A haunting, poetic piece of work that is meant to provoke, frighten, and disturb, The Red Tree deserves much more attention than it will probably get. The cover (which the author didn't like) appears to make it easy to categorize--paranormal romance.
Instead, the work is a highly poetic description of a descent into madness provoked, in part, by her narrator's sudden move from Atlanta to an old farmhouse in Rhode Island. But that's just my interpretation. It could be that the author meant for us to be horrified by something that was actually there--not just imagined by the narrator.
Kiernan borrows much from American and English folklore, legend, and horror literature, quoting everything from snippets of Poe's poetry to refrains from the "Alice" books.
This hallucinatory book is a great counter measure to Stephen King's more definite evils, sometimes less terrifying because they are so real.
Ms. Kiernan leaves room for the reader to imagine the horrors around her words.
No comments:
Post a Comment