A chillingly dark novella
4 stars
This World Does Not Belong To Us is indeed a chillingly dark novella which brought to mind for me tales such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and The Murmur Of Bees by Sofia Segovia. Freire gradually reveals the circumstances which led to Lucas being exiled from his home so it wasn't until the very end that I felt I had a full grasp of just what had happened to so completely alienate this young man. My uncertainty throughout though made for a really unsettling atmosphere, helped along by Freire's hints at events to come and Lucas' obsession with insects living around him. Initially this felt like a typical child's interest in the natural miniature world, but Lucas' isolation from other children in a pretty dysfunctional adult household means he turns more and more to insects for friendship and even guidance on how to live.
I wondered about the …
This World Does Not Belong To Us is indeed a chillingly dark novella which brought to mind for me tales such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and The Murmur Of Bees by Sofia Segovia. Freire gradually reveals the circumstances which led to Lucas being exiled from his home so it wasn't until the very end that I felt I had a full grasp of just what had happened to so completely alienate this young man. My uncertainty throughout though made for a really unsettling atmosphere, helped along by Freire's hints at events to come and Lucas' obsession with insects living around him. Initially this felt like a typical child's interest in the natural miniature world, but Lucas' isolation from other children in a pretty dysfunctional adult household means he turns more and more to insects for friendship and even guidance on how to live.
I wondered about the connections between the formerly affluent house crumbling away in Lucas' absence and his own crumbling mental state. That said, given the circumstances on his return, perhaps Lucas, in his own way, is the most rational of everyone. I would class This World Does Not Belong To Us as a psychological horror novella. Its gentle pace lulled me into not realising how horrible the denouement would be and the lack of graphic detail at that point gave my imagination a greater freedom to envisage the scenes. This novella is quite the unique read which I don't think will hit the bestseller lists, but I can see it being recommended by word of mouth and becoming a cult classic in time.