“Harvey Swick was eaten by the great gray beast February.”

In this quote, Barker’s dark yet whimsical style becomes immediately apparent as he employs personification to create a sense of the fantastical within the mundane. As the scene opens, Harvey imagines that he has died of sheer boredom, and a detective is now piecing together the stultifying details of his last day in order to finally declare that monotony itself has caused the boy to expire. With the extreme nature of Harvey’s ennui firmly established, the stage is set for the opportune arrival of Rictus and the adventure to experience Holiday House’s wondrous distractions.

“What a fine thing it would be, Harvey thought, to build a place like this. To drive its foundations deep into the earth; to lay its floors and hoist its walls; to say: Where there was nothing, I raised a house. That would be a very fine thing.”

As Harvey gets his first glimpse of Holiday House, his reaction reflects his undeniable membership in a classic version of American culture: that of the hard-working, productive pioneer. This enterprising attitude can be both a strength and a drawback, and the House is designed to ferret out the weaknesses in Harvey’s self-satisfied psyche and exploit them, working its dark magic in a constant attempt to corrupt and enthrall him. Listening to his thoughts, the House immediately begins its work by enticing him with a treehouse project that keeps him busy and allows