Nicholas Guy Smith

This one SHOULD have worked for me. Slow, creeping dread, with a healthy dose of grief tossed in? That's absolutely my sandbox.

And yet...it mostly didn't. Very much like another far-more-loved book (by others, me, not so much), Sara Gran's COME CLOSER, this one seemed filled with events and scenes that seemed to have weight and meaning, but in the end, just came up, then disappeared and in the end felt like filler scenes to pad the book out.

The big box of hair. Yes, it came up a couple more show more times, but in the end, it was simply abandoned, with no real consequence. (And a mention of how stupid Mark acted when they first arrived at the apartment in France should be noted. For a supposedly smart guy, he's very stupid).

And the sangoma...basically a healer/exorcist. She's mentioned. She shows up. She does her thing. She leaves. The only consequence is a bad smell.

And so on, and so on. The story is told in a purposefully languid, drawn out style, and I think the main purpose is to leave the reader wondering if there really is a supernatural issue, or it's all in Mark's mind...despite them all but confirming it one way or another toward the end.

Overall, while the concept is great, the execution was far less so. The biggest thing I come away with at the end of this is...it's muddled. show less