The Keeper

Bedford, Maine, is a town with one industry: the paper mill. It’s been poisoning the water and air for generations, and workers have all sorts of physical complaints from breathing sulfur and other toxic fumes, but if anyone thought about it, they’d know that the recent closing of the mill probably dooms their town.

But no one’s thinking about the mill and the town’s economy. Instead, they’re all focused on Susan Marley. She’s a silent, beautiful woman in her mid-20’s who lives in squalor, turning a trick now and then to stay supplied with Campbell’s tomato soup, which she eats straight out of the can. She appears nightly in just about everyone’s nightmares, making her a sort of literary ghost of Dickens’s Jacob show more Marley.

One of the people most haunted by Susan is her sister, Liz. Liz is in high school, and is planning to put Bedford behind her as soon as possible and never come back, beginning with going to college at the closest state university. As The Keeper opens, Liz is visiting her father’s grave to tell him just that when Susan shows up, dressed for a summer day even though it’s March — still winter in Maine — and physically attacks Liz. It should have been you, Susan tells her sister, silently, and Liz knows exactly what Susan is talking about, there, at her father’s grave.

Susan haunts the town. Her mother knew, at some level, what her husband was doing to her daughter, but chose not to see it. Paul Martin, a high school teacher who is a barely functional alcoholic, has used Susan’s body frequently as an escape from his depressed wife; but he also tries to take care of her from time to time, buying food, cleaning her apartment up a bit. Liz is physically threatened by Susan more than once, in the real world and in her dreams. Liz’s boyfriend, Bobby, tries to help Liz deal with her fear of her sister, but his own fear makes him impatient with Liz. The entire town is uneasy; there are arguments between parents and children, bar fights; people drink too much, people hallucinate, teenagers let themselves fall deep into the darkness of their own apocalyptic thoughts.

This stew of guilt and economic depression swirls into a muddy puddle in a March storm that begins as the novel opens, an unrelenting rain that continues for exactly one week every year. Langan immerses the reader in the grayness of the cold winter rain that feels as if the skies are weeping. That depression combined with the fear Susan inspires in everyone in town makes this an atmospheric, moody novel. As disaster approaches, the questions become: who will live? Who will die? And what will Susan do?

The Keeper is Langan’s first novel, and it bears some of the marks of a freshman effort: it is too long, and Langan occasionally lets the tension slack, with too much back story and too little action, even though everything ultimately circles back and comes together at the end. Langan has such a facility with language and mood, though, that it is easy to understand why The Keeper was nominated for a Stoker Award for best first novel in 2006. Langan’s biography states she is currently studying for a doctorate in Environmental Health Science / Toxicology, an interest that allowed her to make the disaster in The Keeper believable. Between that degree and the MFA in creative writing she already holds, she is a formidable talent. My personal library already holds her other two novels, The Missing and Audrey’s Door, and you can bet I’ll be tackling them sooner rather than later, especially given that they both won Stoker Awards. And I’m delighted to read that she has a new novel in the works. This is a writer you’ll want to know.

Originally published at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/horrible-monday-the-keeper-by-sarah-lan... show less

A prequel (?) to The Missing, probably meant to be read in order of publication, but particularly interesting as Langan's first dive into "the evil that lurks in the hearts of men" more fully realized in her latest (not exactly 'horror') book: Good Neighbors. Fascinating to see how Langan has moved from a write-by-numbers genre with its troubled Maine town to an even more terrifying study of mob mentality worthy of Shirley Jackson. The Keepers has plenty of mystery and body horror to make it worth the read for fans of that genre.

'I'll start, and you finish', the woman said. 'Once upon a time there was a little girl and she was very unlucky She was born in a haunted place where nothing ever died.'

Susan Marley is crazy. Betrayed by her family and friends, she stopped speaking when she was a teenager and wanders mute through the streets of Bedford, Maine. And everyone in town dreams about her, although they don't talk about that, and try not to think about it either. But although Susan is the townspeople's scapegoat, things were badly wrong in Bedford long before she was born.

What I really liked abut this book is the way the author casually introduces the horrific and macabre. You are reading along and all of a sudden you read something like "Just then, the show more closet door opened and a monster stepped out of it." that you hardly notice at first until you are brought up short and have to go back and re-read it. I found it a very effective technique, as it mirrored the way the townspeople skated over the strange things that happened in their town. Later in the book, when the dead stalk the town menacing those townsfolk who didn't sense them coming and flee town, the horror becomes more overt, and that fits too. show less

Takes a lot of nerve to set a horror novel in Maine, where that other horror writer lives (what's his name again?), but Langan pulls it off. This is a psychological horror story that transcends the genre in much the same way that Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House does. Impressive debut effort.

Most of the reviews and comments on THE KEEPER make a point about mentioning it as Langan's debut novel. Now that I've done so too, let us ignore that because this is a great novel, period.

Susan Marley roams the streets of Bedford, Maine, looking for something or simply trying to connect. Considering that she doesn't speak, is considered the town slut and is ignored by her own mother, that desire for a connection is understood. When she dies one night though, horrible things start happening to the residents in town. The dead rise up and buried secrets come up to reality.

While supernatural elements are very much part of the story, they aren't quite as in your face as I expected. The book focuses more on the story and the characters, show more both of which are very rich and enjoyable. Unfortunately though, I didn't quite get pulled into the characters' lives. They were real and easy to picture but they just weren't quite fascinating to care that much about. Not something to avoid the book over but something to be aware of. Focus on enjoying the multiple plot threads that are nicely weaved together. Those make the novel worthwhile. show less

I've always been a fan of small-town apocalypse novels (think Stephen King's "Needful Things" or "Storm of the Century," Phil Rickman's "Crybbe," or Bentley Little's "The Store"). If you are too, you can add another one to your list. "The Keeper" is a real page turner, and Langan has the most crucial quality of a good true horror writer--she never looks away. There's nothing subtle here except perhaps the psychology of the characters. Don't get me wrong. I love a good creeping atmospheric ghost story or a clever, sophisticated mystery, but if you're going to write horror, you can't cheat. Horror should be horrifying, and "The Keeper" is. That's not to say the book is anywhere near perfect. When things really start rolling, Langan loses show more it a little--as if she can't really keep up with her own pace. Her desperate attempts to explain what's happening when everything is happening at once slow down what would be a breakneck pace if she could follow it herself. But keep in mind, this is a debut novel. The tough stuff, Langan has down pat. She's already better at characterization and psychology than Dean Koontz will ever be; her style and poetry leave Bentley Little in the dust; and she's braver and more disturbing than Peter Straub. If she can get control of her pacing and learn a few things about literary depth, she could be a Stephen King in the making. Definitely one to watch. show less

Horror is a genre I read sparingly. However, a dear friend recommended The Keeper and I decided to give it a try. The book started and continued at a slow pace to about 3/4 of the plot. On the other hand, Langan invests in the first part of the book crafting unique well develop characters and creating a creepy world. Worldbuilding in a story means a lot to me. I need to feel I can see myself in the world of the story and Langan created the small town of Bedford Maine to be eerie and alive. The plot was creepy enough and her imagery was unsettling to keep me on edge in many parts throughout the story. I must say she kept my attention despite the slow start.
I wasn’t expecting the ending. I would have preferred a different ending, but show more it is me being a fantasy writer inventing my own side story. It was an excellent ending none the less. In my humble opinion, I loved the story show less