2020 horror. Post-divorce, Kara finds herself living at her uncle's
eclectic Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities, and
Taxidermy. Which is fine, until something makes a hole in the wall…
This is thoroughly pragmatic horror. Kara and her friend Simon
from the coffee shop next door aren't setting out to explore an
otherworld; they just need to know what's beyond the hole before they
repair it. When they find a body, they don't call the cops, because
Simon still has that warrant out for him in Florida. When they leave
their arrival point in the otherworld, they take some trouble to make
sure they can find their way back.
But also in some very important ways this isn't standard horror. Yes,
the foes are hugely more powerful than the humans, but they act
according to their own rules, and Kara and Simon gradually work out
what some of those rules must be. One of the characteristics of horror
I find most significant is the incuriosity compared with a fantasy or
SF protagonist: when presented with something Wrong, the typical
horror protagonist is just trying to survive until daybreak or some
other rescue arrives. No chance of that here: no rescue is coming,
they have to get themselves out of trouble, and that means they have
to understand something of what they're up against.
Are they going to charge off into the clearly dangerous place? No. But
when the rain comes down hard, or something chases them, they may not
have much choice.
So while the principals are sometimes a bit much at the mercy of the
narrative, I think this book does an excellent job of balancing their
curiosity and their common sense, their need to know about the
otherworld with their desire not to be killed by it.
Combine this with a splendidly unsettling atmosphere and this is a
book that is effectively horrifying without using the well-worn tropes
for easy scares. If something bites your leg off, you probably bleed
to death and that's an end of it. But if instead it changes you…