A Certain Slant of Light

The story involves what, in the New Age movement, is termed “walk-ins.” These are situations where, according to the belief, peoples souls can leave their bodies while they are still alive. It's not astral travel, though, since these souls that leave plan to do so permanently, never planning to return to the physical body.

This leaves an “empty” physical body that can then be taken over by a soul that is still in this “world,” and who wants to become physical again.

In this story it happens to two people. James, a WWI soldier, takes over the body of teen-age Billy, and Helen takes over the body of Jenny.

Although both entities were able to be in physical bodies again, there were problems relating to their lack of knowledge of the being whose body they had entered. Helen/Jenny, in particular, has a difficult time, not knowing exactly how to behave or what is expected of her by her ultra-religious parents.

Helen falls in love with James and they end up having sex, but things begin to go really bad when Helen/Jenny's parents begin to complain about her behavior. Things get quite ugly, and Jenny's mother realizes that, being an ultra-religious person does not necessarily protect one from betrayal by her own husband.

It's a spooky and rather strange story. It does have a happy ending, which is good, but otherwise it's a very dark story, very serious and virtually without any humor at all. If you're easily upset by things, this might not be the book for you to read.

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