My second John Mantooth novel after the rather good Holy Ghost Road last year and I can confirm that HGR was not a one off. Mantooth’s brand of southern gothic hits just as hard in this book as the previous. (Although I've read them in the wrong order of publication somehow)
This time around we’re introduced to Danny, a 14-year-old boy whose mother and autistic sister vanished in a storm a few months earlier. He still holds out hope that they’re alive, even though everyone around him presumes they’re dead. Until a stranger (Walter) appears at his door telling him he knows where they are.
Intertwined with Danny’s story, we also have Walter’s tale of growing up in this small town several decades earlier, and a strange phenomenon he calls “slipping” that he learned when he himself was 14.
This is a moving and occasionally chilling coming-of-age story with supernatural overtones. I suppose there are inevitable comparisons with the King, but this easily holds its own. The southern gothic stylings separate it effectively from anything Good Ol’ Stevie has thrown at us.
It explores themes of parental alienation, coming out in a time when it was much less accepted, loss, grief, hope against hope, and the importance of family.
Chapter 8 may well be the best use of foreshadowing I've read in may years. And this was his debut novel apparently. He handles the shifting time streams with ease. Even when the main narration shifts to present day, it never interferes with the flow in the slightest.
This is a great piece of writing and a contender for best book of the year so far.
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