A creepy, creepy, creepy Lovecraftian mystery/horror. A paleontologist with a tragic past, her alcoholic psychic ex boyfriend, her dead best friend, a young goth, and an albino girl charged to destroy monsters by an angelic force converge around the secret of the ancient creatures living under Alabama's Red Mountain. Caitlin R. Kiernan's style has been described as "meaty" and here she definitely creates imagery as sultry and cloying as a midsummer day in the Deep South.
Its been a while since I read this - probably about 10 years. So I re-read it. And despite near universal praise for it, I felt underwhelmed. It started great - Chance, the protagonist, has just seen the last of her family die, leaving her alone in the world. During her exploration of the house and papers of her grandmother (who'd killed herself 10 years earlier) she finds evidence of an entirely new fossil of trilobite, one 10's of millions of years earlier than it should have been. And a regular seven sided polygon - the definition of non-Euclidean.
Add a clairvoyant alcoholic ex-boyfriend, his current squeeze and an albino monster hunter of dubious sanity and that's the book.
My biggest problem is that it feels like a huge tease. There are hints of an ancient pre-human civilization that may still be lurking in the corners, but no real reveals. And the end seems to move into the "It was all a dream/alternate timeline" territory.
Likes: Not much.
Dislikes: See above.
Suggested for: Kiernan and die hard horror fans.
Add a clairvoyant alcoholic ex-boyfriend, his current squeeze and an albino monster hunter of dubious sanity and that's the book.
My biggest problem is that it feels like a huge tease. There are hints of an ancient pre-human civilization that may still be lurking in the corners, but no real reveals. And the end seems to move into the "It was all a dream/alternate timeline" territory.
Likes: Not much.
Dislikes: See above.
Suggested for: Kiernan and die hard horror fans.
Very interesting premise, but written in a confusing manner. The author may have intended the frequent switching back and forth between real action, visions, and dreams to lend a haunting, creepy tone to the book, but I just found it hard to follow.
Very interesting. You have to read it very closely, just to be able to keep up with what's a dream, what's a vision, and what's really happening.
