by James Han Mattson (Mattson)
Reprieve caught my attention because of the
setting — Lincoln, NE in the late 1990s — and the hook of a murder trial for
something that happened in a full-contact haunted house business. I felt like I
got more than I expected in terms of setting and less than I hoped for with the
haunted house experience.
The setting has many references to
Lincoln locations. I’m not sure the author has lived here, but he’s clearly
familiar with the map and some of the common ways people talk about Lincoln.
However, for the amount of time spent on UNL campus and some at Lincoln High,
downtown is nearly absent with much more attention paid to Holmes Lake and
Havelock. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of all the details, but it was
satisfying to see Lincoln as the backdrop throughout the bulk of this story.
(With Bangkok taking 2nd place.)
As for the story structure, there’s
the frame of a group of four young people making their way through the rooms of
the haunt for a cash prize, plus some chapters that are trial transcripts from
afterwards. In a typical horror novel, this would make up most of the plot with
some quickly sketched backgrounds. In Reprieve, however, those character backgrounds
feel like full-on novellas of their own that eventually intersect for the night
of the haunt.
It was a lot like watching a horror
anthology film where only the frame story is horror and the individual stories
are realistic fiction on themes like alienation, misogynistic radicalization,
and anti-Blackness among Asian people. Personally, I felt this provided synergy
to the individual stories by giving them an interesting place to end up, but
absolutely drained engagement from the horror frame story. Even *during* the
scant time spent on the escape-room like haunted house challenges, characters
frequently zone out to dwell on their earlier stories (which were already
longer than they should have been). I have to restrict my recommendation to
fans of realistic short fiction who have tolerance for horror, and pointedly
not recommend it to horror fans.
(If you enjoy this, you may also
wish to try My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones, which I reviewed here, which attempts a similar genre blend of
realistic fiction and horror, but ultimately gives satisfying respect to both
genres.)
( publisher’s official Reprieve web page ) | ( official James Han Mattson
web site )
Recommended
by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service
Have you read or listened to
this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
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