A compact but unforgettable tale as a novelist’s chilling creation seemingly comes to life.
In this paranormal thriller, a writer’s evolving story about killers turns doubly horrifying when she realizes these fictitious murders are occurring in real life.
Londoner Anna St. John arrives in New Orleans with her husband. She’s a novelist hoping the French Quarter will provide inspiration for her latest book. In no time, she crafts the tale of Voodoo practitioner Bartholomew DuCuir XVII, who calls on his ancestors’ spirits to help enact revenge. He and his love, Wren, lead repugnant men, including a rapist, to a basement they’ll likely never leave. But the culprit the pair truly wants is Wren’s former foster guardian, who’s responsible for vile acts committed against her when she was a teenager. The story flows, and Anna’s happy with her progress until she hears of a brutal death in real life just like the one she wrote about. When it happens again, she searches the French Quarter for Bartholomew and Wren, on the off chance the two actually exist. In Anna’s novel, Bartholomew performs a ritual to summon a writer, who will record his “epic tale.” If Anna is that author, she’s inexorably tied to a vicious killer—in the flesh. Laningham quickly establishes a relentless, unnerving tone, opening with Bartholomew’s brutal plan. This taut novella boasts strong dual characters. Bartholomew is descended from an enslaved African who was sexually assaulted, and Anna has grown weary of the husband she caught cheating. Despite Bartholomew’s seeking vengeance for Wren, she takes a back seat to her partner. As readers know little about her, the revenge story isn’t as “epic” as her lover repeatedly asserts. Still, Laningham’s tale enthralls, especially once Anna starts agonizing over what’s unfolding and starts speculating about hackers, coincidences, and whether her fictional characters are frighteningly real. Savage, drawn-out murders in plain sight (though never excessively graphic) spawn an effectively understated final act and a genuinely disturbing conclusion.
A compact but unforgettable tale as a novelist’s chilling creation seemingly comes to life.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.
A disturbing household secret has far-reaching consequences in this dark, unusual ghost story.
Mallory Quinn, fresh out of rehab and recovering from a recent tragedy, has taken a job as a nanny for an affluent couple living in the upscale suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey, when a series of strange events start to make her (and her employers) question her own sanity. Teddy, the precocious and shy 5-year-old boy she's charged with watching, seems to be haunted by a ghost who channels his body to draw pictures that are far too complex and well formed for such a young child. At first, these drawings are rather typical: rabbits, hot air balloons, trees. But then the illustrations take a dark turn, showcasing the details of a gruesome murder; the inclusion of the drawings, which start out as stick figures and grow increasingly more disturbing and sophisticated, brings the reader right into the story. With the help of an attractive young gardener and a psychic neighbor and using only the drawings as clues, Mallory must solve the mystery of the house's grizzly past before it's too late. Rekulak does a great job with character development: Mallory, who narrates in the first person, has an engaging voice; the Maxwells' slightly overbearing parenting style and passive-aggressive quips feel very familiar; and Teddy is so three-dimensional that he sometimes feels like a real child.
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81934-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A fever dream about despair and regret that will stay with you long after the credits have rolled.
When an unreleased cult movie is rebooted, the surviving member of the original film’s crew grapples with psychic whiplash.
Even though it’s not steeped in horror lore like the bangers being cranked out by Stephen Graham Jones or Grady Hendrix, this captivating take is tailor-made for fans of Stephen King and Jordan Peele alike. A cautionary tale with elements of indie movie darlings The Blair Witch Project, Blue Velvet, and River’s Edge, this chronicle of hometown kids trying to make a cheap slasher flick is shockingly memorable and deeply disturbing. Our unnamed narrator is the last survivor of the eponymous movie, filmed in the summer of 1993. Their Horror Movie concerns teens who torture one of their own—the narrator’s role is that of the Thin Kid, akin to the Slender Man of urban legend—and suffer the consequences. In the mix are the film’s obsessive director, Valentina; a handful of cast and crew; and the film’s ethereal screenwriter, Cleo, whose presence is most fully felt within the pages of her unusually personal screenplay. After a bewildering tragedy, the film was never released. Decades later, Valentina uploads a few scenes, some stills, and the screenplay to the internet, inspiring the modern-day reinvention. With his crewmates long dead by mostly natural causes, the narrator reluctantly agrees to capitalize on his infamy, eventually agreeing to participate in a hot horror reboot. Revolving between the original production and the big-budget reimagining, Tremblay deftly sidesteps genre tropes and easy laughs for a truly disturbing experience inside some very troubled heads. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s going to be a great movie,” cautions our Thin Kid. “You’re all going to see it. Most of you are really going to like it.…Will the movie be something you take with you, that stays with you, burrows into and lives in a corner inside you? That, I don’t know.”
A fever dream about despair and regret that will stay with you long after the credits have rolled.Pub Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN: 9780063070011
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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