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Book Review: The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

Delacorte, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-0525577942

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

 

Elizabeth Lavenza is the ultimate example of the “cool girl”  described by Amy Dunne in Gone Girl: she is never herself, always what someone else (usually a man) needs her to be. An orphan purchased by the Frankenstein family to be solitary Victor’s friend, she knows her status is always endangered unless she can demonstrate how much she is needed. From the very first, the observant Elizabeth is aware that there is something not quite right with Victor, that she is needed to help him become socially acceptable on the surface, while covering up and erasing his more disturbing behavior, and she does everything she can to make certain he needs her as much as she needs him. Her only friend is Justine, a girl she rescued from an abusive mother and was able to have installed as governness for Victor’s younger brothers– but even Justine does not know the extent of what Elizabeth has done to make herself essential to Victor and his family. At the same time, knowing that he can be erratic, unreliable, and sometimes even dangerous, she alters herself  in his absence to appeal to Henry Clerval, a bright and optimistic young man of the merchant class who is mesmerized by both Victor and Elizabeth. As duplicitous as Elizabeth is, she knows she cannot keep it up indefinitely, and she is at a desperate disadvantage in Victor’s absence once he leaves for university and stops responding to her letters. Finding him, saving him, and covering up his disturbing actions while also trying to avoid knowing exactly what he’s done is essential to her continued status as a ward of the Frankenstein family.

In the original novel, Elizabeth is an afterthought as Victor Frankenstein tells his story– she doesn’t even have a speaking part, and while he is completely involved in his obsession, she totally disappears from the story. White fills in some of those blanks by placing Elizabeth at the scene of Victor’s crimes and experiments in Ingolstadt and making her complicit in covering them up. The abusive nature of the Frankensteins’ relationship with Elizabeth is such that she is able to even deceive herself about horrific events that it is clear to the reader were caused by Victor’s activities. Anyone who has read Frankenstein knows what happens to Justine and Victor’s younger brother, William, but it’s after this that the novel takes a left turn. Learning that Victor did successfully create a monster, Elizabeth overhears a conversation between the monster and Victor that leads her to believe that something terrible is supposed to happen on her wedding night. Rather than being smothered as she is in the novel, Victor reveals his terrible acts and future plans to immortalize Elizabeth. When she reacts in horror and threatens to expose him, he has her committed to an asylum, diagnosed with hysteria. This was an outstanding move on the author’s part. Few YA readers are probably aware of the injustice that allowed women to be committed to asylums based only on their husband’s or father’s assertion that they were mentally disturbed (since most won’t read “The Yellow Wallpaper” until college) but it did actually happen and is a very clever way of getting Elizabeth out of the way so the Frankenstein story can advance further.

I totally understand wanting to give Elizabeth a voice, flesh out Justine, and add another female character to the story (Mary Delgado, a bookseller from Ingolstadt and Elizabeth’s rescuer, the most sensible and likable person in the book). It’s not just unsatisfying but infuriating that in Shelley’s novel Elizabeth and Justine basically exist to be fridged. And I appreciate that White worked hard to create an Elizabeth of her times, who was invalidated and gaslighted by the men in her life in a way that forced her to navigate social and gender roles seamlessly in order to believe she could have a place at all. There is some great writing here, especially in scenes where she takes an active role in witnessing, encouraging or covering up Victor’s deeply disturbing actions (there is a scene with a bird’s nest at the beginning and another with Victor’s brother that will stick with me for a long time), on her wedding night, and in the asylum. But somehow, as a whole, the book doesn’t quite ring true for me, and I feel that it’s longer than it needs to be. I want to like it, and it could just be that after a year of reading about Mary Shelley and Frankenstein I’m worn down,  but Elizabeth as a character doesn’t stand on her own, and I don’t think her voice successfully carries the story on its own, either. Just as Gone Girl’s Amy Dunne can’t tell the entire story of her twisted marriage on her own, Elizabeth needs another voice to balance hers in telling her story. Recommended for Frankenstein-lovers, if they haven’t burned out after a year of adaptations, retellings, critical studies, and biographies, and for teens who enjoy complex characters and have strong stomachs.

Editor’s Note: The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White is on the final ballot for the 2018 Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel.

