Haunted house novels are very prolific- and small wonder, it's a classic trope- so the challenge becomes doing something original with the concept.
Taylor hits on some traditional tropes: isolated cabin; creepy lake; emotionally fragile protagonist. But there's enough fresh stuff here to keep it interesting. (including a twist on one of my favorite scary tropes ever, the slowly-changing painting. I WILL NEVER LOOK AT PUZZLES THE SAME WAY AGAIN) This one is DARK. If you're looking for a happy ending or a more humorous take on the genre, look elsewhere. The subplot about Ben's mom is probably going to give me nightmares. I appreciate the "is he hallucinating or haunted" angle, but I felt like that aspect went on a bit too long. Nothing that made me regret reading it though, there's a lot to like here. (Cloud skeleton! Relocating bones! Dock monster! A MEOWING CAT SKULL AHHHH) Also! One of the main character's best friends is a gay man. I loved Doug, and I also love when queer people are acknowledged in modern horror/any fiction. 💗 (see also: The Hunger)
0 Comments
I have a book hangover. I just want to rewind and read this again for the first time, because MAN. Absolutely amazing piece of work.
Going in, all I knew about the Donner party was gleaned from pop culture references and horrible jokes. Now I'm going to read everything I can get my hands on (first up: Desperate Passage, which the author referenced as research). Some notes I took as I read: "Several unexpected items lay discarded in the snow: a pocket prayer book, a ribbon bookmark fluttering in the breeze. A scattering of teeth." Me: 😲 (this is gonna be gooood) "Women were always forced to smile. Tamsen had mastered it so well it sometimes frightened her." NICE line -- I have been reading about Mary Graves for two pages and I am in love. Same for you, Elitha "She'd known plenty of women like Harriet over the years, women who looked as if their faces had been slowly compressed between the pages of a Bible, all pinched and narrow." I AM EQUAL PARTS IMPRESSED AND JEALOUS OF YOUR DESCRIPTIONS MS. KATSU -- maybe it's because it's Valentine's Day but Elitha's initial thoughts about Thomas have me all twitterpated. Awww, kids. .....this isn't gonna end well is it -- LYDIA. *heart shatters* -- Okay Keseberg needs eaten, yesterday if not sooner. *hides Lovina and Nancy* -- *scribbles Elitha x Thomas 4Ever in Trapper Keeper* -- I am also good with Breen and Dolan getting torn apart by rabid honey badgers -- That. Last. Line. All in all, this book is stellar: heartbreaking without being maudlin, and beautifully humanizing. I'm sorry. 😕 This one was a DNF for me.
I loved parts of it- the nod to Tom Savini with Brad's last name was nice; the description of Teddie 'screaming and firing like a bit player in Full Metal Jacket' made me laugh. A lot of the descriptions were wonderful, and the premise is a lot of fun (where else will you ever read the line "She was bringing them a zombie in a gagball and fuzzy handcuffs"?). 😄 Parts I did not love below: I'm just not much for "fleeing across a zombie-infested landscape only to run into human rapists and cannibals" plotlines. I think I got too much of it on The Walking Dead. I had a hard time getting into the protagonist's head, and after descriptions of her captors as "dyke cannibal", "Munchkin enforcers", "minikin abductors", and finally "bull dyke", I didn't really want to. Again, apologies, I really wanted to love this one without reservation. I love how foreboding this book is. Even when scenes are calm, you *know* something terrible is just about to happen (and you're generally right). The descriptive writing is lovely. "On the lake, a flock of gulls were sprinkled like the ash of a forgotten cigarette." 💗
Which makes it all the more jarring when the author's knack for description is turned to the horrifying. The scene with the cat is gonna stay with me for a long time. Oddly, the ending wasn't as much of a gutpunch as it might have been since I'd been expecting *something* awful to happen to that character in the finale from a few pages in. I wanted the narrator to die instead. That guy was a creep. (Haunted, yes. Still a creep.) The less said about that bathtub scene, the better. I'm kinda tempted to frame this cover; it's gorgeously creepy. Short review: HOLY. SHIT.
Longer review: I know it's not a giant book, but I still didn't expect to tear through it so fast. My own son is 8, so the child-in-peril (or worse) aspect would normally put this on my Do Not Read list. I couldn't put the damn thing down. Haunting, moving words that don't slip into purple prose. The formatting itself adds to the story. And there's so much familiar to parenthood here: (("I said, stop!" The man was louder, searching for the tone that would actually halt the boy.)) Been there. It's a fast read but not a light one, and while I absolutely recommend it I also recommend having something cheerful to read/watch lined up for afterward. Because I'm terrible at taking my own advice, I'm instead going to go add Johnson's Entropy in Bloom to my buy-after-payday list. A stellar collection of flash fiction- thank you to the ever amazing @mother.horror for the rec!
Not an unlikeable one in the bunch, though of course I had my favorites: On the Seventh Day; Yara; Fear the Clowns (I love a good gutpunch ending); The Snakes or the Humans?; and Graves. |
A WORLD WITH A BLUER SUNMy reviews are set up a little like live-tweets: I write down lines I like/impressions as I read, and then transcribe. Reviews will contain spoilers, but I'll give a warning before they start. Archives
June 2021
Categories
All
|