After the sudden death of
his wife on account of corporate negligence, Jackson uses the compensation
money from her company to move his children into a bigger house on Block
Island. Wreath (17), Brian (15), Charlie (13), Chrissy (9) and Angela (8) are
excited about the future even as they work through their complicated feelings
of grief.
On their very first night
in their new home, Wreath dies a horrible death, when she is literally eaten
alive in her room by a monster.
Four years later, Jackson
is an alcoholic mess. Brian lives out on the streets, addicted to drugs and
opioids. Charlie, Chrissy and Angela are living with their aunt, Jackson’s
sister, who isn’t much of a caregiver. But that’s not the worst of it. Charlie
suffers from crippling anxiety. Chrissy has no memory of the monster that
destroyed her family, while Angela has a terrible fear of being alone.
Chrissy questions her
family’s insistence on clinging to the story. Then in a library book, she sees
a picture of the monster and the blocked memories come rushing back at her.
The book is suffused with
horror. Chrissy devours horror fiction. She has turned into ‘someone who would
find peace in violent words.’ The author uses Chrissy’s interest in horror
fiction to recommend some books. There’s also the horror of
alcohol and drug addiction.
There were some lines from
the book that stood out for me:
Horror wasn’t a spotlight
on evil, it was control. If a person could create beautiful sentences from
horrific events, then any person could weave their way through life’s trauma.
You just have to make the grime shine.
Grief was a mysterious lump
on your flesh . . . One minute, you can convince yourself it’s benign,
just an ugly little thing you can learn to deal with, and the next, you’re
certain it’s the start of something bigger, the kind of thing that will eat
away at your flesh, devour your bones.
A person can only fray for
so long before they become nothing but loose strands.
The book cover was
interesting, with the island, seemingly ordinary, and the lives that it has
claimed, visible in the spilling of blood below the surface of the water.
The writing was masterful
in the first part of the book, especially the first chapter, inviting the
reader to stop speed reading to lavish upon the words the attention the author
had devoted to crafting them. Through the first half of the book, we see the
pain born of grief and trauma.
We feel a sense of sadness
for the plight of this this suffering family. The challenges that batter the
kids relentlessly make us feel protective towards them.
The friendship that
siblings Tiffany and Doug show to Charlie was sweet, and I felt bad that things
didn’t turn out differently for them. Also why were they attacked?
But the second half of the
book lost me. The first half definitely felt tighter than the second. And the
action against the monsters took too long. Against it, the sibling dynamics was
reduced to petty squabbles.
The chapters, alternating
between Tiffany and Doug, Chrissy and Angela, and Detective Burns and Jackson,
were essentially the same, with each pair facing off against the monster, and
each pair coming to the same conclusion about their situation. My attention
flagged at this point. It was almost like a sibling fight, with each pair
hitting the monster, and being hit back in turn.
There was a hint about a
weakness suffered by the monsters, but no explanation for why they have that weakness.
The character of Brian was
explored briefly but not in a way that helped the plot along.
The action vis-à-vis the
monsters takes far too long. We can’t imagine how this part of the book will
end. What scenario could possibly result in the destruction of such horrible
monsters?
The climax and the
resolution left me feeling dissatisfied. There was no good explanation about
why the nightmare ended when it did or even how, and whether it would ever
recur.
Some
elements in the story didn’t make sense. Why did
Angela have the visions about the monsters in the past?
It was surprising that the
detailed flashback of Jackson’s wife comes at the 76 percent mark, almost like
an afterthought or a force-fit, making it appear like an unplanned addition. Before
that, we are told almost nothing about her, which is odd considering that it is
her death that sets the plot going.
The relationship between the
siblings felt incomplete. Other than the fact that most of them don’t get along
with each other, I saw very little of the dynamics between the siblings or the
family. The aunt that is apparently caring for Charlie, Chrissy and Angela isn’t
even seen in the book.
The chapter titles were
intriguing. They made no sense out of context and, at first glance, seemed
rather random. It was only when one read the chapter that one could make sense
of them.
I don’t enjoy monster
horror, but I expected better from this because of the themes of grief and
trauma that were woven through. But ultimately, this book didn’t work for me.
