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A review by justabean_reads
Wild Spaces by S.L. Coney
3.5
(Disclaimer, I know the author of this.)
Tor.com in physical copy, which is really making me feel that the quality of their paperbacks is leaning harder into the pulp side of things than is needed for the vibes. But the book was shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick award (for SF/F/H first published in paperback), so I guess it worked out.
"What a lovely family," I said to my wife as I started this horror novella. "I sure hope nothing bad happens to them!" It's not much of a spoiler to say that something bad happened to every one of them. We get three pages of perfect happiness of an adolescent boy, his dog (with which there is absolutely nothing wrong), and his very cute parents, before his maternal grandfather arrives for an indefinite stay (there's absolutely something wrong with him). The tension ratchets up with every page, the boy able to tell that something is wrong, but not what, and yet when we find out the answers, it's neither relief nor catharsis, only more horror.
The prose is gorgeously specific to the sticky coastline of the Carolinas, some of the descriptions and turns of phrases enough to make me stop and stare. Likewise well handled are the powerless feeling of being stuck inside a slowly unrolling disaster, the ways people can be monstrous, the question of your body changing with puberty, but into what?
I've been trying to put my finger on why it didn't a hundred percent work for me, and I think there's a couple reasons: the parents felt a little underdeveloped, in part because it's the son's point of view, but I'd still have liked a little more from them: it was sort of "father perfect, mother troubled"? I also found the ending a little... I'm not sure if "showy" is the right word, but it felt like a more experienced author might have handled the resolution with a lighter touch. But horror's also not my usual genre, so difficult to tell.
Tor.com in physical copy, which is really making me feel that the quality of their paperbacks is leaning harder into the pulp side of things than is needed for the vibes. But the book was shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick award (for SF/F/H first published in paperback), so I guess it worked out.
"What a lovely family," I said to my wife as I started this horror novella. "I sure hope nothing bad happens to them!" It's not much of a spoiler to say that something bad happened to every one of them. We get three pages of perfect happiness of an adolescent boy, his dog (with which there is absolutely nothing wrong), and his very cute parents, before his maternal grandfather arrives for an indefinite stay (there's absolutely something wrong with him). The tension ratchets up with every page, the boy able to tell that something is wrong, but not what, and yet when we find out the answers, it's neither relief nor catharsis, only more horror.
The prose is gorgeously specific to the sticky coastline of the Carolinas, some of the descriptions and turns of phrases enough to make me stop and stare. Likewise well handled are the powerless feeling of being stuck inside a slowly unrolling disaster, the ways people can be monstrous, the question of your body changing with puberty, but into what?
I've been trying to put my finger on why it didn't a hundred percent work for me, and I think there's a couple reasons: the parents felt a little underdeveloped, in part because it's the son's point of view, but I'd still have liked a little more from them: it was sort of "father perfect, mother troubled"? I also found the ending a little... I'm not sure if "showy" is the right word, but it felt like a more experienced author might have handled the resolution with a lighter touch. But horror's also not my usual genre, so difficult to tell.