Stephen Graham Jones: Mapping the interior (2017)
109 pages
English language
Published Dec. 1, 2017
Walking through his own house at night, a fifteen-year-old thinks he sees another person stepping through a doorway. Instead of the people who could be there, his mother or his brother, the figure reminds him of his long-gone father, who died mysteriously before his family left the reservation. When he follows it he discovers his house is bigger and deeper than he knew. The house is the kind of wrong place where you can lose yourself and find things you'd rather not have. Over the course of a few nights, the boy tries to map out his house in an effort that puts his little brother in the worst danger, and puts him in the position to save them . . . at terrible cost.
Kind of a perfect novella?? It didn’t hit as hard emotionally as other things I’ve read, but it just felt right and complete, thus 5 stars.
Really enjoyed the ending. Enjoyed the progression of the ghost’s (?) dynamic with the family. Enjoyed the stuff with the dogs. I felt real tension and horror here, which was more than I thought I’d get out of a tiny book.
I read this on a recommendation and unfortunately it just wasn't for me. The prose is clunky and the narrative is thin. There are some excellent concepts and thematic urges but none of it develops into a fully realized idea. This felt like a draft of a novella instead of a completed, polished work.
Once again, I'm just not much of a genre reader.
Not perfect, but close enough for 5 stars. Accomplishes the difficult task of being a significant text while being occasionally terrifying.
