FINAL Retro Review: Disappearance at Devil's Rock
/When I started this blog, I had been posting reviews on Goodreads for about 6 months. In the interest of having all of my book writing in one place, I will post one of these old reviews every Friday. They weren't written with a blog in mind, so please forgive the lack of summary and off-the-cuff tone.
THIS IS THE FINAL RETRO REVIEW - I’M ALL CAUGHT UP!! WOOOOOO!!
3 stars. I don't usually say things like this, but what an epic roller coaster ride. And I'm not just talking about the plot.
I absolutely loved A Head Full of Ghosts and opened this with high expectations. 25% into it, though, I was ready to give up. I rolled my eyes at the dialogue (it was almost embarrassing, like Tremblay was trying to be a cool dad who knows about things like Snapchat and video games and "the suck") and the hilarious analogies ("She speed-walks across the front lawn, moving like a broken robot alternating short strides with big, uneven steps that threaten to topple her over." ... "Elizabeth offers Josh’s mom a weak smile that instantly collapsed like a long-neglected bridge."). But a quarter of the way through, something clicked into place. I was engulfed.
Tremblay knows his way around ambiguous evil. It wasn't as atmospheric as I expected, but I was legitimately creeped out. The tension was quite real and quite scary and the story itself was crunchy in a satisfying way. I didn't predict any of the twists and turns except (view spoiler) and I was blown away by how the primary antagonist was portrayed. I also absolutely LOVE stories in which an individual encounters - quite literally - his or her own mortality (I recommend the Australian horror movie Lake Mungo for anyone interested) and was delighted to detect that particular undercurrent. It was deeply unsettling in the best way.
Tremblay plays with format here and is - for the most part - successful. There were several instances of pre-teens not sounding like any pre-teen I've ever known (honestly, for me, he failed across the board to breathe realistic life into any of the kids) and some cringe-worthy sequences about a glitchy camera recording app. But the conclusion really makes the book scary and makes the book worth it. Horror fans should read.