Mr Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt review – American gothic with lashings of symbolism

Orphan siblings, religious fanatics, spirit guides ... but this novel of two journeys from the Orange prize-shortlisted author is short on suspense

I want a good gothic. A novel that smells of blood and old Bibles and sex, ripe as a walled-up corpse, but stays the right side of self-parody by sheer commitment. Sadly, Mr Splitfoot is not that book. Although Samantha Hunt turns out the creepy imagery and Christianity, suspense runs short and horror is too often undercut by an infuriating structure that serves symbolism over story.

It starts off in New York State some decades ago, in a children’s home of intense and idiosyncratic religiosity called Love of Christ! (“exclamation mark included like screaming a curse every time you say it”) run by a man called the Father. Here, two children – Nat and Ruth, a boy and a girl – turn their orphan isolation into an intimate bond. Through the intercession of spirit guide Mr Splitfoot, they contact (for a fee) the lost relations of the home’s other residents; it’s never fully clear even to themselves whether they’re natural scammers with a knack for cold reading, or devilish truthtellers with a direct line to the other side. Half the book is their journey out from the home and into the world.

Continue reading...