Letters to the Editor
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A little confusing
This review was a little confusing. I think you said "Highsmith" as often as "Ingalls", and your description of Ingalls as a sort of hybrid between Sparks and Highsmith left me wondering whose work you were in fact reviewing.
It sounds like the kind of book I'd like to read, but it also sounds like she's a knock-off of Highsmith, in which case I'll just as soon go and read her (Highsmith's) books. Take a look at this:
Like Highsmith, Ingalls gets at how obsessive love ruins people's ability to reason; like Highsmith, Ingalls spins suspense out of nothing more than real life.
I get it, she's in some ways "like Highsmith". But are there ways in which she is unlike Highsmith? What are the ways that she is "like Ingalls" ? Please tell me.
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Rachel Ingalls
To the first letter writer.
Ingalls is like Highsmith because of the way she puts ordinary people in seemingly ordinary situations which slowly, creepily turn to something macabre or dreadful. Her stories are not always blatant horror, though. They are much more subtle.
I recommend a classic novel by her, "Mrs Caliban," about an unhappy California housewife who meets the man of her dreams: a green creature from the sea. It's a compelling read and has many twists and turns and a haunting last few pages. It was on a list of the top 100 novels of the 20th century put out by the Guardian (I think) about ten years ago.
Then read "I See a Long Journey" a collection of short fiction. The title story is one of the best I've ever read about intense sexual longing.
And then read "Theft" a novella with a shocker ending. Can't say more.
Many of these are unfortunately out of print. Try the library.
There are more but that's just a start.
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Ingalls is fantastic
I've had the great pleasure of reading many of Ingalls' stories collections and novellas over the last 10 or so years. She appeals to me in the same way Shirley Jackson does. Fantastic thought-provoking reads that still haunt me(and I don't mean in the ghost way) years later. I agree with Hillary Frey that more American readers need to discover her - but I don't think Frey's review will help much. Frey's praise is buried under comparisons to other writers and while the comparisons are justified, these do not do Ingalls justice. She deserves more and better.