You might have been living in a box (or perhaps a coffin) if you’ve not noticed the trend for dark fantasy and teen horror pervading contemporary culture lately. I’m not averse to Stephenie Meyer’s fiction but it would be fair to say it surprises me that this constitutes horror fiction. It’s all too cosy, too comfortable, too normal. I prefer something with a bit more… bite.
I’ve read and enjoyed the wonderful Southern gothic Sookie Stackhouse novels of ‘True Blood’ but even here I’m afraid that I feel like it’s all just too familiar. Even the villains here are straight out of the high school horror of Buffy or Angel and whilst I find some spook in the voodoo magic, it’s all too diluted by bar brawls, angst and police cars.
I’m all for horror and fantasy that integrates into contemporary frames of reference. The most frightening things are those which place elements of fear in the otherwise ‘ultra-normal’ or vice versa. This is a delicate balance however and it only works when it’s done right.
This is a good lead in to the fantastic zombie fiction of Carrie Ryan. I read her first novel: The Forest of Hands and Teeth in a single sitting with an overwhelming sense of dread, fear and compulsion. I simply could not look away and the plot had my heart in my mouth from the first to the last page.
The early scenes of the novel, set in an isolated village ruled by the all-powerful ‘sisterhood’ have all the overtones of a Seventeenth Century Puritanism drenched with thinly veiled sexual tension and violence under a cover of religious mania and stringent hierarchical control. The village, surrounded by its metal fence with the looming forest around, is permeated by fear. Not only fear of the horrors lingering outside and the fearsome ‘unconsecrated’ but also the dangers of the world inside, the dangers of desire and power and human weakness. The main character, the young girl who narrates the novel oscillates between frustration at the limitations of her world and the fear of what transgression might cause.
I would have been happy to read a book which limited its parameters to this village and its shadowy world of the temple of women controlling the access and the mysterious path to the world beyond the confines. When I began reading I was prepared for such a novel but Carrie Ryan is not an author to play to expectations. This world is blown apart and the resulting journey to what exists beyond is truly terrifying and bleakly, starkly harrowing.
I loved the fact that this novel has desire present in all its real, raw intensity. This is no Bella and Edward looking longingly at each other awaiting wedded bliss in safe small town America. This is a world where all boundaries are temporary where human intellect can be overridden by dangerous base bestiality at any time. Desire, love, compassion none of these are true antidotes and there is no easy consolation. Emotional connection is perilous, it causes destruction, danger and death and it is fleeting at best.
I was struck by so many scenes in the novel, some of which I will never forget. Not least comparing the maternal affection of parenthood in Breaking Dawn with the death-children of this novel. The moment where Mary finds an ‘unconsecrated’ baby mewling in desperate, powerless hunger is so shockingly raw it made me hold my breath. This is a world where hard decisions have to be made and in a moment of true horror Mary shushes the bundle in her arms, the baby she longs for, rocks it gently, before holding it, outstretched above groaning, hungry mouths and drops it into the scrum.
The sequel The Dead-Tossed Waves is less tightly written, introducing a wealth of characters and increasing detail of the world outside which, to an extent, I found diluted the true horror of the original. Nevertheless, both novels represented talented and original writing which shouldn’t be missed. It is everything but formulaic and blows everything else in this genre out of the water. For those who would avoid teen vampires like the plague, you should make an exception for this. If you enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale if you enjoy dystopian fiction like John Wyndham, Orwell or Cormac McCarthy; then this is for you.
To Capture the Castle 