoughts which can unbalance them and make them seriously consider what unseen dangers still lurk in the fog of the unknown.

This is precisely what this novel managed to do for me. I never had the impression the author was trying to outright scare me, but instead, was more focused on unsettling me regardless of what my beliefs might be. Lovecraft figured out long ago the greatest fear is that of the unknown, and Scott Carson used it to good effect, pushing me to imagine just how much the undiscovered realms of our existence hold in store for us.

Additionally, I'd like to draw some attention to the subtler ways in which the author injected paranormal horror into Nick's mundane existence. The events in Where They Wait don't follow one another at a breakneck speed, developing slowly and surely over the course of the story, logically escalating and never feeling too sudden nor out of place. In other words, we slowly accept the shifting picture of the world Nick is forced to contend with, with all its ghastly abnormalities.

The Measured Haunting

As I just mentioned, the story doesn't move along at a noticeably quick pace. As a matter of fact, I would venture to say this story leans more towards slow-burners than it does towards thrillers, with Scott Carson taking the time he needs to properly describe everything and everyone, including Nick's inner world and how the events around him are shaping it.

The characters surrounding our protagonist are also given this treatment as we get to find out a fair bit about them, even if their roles in the story aren't all that important. Thankfully, we don't get a noticeable amount of pointless information, and even the bits and pieces which don't serve any purpose but to characterize someone still play a welcome role in terms of world-building.

The mystery at the heart of the novel is definitely one which had me hooked, even if I don't have much of an interest in ghosts or a belief in their existence (at least in the ways we've described and “sighted” them, but that's a whole other topic). We can't help but want to know the story of the dead woman whispering things in Nick's ear, and more importantly, how she ended up in an app.

Now, I won't pretend like it's a unique idea which has never been explored before, but I enjoyed the author's take on the whole “haunted app” idea. Following the standards he set with the rest of his writing, he tried to keep things on the subtle side and within the realms of what's believable, as much as it's possible for a paranormal novel.

I honestly wasn't too confident he'd find a neat way to wrap things up, but I'm glad to say Scott Carson successfully proved me wrong on that one. It's really one of those resolutions which gives you a real sense of closure, and though the catch is often more disappointing than the chase when it comes to mysteries, I don't think it was the case here; everything makes sense within the story's internal logic, and no pressing questions are left unanswered.

The Final Verdict

Where They Wait by Scott Carson is an excellent paranormal horror story mixing ghosts and modern technology in a savvy and measured manner, taking its time to unfold while slowly unravelling a captivating mystery centred on a dead woman.

If you're a fan of calmer horror stories which focus more on atmosphere and ideas instead of blood, guts and gore, then I think you'll fully appreciate all this book has to offer.

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Scott Carson Personal site Scott Carson is the pen name used by Michael Koryta, a New York Times bestselling author and screenwriter living in New England. His various works have earned him the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Great Lake Books Award, as well as the St. Martin's Press/PWA Best First Novel prize, without mentioning the myriad of nominations. Those works include The Chill, How it Happened, Rise the Dark and Last Words.