Dead Cant Rant

This is the very first horror novel I have ever read, so I may not be the best to review it. “Horror” is almost not the right term; I would classify it more as a “supernatural thriller” but that’s just me. Suffice to say that I was at least somewhat impressed, but then again some of my favorite movies include The Omen, The Order, and Constantine.

Some minor plot spoilers will inevitably follow, so Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here.

Plot Synopsis

Paleontologist Carter Cox is contacted by an Italian colleague who has found a large fossil of an unknown creature. Carbon dating shows the creature lived millions of years before the first amoebae, and the stone in which it was found at that time was located somewhere in the Earth’s mantle as quasi-molten rock. When a lab accident occurs the fossil is seemingly destroyed, and Carter’s friend is having delusional visions of a supernatural creature. But is he really delusional? Meanwhile, half-mad biblical scholar Ezra Metzger is deciphering a lost scroll of prophecy, with unnatural ties to Carter’s fossil and describing the greatest event in the history of the universe. Carter must work with Ezra to find the truth about the fossil and the scroll, and deal with whatever it is that his friend has seen, all while trying to deal with personal setbacks and his and his wife’s struggles to have a baby.

Discussion

Carter is an interesting and compelling character, struggling with fears of infertility as he and his wife try to start a family. Ezra provides the spiritual insight for Carter’s scientific unbelief, pushing him along to reach the inevitable truth about the creature they have discovered. Arius the creature is a fascinating look into an amoral, completely alien intelligence. He is sociopathic and selfish in a way only the most psychotic human sociopaths could ever be, cool and unemotional in pursuit of his goals while eliminating those who are in his path. He views humanity with an odd mixture of respect and contempt that makes perfect sense in the context of the story and only serves to make him a more compelling creation.

Robert Masello is a good writer who carries the plot along very well, building suspense in a steady drumbeat (or heartbeat?) even if giving away much by way of contrived foreshadowing that reveals to the reader early on the nature of Arius if not exactly his specific identity. (Then again, perhaps that is the way horror novels are supposed to read?) He leverages creepy and weird (in the Lovecraftian sense) locations to the max to terrify the reader with great attention to detail, especially with the creaky old house in upstate New York, in the middle of foreboding woods at night with no curtains to shield the (especially female) inhabitants from the wrath of a creature as old as the universe itself.

Final Verdict