The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
Unpopular Opinion Alert
Someone from my underground book club suggested The Haunting of Tram Car 015 when I requested short book recommendations (I’m still trying to get through Game of Thrones). My underground book club has never steered me wrong, so I picked this up without reading anything about it first.
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 is a spooky book which I would classify as fantasy horror, and, admittedly, this genre isn’t my go-to. However, I will read anything if the storytelling is good.
The book has a decent setting. It is in Cairo in 1912. In the first chapter, we discover that the tram car is haunted. This drove me absolutely batty. I love, love, love the dance where you are wondering, “Is this book going to have a supernatural explanation or a scientific one?” The back and forth can be incredible. A great example of this would be The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jónasson or The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon. However, this book just comes out right in Chapter 1 and tells us that it is haunted and that is that.
No dance. No back and forth. Big sigh.
Enter Chapter 2. Women’s suffrage is inserted into the book like a freight train. It was not a smooth transition, and it was extremely awkward. I have nothing against women’s suffrage. I am quite a fan of it, but the way the author introduced the topic was really rough.
The action was laughable, eye-rolling, and predictable. I knew exactly what was going to happen when the investigators were going to try to stop the haunting. I believe it was Dan Brown who said, “You can never be easy on your hero. And you can’t be easy on your payoffs. If your hero is going to conquer your villain, it has to be a Herculean task.” (Thanks, Joe Valdez, for the quote!) However, everything in this book came easy for the heroes. For example, the investigators just happened to be overheard by someone who could help them. Someone who did something bad just happened to confess. It was all too convenient.
This book has many favorable reviews by people that I really respect, but I did not enjoy this. I still love my underground book club. We are still besties!
Ouch. 1 star does show you did not enjoy it. But a predictable lot really gets on nerves too.
Welcome to my site, Harlyn! So happy you landed on my page. Too true! The setting of Cairo and the time period could have been really interesting, but this book and I did not connect. Many people liked this one so it might be worth a try if you enjoy horror/fantasy books.
I haven’t read any fantasy horror, gothic and contemporary horror, yes.