08 January 2016

Review: American Elsewhere

American Elsewhere American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think I thought I loved this book about fifty pages in.

I knew I loved this book about one hundred pages in.

I think I knew it was going down as one of my favorites about two hundred pages in, and then I still had four hundred to go.

I didn't want it to end, but it did, and it's easily one of the weirdest, strangest, most straightforward weird/horror books I've read. It's a little ahead of its time, too - if this had come out in 2015 it would be heralded as the book that could propel the New Weird into mainstream acceptance, but instead it's a little/not little 2013 title that won some horror awards and has otherwise not shown up on my radar, and that's a shame, because this is an absolute gem of a book.

The story follows Mona. She has inherited a house in a small town called Wink in New Mexico, and it's become a hassle to even find this town, never mind get information on her mother and what's part of the inheritance. As she makes her way through town, nothing seems quite right. As a police officer, her senses are tingling a bit, the woman at the town hall is strange, and the guy who runs to motel perhaps a little too friendly for a place that doesn't ever seem to have customers.

And then things get strange.

The pleasure I derived from this book comes more from the little reveals along the way, from the small vignettes of townspeople and the happenings to how it all comes together only to unravel again as the story goes on. While the ideas perhaps fail to break any new ground from a storytelling standpoint, it's ultimately how Bennett ties them all together in an off-putting, uncomfortable way that makes this book so much more special than your typical horror/weird tale. And I didn't see the end coming, which was nice. Or, for that matter, the middle. Or much of anything - it's familiar enough to not feel absurd while still being completely strange nearly from page one.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's not a difficult read even though it's a long one, and I just absolutely love the ideas and concepts behind it. This is now two masterful books I've read by Robert Jackson Bennett, and he's fast becoming someone I'm going to have to seek out when his next books come out right away. Find a copy of this book and read it, you absolutely won't be let down.

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