The Inn at the Edge of the World

If The 27th Kingdom had some elements of magical realism, The Inn at the Edge of the World moves even closer to a full-fledged ghost story. The story builds slowly--5 people gather at an inn at the edge of the world for Christmas, where they hope to skip Christmas. There's an island myth about Selkies, seal people--when the seals come ashore to dance, they sometimes lose their skins and can't return to the water.

But the book also communicates Ellis's typical incisive insights into human beings and life and love. For instance:

'Am I a person from Porlock? asked Jessica who was no different from anybody else in that she rather enjoyed disturbing people who were attempting to work. There was not any malice in the urge: it was a primitive, tribal response to the individual intent on private concerns--'Kindly rejoin the community and let us play.' The man engrossed in solitary pursuits is always a little threatening.

Which is to say, not my favorite of Ellis's novels, but intriguing enough--in part because it wasn't clear what the genre of the book is until the very end: if you stick a bunch of strangers together on an island, then I assume it's going to be a detective story.

(See also: Ellis's The Summer House and The 27th Kingdom.)