Novel: Thriller, horror. Contains violence and disturbing imagery.
Warning: This review contains minor spoilers.
Do you like tragic thrillers, bordering on horror? Stories which seem like they originate from the pits of humanity which we do not understand and do not wish to? Small towns with big secrets? Twists that you know are coming from a mile away, but find yourself too surrounded by fog to know the nature of this twist until it is footsteps are right upon you and your heart is tearing to get out of your rib cage???
If any of these apply to you (or god forbid, them all), then Borrasca may just be the book for you.
The book starts out with the old “I’m moving to a small town because of my dad/mom’s new job. Of course, in this book, the change of job is a lot more sinister in nature, right off the bat our protagonist (Sam Walker) knows there’s something off about the whole scenario, even as a small child. Which is a lot of what happens in this book, it turns conventions on their heads, then it turns those heads around whether or not the spine agrees.
Sam and his older sister get pulled along for the ride to a town in the middle of nowhere by their parents. Sam makes friends instantly, as children tend to do with their lack of self-consciousness and anxiety. They introduce to him, the legend of “Borrasca”, a place where there are “skin men” and buzz saws.
At this point, something tragic and mysterious happens (I’m not going to spoil it) which acts as a catalyst for the rest of the book. Sam becomes obsessed with discovering the truth behind his new hometown.
There are only two things I really take issue with at this point; firstly, Sam seems desperate to connect the “Borrasca” legend, and the skin men, to the other mysteries of the town. And while certainly, the children’s story becomes intertwined with the story, it’s not a red herring, it just comes off a little strange to me how much Sam relies upon that story. I understand he doesn’t have a lot of clues, but it seems almost convenient how much he locks onto this one detail, as though the author couldn’t come up with better ways for him to connect the dots.
I suppose it’s better than Borrasca and what not being a throwaway detail which later comes back in full, I just think that it could have been more organically worked into the story how Sam comes to think of this legend relating to the tragedy. The whole story is full of clues hidden in plain sight, but Sam isn’t supposed to know that. For him to focus on something which to him, should be unimportant, while the book constantly throws puzzle-pieces in the disguise of triviality at the reader, feels convent.
The second thing I take issue with is how far in time we skip ahead. I’m all for performing the literary equivalent of “Where They Are Now”, I just don’t like how far we skip ahead. We go from Just-Entered-Middle-School-Sam (who feels more like Just-Out-Of-Kindergarten-Sam to me aside from his occasional cursing) to Slightly-Obsessed-Teen-Sam. And I get how this works to show how the tragedy and mystery have gnawed on him, and how it has formed his personality.
But he seems too invested to never have stuck his nose where it doesn’t belong. I would be fine if he at least mentions some incident which we don’t see, but he never does. For all we know, this mystery which Sam claims to have never let go of, has not affected his life in the slightest during the years we do not see, and this comes across as a wasted opportunity.
Let’s look at our driving characters, however, they’ll make up for these; there’s Kyle, Sam’s male friend, and Kimber, Sam’s female friend. I suppose they have more character than I am giving them credit for. But the most likable one out of our trio is Kimber. She’s kind, yet badass, and she’s probably the smartest out of the three of them. Kyle and Sam have plenty of motivation, and even more weaknesses than Kimber, but she just seems easier to latch onto. Yes, Sam’s whole story is carved of tragedy, and you can really feel for him.
But again, we don’t get to see how the first tragedy shapes him because we skip so far ahead. He’s a strong protagonist in terms of motivation, and while the book shows that he is far in over his head, it doesn’t give us much hope that things would turn out the way he wanted them to in the first place. On the one hand, dread is great. I love anything which admits that many people are not the heroes of their own stories. The last bit of the book is powerfully sickening because you just know that something horrible is going to screw up everything.
On the other hand, I never got the feeling that he would succeed, and thus, I never had a sense that we had reached a point of no return, or that a chance had passed. Don’t get me wrong: I like human beings turning out to be inconsequential in the face of their fates. But I prefer it when there is some initial idea OF CONTROL. Otherwise, it turns into a trek through a buggy marsh, and you lose an opportunity to make the reader care about the character and fear for them.
Once you can get past those issues, everything else works well. The characters are believable, the setting interesting enough. Reading it a second time, I realized that the twist doesn’t really come out of nowhere, it’s hinted about through the entire book. If you pay enough attention, you will actually figure out something very disturbing and well-hidden regarding the characters, which just adds the ruthlessness of the entire book.
Although it would be very difficult to figure out the mystery before the characters do, I think there are enough clues that it doesn’t come out of left field, let alone feel cheap. If you take the time to look deeper, I think that you will find a lot hidden just beneath a surface. And that’s the kind of mystery I like best, one which builds up to the reader discovering that they have been bleeding out the entire time.
The twist is suitably horrible and well earned. The vocabulary is less than impressive and one or two of the sentences border on laughable, but those don’t detract much from the mood. While the ending borders on heart wrenching, there are a couple leaps of belief which one has to make to accept it. Once you do, though, I think you’ll find a very moving story about the lengths people will go to discover the truth, and to “do the right thing.”
I realize a lot of this review has been criticizing the story, but I am genuinely in awe of the author for pulling off this concept. The story isn’t all doom and gloom either, there is a peek of hope. None of the main characters, or their friendship, are particularly memorable, but you can understand and relate to their emotional connection.
While I’m not sure I, as an aspiring writer, agree with the author’s choice to keep the characters more on the realistic side, I respect how much he worked to make this story seem like a true one. As well, the brutality of the story and the dark little hints fit together best with more realistic characters, I feel.
I would rate this “Good” bordering on “Great.” If you are looking for a thriller grounded in real situations and real people, one which packs a punch and can induce quite a bit of dread, then Borrasca may be just the thing for you.
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