Goodreads blurb: Twenty-five year old Calla Williams is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. Jamie, full of good-natured sixteen-year-old recklessness, is usually off fighting for what matters to him or getting into mischief, often at the same time. Dre, their brother, promised he would help raise Jamie–but now the ink is dry on the paperwork and in classic middle-child fashion, he’s off doing his own thing. And through it all, The Nightmare never stops haunting Calla: recurring images of her brothers dying that she is powerless to stop.
When Jamie’s actions at a protest spiral out of control, the siblings must go on the run. Taking refuge in a remote cabin that looks like it belongs on a slasher movie poster rather than an AirBNB, the siblings now face a new threat where their lives–and reality–hang in the balance. Their sister always warned them about her nightmares. They really should have listened.
My review: “Jamie was her own little Virgil, ushering her from work into the bowels of hell, which was a tight, awkward circle of folding chairs in the guidance counselor’s office.” A quick glance around my blog will show you how much I love classic literature, so when this clever reference to Dante’s Divine Comedy popped up on the first page of this book, I sat up and paid attention. Right away, I could tell that Neena Viel is a talented, knowledgeable author with a fierce command of her craft. I was sucked into the family drama between these three siblings from the very first scene, and each sibling’s POV chapters did a fantastic job of helping me understand where they each were coming from in their actions and opinions. Even delinquent-teen Jamie earned my grudging sympathy, despite my automatic annoyance at the rebel-teen trope. These siblings felt like real people with real problems, believable motivations, and justifiable hang-ups and flaws.
And then the horror vibes crept in. At first, there was something about the air of magical realism and the casual yet empathetic brutality that reminded me of Stephen Graham Jones (my absolute favourite horror writer, please read his works!), and I thought for a while that I’d stumbled into another surprise 5-star read from a debut author (the previous one being Blob by Maggie Su). But then the story took a turn that left me a little confused. Throughout the second half of the book, I was concerned about what the underlying message was supposed to be, and that distracted me from the story itself. By the time I got to the end, which wrapped up a little too 90s-sitcom to suit the tone of the rest of the book, I genuinely wasn’t sure what I’d just read.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool premise that completely earns comparisons to Jordan Peele’s horror movies, and I think that if I re-read it knowing what I know now, I might get more out of it. Everything I was confused about did come together in the end, even though I didn’t entirely like the way it was presented. But there’s an uneven feel to parts of this novel that accentuates the fact that it’s the author’s debut. I predict that Neena Viel is yet to write her true breakout novel, which will blow all of our minds, and her future fans will seek out her backlist and get a lot out of this one. There are moments of real brilliance here. It’s been a few days since I finished reading it, and my mind keeps going back to it, wanting more. I’d be open to a sequel, actually.
Bottom line: It’s worth your time if you’re willing to stick with it through the confusing parts and focus on the sibling relationships. That’s where Viel’s writing really shines.
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