A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

The first time I told Mommy and Daddo about Other Mommy they laughed. It was good-night time and I told Mommy good night and then I said it again and Mommy said,

Why do you say that twice, Bela?

And I said,

I was saying good night to Other Mommy.

Daddo laughed and shut the light and they left my room, but I saw Mommy look back once through the crack in the door. Her eyes looked right at mine. Then she and Daddo went to their own bedroom.

Then Other Mommy made the grunting sound she makes when she stands up on the other side of my bed, in the space between my bed and the wall, when she's been crouched down there on the carpet waiting for them to leave.

A horror novel narrated by a very young girl, about the Other Mommy who lives in her closet and keeps asking, "Can I come into your heart?"

(I assume Other Mommy is a nod to Coraline's Other Mother, which was uhhh kind of unfortunate timing.)

The sample above is how the whole book is written. That sort of thing can sometimes drive me nuts, but it was extremely effective in this. I read the book in a single sitting, and then had to stay up very late reading something less creepy and twitching every time my cats moved.

The first quarter or so of this book is one of the most effective pieces of horror I've ever read. There's no violence or gore, and it's utterly chilling, tapping into childhood fears of things in the closet and under the bed and glimpsed in the corner of your eye. A big part of the fear is that Other Mommy doesn't come into clear focus - Bela knows what she looks like, so only mentions attributes when they're relevant - and every tiny bit of detail that she drops is utterly horrific. It approaches the original story "The Monkey's Paw" in terms of the evocation of sheer dread by what you don't see.

If the first quarter or so had a satisfying ending and then stopped, it would be a basically perfect horror novella. Unfortunately, it continues. Much of the rest of the book consists of the exact same event happening in slightly different contexts FOUR TIMES. But the larger problem with where the story goes after the first part is that it takes the Other Mommy, who is terrifying because what she is and what she wants is so unknown and maybe unknowable, and brings her more into the light, where she promptly becomes less scary. The conclusion is depressing, doesn't quite follow from previous setup, and is sufficiently confusing that it prompted multiple posts to r/horrorlit asking "What happened at the end?"

So, do I recommend this book? Well... the first bit is SO good. If you're interested in horror or writing horror, yes, it's good enough to read for pure enjoyment and as a masterclass in how to evoke more by revealing less.

The rest of the book, eh. It's good in parts. Bela's mother is a borderline misogynist stereotype of the bad cheating wife, though at least there's other normal women to balance her out, and her bad marriage with a saintly doormat is maddening to read. Bela's own narration is pretty convincing as that of a four or five-year-old, so I was surprised to re-read the blurb and see that she's supposed to be eight. What. No. (Her parents treat her like she's four but monologue at her like she's their therapist, but then again, they're AWFUL parents.)

Spoilers! ( Read more... )

Content notes: extreme spookiness, child in danger. There's some violence but it's extremely underplayed, non-graphic, and/or off-page.