Ghosts
The opening page begins with a question that is answered in imagery. "How about the one of the sightless blue face, pressed against the cellar window? Or the apparition of the blind man holding a cane made of children’s bones? What about the evil swan that followed me home through the lonely, rain-washed park, or the giant disembodied mouth seen opening in the center of a concrete floor?" This is the answer to the query posed in the opening line when the narrator asks readers if they want to hear a ghost story. The imagery is certainly spectral in nature, but not particularly terrifying. This indicates that the story to follow will be one featuring ghosts, but suitable for non-adult readers.
Skull in a Jar
One of the ghostly characters turns out to be a sentient skull kept in a jar. In the real world, this would certainly be worthy of a few scares. But this is a sentient skull in a jar with an attitude. “Ooh, I smell something burning…Wait, wait, it’s your pants! Your pants are on fire, you massive liar! You so weren’t on a case!” Imagery is engaged here differently from the first example. The point of this retort by the skull to one of the human characters is designed to illustrate the snarky quality of the skull's character. His sarcasm is on full display, but the specific imagery outlined in his choice of a familiar children's taunt also hints at deeper levels of immaturity.
Action
Even the action sequences veer a little off the beaten track. "There was Lockwood, slicing off the secretary’s metal fingers, from first one gauntlet, then the other... Kipps stuck his sword straight into the motor of his opponent’s funnel gun so that it exploded in a ball of pulsing light. And there was Holly, dodging the savage blows of the tweedy woman.." This imagery is especially effective at conveying the supernatural milieu in which the action operates. The protagonists utilize recognizable weaponry, but their opponents exist within a reality that is far less familiar.
Ritual
In novels that take place in a reasonably recognizable world, but with aspects from an unfamiliar dimension, ritualistic practices are inevitably engaged. These rituals depend on recognizing visual imagery to help situate reality so that later other literary tools can be utilized to reveal their purposes. "...the iron circle, the guide chain running between the posts...Each object had to be opened—wax seals cut, pouches slit, wooden surfaces pierced...Everything was opened and put in: jars, bottles, masks, and dream catchers." Paradoxically, the power of this imagery to sustain a feeling of otherworldliness stems directly from it being merely a mundane listing of non-supernatural objects.