 

Book Review: The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

The Cabin at the End of the World  by Paul Tremblay

William Morrow. 2018

ISBN-13: 978-0062679109

Available: Hardcover, paperback, mass market paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

Paul Tremblay is at it again, screwing with the minds of readers, playing a morality game that results in a twisted read worthy of film version due to its close characters, claustrophobic setting, and themes that he refuses to shy away from.

Tremblay’s previous books, A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, both toyed with the reader’s sense of reality and the supernatural. In The Cabin at the End of the World, Tremblay drags the reader into what seems to be a simple home invasion story. Nothing is what it seems, though: this is a tight, utterly uncomfortable, well-told tale of horror that requires the reader’s intellect and intuition to untangle whether there is a supernatural factor to the story

A young girl, Wen, plays outside with her grasshoppers, while her parents, Eric and Andrew, are inside, relaxing on a peaceful family vacation in the woods of New Hampshire. Nothing is supposed to be anywhere near them: no stores, neighbors, or distractions.

Then Leonard arrives. A hulking man, he speaks calmly to her and appeals to her innocence before announcing, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault. You haven’t done anything wrong, but the three of you will have to make some tough decisions. I wish with all my broken heart you didn’t have to.” Three strangers emerge from the woods and enter the cabin. They  inform the family that the end of the world is inevitable, unless the parents make a heart-wrenching decision that will ruin them.  Are these strangers cold-blooded psychopaths who sought out this family, or is there something more at play?

The way Tremblay paints the characters of both the family and the intruders, is what drives the story. To say more would kill the suspense, but suffice it to say, the emotional heft of this tale will leave a scar behind.

Highly recommended reading for readers of great suspense.

 

Reviewed by Dave Simms

Editor’s note: The Cabin at the End of the World  is a nominee for the 2018 Stoker Award in the category Superior Achievement in a Novel. 

Book Review: The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell

The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell

Doubleday Books, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-0385544368

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

Historical horror can be a fascinating subgenre, if it is done right, but it is a balancing act. The amount of detail for the period often overshadows the atmosphere, with information overloading story and character. When the author successfully balances the elements, the result can result in a treasure.

The Devil Aspect reads like a perfect offspring of The Alienist, Silence of the Lambs, The Exorcist, and Shutter Island.  It is a stunning novel that captures the best of these, yet adds to it a flavor all its own, leaving the reader with a chill that feels like it needs to be washed away.

In the shadows of the rising tide of the Nazi movement in 1935, Czechoslovakia is a dangerous country. Hrad Orlu Asylum for the Criminally Insane exists as a state of the art hospital outside of Prague, but holds a horrific reputation in local lore as having been built on the mouth of hell. When Viktor Kosarek arrives with a new psychiatric approach, the tiny town cringes as they sense the horrors that brew within the stone walls. Viktor believes in “The Devil Aspect,” a method he believes can cure even the world’s most heinous creatures, while Hitler’s crew infects the country in a slow-moving plague, its tendrils snaking inside the walls of the castle to infect some of the staff.

Within the walls themselves exist the Devil’s Six–  The Woodcutter, The Vegetarian, The Clown, The Scionancer, The Glass Cutter, and The Demon, each with a detailed backstory. None can be dealt with without full restraints, and even so, attacks on staff still occur, events that defy logic.

Outside the castle, another murderer is feeding on the citizens of the city: Leather Apron, a Jack The Ripper type serial killer. The suspects can’t recall committing the murders, and swear a shadowy figure is mocking them, forcing them to witness its horrors.  Detective Lucas Smolak scours the streets for clues, and grows frustrated as every clue leads to a darker truth. He senses a connection to the legends around him, yet holds onto the assertion nothing is supernatural in these crimes.

How the two storylines intertwine is brilliant, as are the characters. Smolak and Kosarek are imperfect, both committing errors that could end more lives as their humanity holds them back from achieving their goals.

Russell’s novel is one of those rare entities that is intelligent yet readable, full of historical accuracies and folklore but somehow still relatable, and scary as the hell that may exist beneath the castle. What brings the story success is the ambiguity of the horror. Russell keeps the supernatural aspect on the periphery of the reader’s psyche. He plays his cards close and the revelation of which evil is worse, human or demonic, burrows beneath the skin as the mysteries begin to unravel.

The reader must wrestle the secrets away from the characters with each alternating chapter, the clues muddy yet fitting together. The story’s serpentine descent into madness is a challenge that is worth the effort.

A highly recommended novel for the new year that will linger long after the final page is closed.

 

Reviewed by Dave Simms