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Book Review: Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay

Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay
William Morrow Books, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-0062363275
Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, library binding, audiobook, audio CD

Last year’s Stoker winner for best novel was one of the least anticipated in many years. People who read it knew that A Head Full of Ghosts was a shoo-in; it simply was one of the strongest horror novels in several years. Paul Tremblay’s characters seemed as real as the next-door neighbors, despite the suggestion of supernatural involvement in the events of the story, the multiple perspectives he used were smoothly integrated, yet somehow formed a disorienting and frightening narrative.

Disappearance aat Devil’s Rock is a definite departure in terms of tone and style. It’s a subtle tale, yet one with plenty of tension and plot twists. From the first page, it’s as if Tremblay is whispering to the reader in a dark and secluded New England pub on a chilly autumn evening. What begins as a simple case of a missing teenager turns into something quite sinister that tears at the fabric of a family’s sanity.

Elizabeth Sanderson receives that dreaded call– Tommy, her teenage son has gone missing. He disappeared in Borderland Park at his friends’ favorite hangout, Devil’s Rock. One night, pages of Tommy’s journal begin to appear on the floor of the house, opening a box of puzzle pieces that don’t quite seem to fit together. Elizabeth, her daughter Kate, and her mother Janice, struggle to figure out what the late night pages mean. As Elizabeth delves into the mystery, she finds that everyone has a different version of what happened, and that Tommy’s friends are hiding something, or someone. There are even sightings of him around town: is there a chance that Tommy is still alive?

Where Tremblay succeeds in his novels, and this has been noted in several other reviews, is in focusing on the spaces between words, actions, and characters’ relationships. The supernatural may be a component of Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, or just an illusion. This is a thinking reader’s horror/thriller/mystery/suspense novel, but it is as accessible and quick a read as any bestselling page-turner, and might be the one to break down the genre walls for Tremblay. Recommended.

Reviewed by Dave Simms

Posted on October 24, 2018 by Kirsten, Reply

Musings: Revisiting Stephen King’s Rage

I wrote about Rage five years ago, just a few months before the Sandy Hook school shooting. Shortly after the shooting took place, King released a Kindle single titled Guns that spelled out his thoughts on gun control (he is a gun owner, but supports restrictions) and was very accurate in describing the way the media, politicians, and the public perceive mass shootings (He also mentioned handgun violence in urban areas, although it wasn’t the focus of his essay), and the blame that settles on the culture of violence. The aftermath of the Parkland shooting has followed a much different pattern, but in 2012 there weren’t as many teenagers on social media, news didn’t travel as fast, and parents were the ones who took initiative. Many things are different now, but much of what he wrote is still relevant.

Much of his essay connects to his feelings about his novel Rage, which he wrote a first draft of when he was still a teenager himself, and which was published under a pseudonym in 1977. Rage is about a student who shoots and kills his teacher and then holds the class hostage, and in the 1980s and 1990s, four incidents involving four different boys led to them acting out scenarios from Rage. Two of them fatally shot and killed multiple people. King asked that it be pulled from publication– it is the only novel of his to have gone out of print. Of course we have the Internet now so you probably can track down a copy if you really want it.

My son brought it up last night.

I thought maybe I had spoken about it around him in the past, since I’ve written about it, but I was wrong. Some kid on the bus told him about it. He said it was easy to get a copy of it and asked if my son would like to read it. Can I tell you how disheartening it is that King withdrew the book from publication and now this book is not only easy to get ahold of, but middle school kids are recommending it to each other? The Monster Kid knows where to draw the line as far as what he knows he can handle, and he said no, but even as a freedom-loving First Amendment supporter, I don’t know what I would do if he brought it home now.

At any rate, here is a link to the original post, written shortly before the Sandy Hook school shooting. And I do recommend checking out the Kindle single, Guns, that he wrote shortly afterwards. Any profits go to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Kirsten, Reply

Book Review: Halloween Carnival, Volume 1 edited by Brian James Freeman

Halloween Carnival, Volume 1 edited by Brian James Freeman

Hydra, 2017

ISBN: 9780399182037

Available: Kindle edition

Halloween Carnival, Volume 1 is the first of five collections of five Halloween-themed stories, with each story by a different writer in the horror genre. Curated by Brian James Freeman, the short collections were published as individual ebooks in a series, with one releasing in consecutive order on each Tuesday in October of 2017.

Robert McCammon’s “Strange Candy” is a bittersweet ghost story. A father finds an odd piece of unwrapped candy is found in the bottom of his child’s candy bag, and when he doesn’t heed the kidding chides of his wife about eating tampered candy. and consumes it, he is visited by a spirit for each of the gnarled peppermint shaped fingers. Each one brings him urgent messages to deliver to the living. When he receives his own visit from a very human messenger, he knows what he must do.

Kevin Lucia’s “The Rage of Achilles, or When Mockingbirds Sing,” returns readers of his previous books to Clifton Heights. Father Ward volunteers to hear confessions on All Hallow’s Eve. The father of a dead boy apologizes for what he is about to do after delivering his story. Will Father Ward be too late to stop the distraught father, or is there something more to the events of this strange night?

In John R. Little’s “Demon Air”, Halle is headed to Australia on the cheapest flight possible. When the stewards and pilot get in on the Halloween fun, it seems like all fun and games, until the danger becomes too real on the long flight.

In Lisa Morton’s “La Hacienda de lost Muertos,” Trick McGrew, an old-time cowboy star of the silver screen, is thrown into a real ghost story when he walks onto the set of his new film in Mexico. He discovers the sad La Llorona, searching endlessly for her lost children, is more than just a legend. He also discovers the truth behind her death, and what became of her babies.

Everyone is using hashtags these days. What happens when someone takes it too far? That’s the question Mark Allen Gunnells poses in “#MakeHalloweenScaryAgain.” Dustin, an author working on his next novel, starts the infamous hashtag that will change the town he lives in forever. When journalist Shawn befriends the author, and the major suspect in a grisly chain of events, things get even stranger. The use of social media in this story adds to the intrigue the author sets. Who is using the author’s hashtag to drive his push to make Halloween scary again?

I enjoyed this short anthology very much. The stories are short, entertaining reads, especially appropriate for the most wonderful time of the year for those of us who love Halloween. “The Rage of Achilles” is a particular favourite. The story is subtle in its horror, and the author’s treatment of a child with autism is very real, well-written, and sensitive to the fact that not every person with autism has every single marker of the spectrum. Recommended.

Contains: some violence

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on November 13, 2017 by Kirsten, Reply