Few literary figures are as famous (or infamous) as Edgar Allan Poe. From quotes used at the beginning of each chapter to recitations from multiple characters, the man seems almost like a ghost haunting the pages of Meredith Allard's THE PROFESSOR OF EVENTIDE. Though the original plan had been to follow a different author in history, Allard made the right call in switching from Dickens to Poe. The story would have been drastically different and lost much of its atmospheric edge.
Jonathan Ferrars, the newest professor at Eventide College, steps into a suddenly vacant position right before the start of the fall semester. He inherits multiple classes, but both he and the story fixate mostly on the seminar of six master's students Ferrars is tasked with teaching about Poe. Conflict builds from normal academic competition, the loss of some of Eventide’s students, and growing paranormal elements. By machination, the reader learns early on that everything is not as it seems—and that includes the narrator. Told from Jonathan’s point of view, his voice very quickly starts to mirror many of the first-person narrators in Poe’s own works: unreliable at best, and quite possibly insane at worst.
THE PROFESSOR OF EVENTIDE reads much like those same works, as well as those from other authors within the gothic genre. Despite the somewhat contemporary setting, Maine 2010, the writing style leans more classic. To some readers, that might make the work difficult to approach. However, the elevated prose and layered analogies will be refreshing for others, such as the following example: “Half-formed thoughts became glass that shattered into slivers, and when I reached for them, they sliced me.”
Nearly a perfect tale, the story does give away too much at the beginning and thereby cheapens later twists. A prologue styled as a first chapter jumps far forward into the narrative, then drags the reader backward two pages later. Both Ferrars and his story would have been stronger without. Motivations and actions from certain characters do not always mesh, either.
Despite the novel's flaws, however, fans of Poe, other gothic authors, and paranormal fiction will thoroughly enjoy THE PROFESSOR OF EVENTIDE.
Meredith Allard's THE PROFESSOR OF EVENTIDE enticingly draws from and embodies the lore surrounding American gothic literature.
~ Lisbeth Ivies for IndieReader