Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars Bombastic
eco-thriller that works as a satire
Reviewed
in the United States on November 21, 2021
This is one of the most ambitious cryptozoological horror books I have
read. The author is a Swede educated in the US at a business college. A
remarkably intelligent piece of writing, it comes over as both a satire and at
times a raucous parody of many themes of current events, mainly the ecological
and the cultural decline of America.
The key character is Christina, a Hollywood child star of some renown
headed for middle age and already losing parts, parents, and yet another
boyfriend. She lands in some tiny western town (Montana?) that reminds the
reader of Twin Peaks on the brown acid from Woodstock. She is here to relax and
rent a state of the art cabin for two months.
The town itself is experiencing a boom of logging and gold mining. We get
the big house reveal and Christina is in love with the property. But there is
danger with an unknown beast running amok and killing people.
From here begins the endless march of strange local ribald characters both
entertaining and not so much, and as much as tried I never cared about the main
character, the usual spoiled and irrelevant Hollywood star. The author spends a
great deal of time with oddities like a Deadman’s curve outside of town that is
a black hole of death, yet never gets fixed by the highway dept. This is either
a statement on the stupidity of American infrastructure maintenance or the
author is a huge Jan and Dean fan, or both. Willen also does a number on small
town dive bars and the iconic insanity.
The social commentary in this book, is both blatant and surreptitious in
the action and dialogue. Just past halfway I realized this was a satire about
the violence and sexual innuendo of Hollywood and the ugly parts of American
history being a cultural curse of modern western society. In an endearing
fashion, dog worship in American life is touched upon, this thing growing into
affectations of “part of the family”, whereas any animal was just a pet in the
60s.
There is a parody scene evoking recall of both Jaws and Deliverance at
once, as the author makes constant reference to blockbuster films one way or
another. This is a fast moving grisly tale where everything and the kitchen
sink is revealed. The reveal and internal monologue of the Crypto beast is well
done. However, the downside is the editing for entire chapters of violence that
was not needed to tell the story.
You will also be amazed by the mockery of town festivals, with the writer
taking the time to make fun of Swedish culture and their liberalism. This book
gets wilder at every turn with the conviction, as well the big showdown
violence between law enforcement and the Beast. The satire goes off the rails
with a highly implausible historical angle that poked fun at all things
National Treasure/ Oak Island/ Brad Meltzer and the fake history for
entertainment offered by Nat Geo or History Channel. The author is gifted and
worked extremely hard to create this one. Quite the show of
shows.
No comments:
Post a Comment