Half Broken Things by Morag Joss

It seems only a minute ago it was Halloween, and now it’s almost Thanksgiving — but then again, early November was gruelingly slow — 2020 is playing strange time games.

I always try and read a good, creepy book over Halloween and this year, my shelves paid off. I found Half Broken Things which I got back in 2004 after I read that P. D. James (one of my favorite mystery writers) had recommended Ms. Joss’s writing.

Sixty-four-year old Jean is one of the unnoticed, a plain woman, in her final year as a house sitter. Raised in emotional poverty, Jean has muddled through the years, her mind often her only companion, a condition that allows her fictional flights of fancy in her current situation as house sitter of Walden Manor. Jean is faced with an insecure future, uncertain finances and the looming years without a real home or family:

“The old Jean simply detached herself, rose up and disappeared into the steam, like a person dissolving into fog.”

Writing a journal at the start of the novel, Jean puts the facts to paper, how she came to her current dilemma in this large and welcoming home, which she has inexplicably taken as her own while the owners are traveling. Resentful of the restrictions put upon her owners during their year abroad, Jean finds many doors locked and her access limited to a cheerless sitting room and the kitchen. She takes this as judgment of her untrustworthiness and a rude reminder of her standing as mere caretaker of other people’s things.

Nursing this subtle rebellion, while dusting and cleaning the house she accidentally breaks a teapot containing the keys to the formerly unavailable rooms and private drawers. Jean now liberated from her restrictions, slowly starts to explore the forbidden rooms, and inhabit the home. Including wearing the wife’s clothing, sleeping in the master bedroom, and taking long baths in the luxurious bathroom.

“People should have what they need, especially if they have to go without most of their lives.”

As she goes about her days in the lovely home, she discovers an extensive wine cellar and fully stocked freezer. Now fully comfortable and at home, Jean uses her imagination to invent a long lost son and places an advertisement in the local paper – seeking this imaginary son

A broke and desperate Michael answers the ad pretending to be her son with his pregnant girlfriend Stephanie. Somewhat surprised at her imaginary son actually showing up at the door, Jean leaps to accept them with no questions asked. Formerly driven by lack, Jean’s life theme has been ~~

“that good things, opportunity, security, affection, should come to me, if at all, only second-hand, and in second-rate scraps.”

Now her days are filled with her second-hand family, and their convoluted reasoning allows them to pretend that they are of the manor born. Of course, this feeble plan will come tumbling down when reality intrudes, but Jean, Michael and Steph are prepared to go to any lengths to maintain their small slice of happiness.

It’s a fascinating but twisted fairy tale — three desperate people performing increasingly desperate acts, dedicated to the well-being of the family at all costs. By turns bizarre and Gothic, Ms. Joss’ unchecked imagination has created a poignant respite for three truly half-broken things who linger on the edge of reason, their need to belong so fierce they go on to justify thievery and even murder.

I found myself quickly racing through Half Broken Things seduced by the writing and mounting tension. On one hand, I was warmed by the isolated manor house and how it gave its new inhabitants comforts and possibilities previously unavailable to them — but then holding my breath and as reality slowly descends upon their contentment.

Ms. Joss delivers a creepy yet compelling tale of complicit falsehoods. The isolation at the manor is seductive, the self made family’s self-justification completely pervasive as the three characters place need above morality in an astonishing tale of belonging at any cost.

Highly recommended – please put Half Broken Things on your list for next Halloween.