Family Business by Jonathan Sims
I would like to thank Javerya from Orion for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher - Gollancz
Published - Out Now
Price - £18.99 hardcover £11.49 Kindle eBook
JUST ANOTHER DEAD-END JOB.
DEATH. IT'S A DIRTY BUSINESS.
When Diya Burman's best friend Angie dies, it feels like her own life is falling apart. Wanting a fresh start, she joins Slough & Sons - a family firm that cleans up after the recently deceased.
Old love letters. Porcelain dolls. Broken trinkets. Clearing away the remnants of other people's lives, Diya begins to see things. Horrible things. Things that get harder and harder to write off as merely her grieving imagination. All is not as it seems with the Slough family. Why won't they speak about their own recent loss? And who is the strange man that keeps turning up at their jobs?
If Diya's not careful, she might just end up getting buried under the family tree. . .
Death is alledgedly the great equaliser. We all face the same fate. Honestly I’m not sure about that. As with life status has an impact. We recently had the U.K. at a standstill for one monarch’s funeral. I once heard the concept of ‘big deaths’ that rattle around and have consequences for all of us. But if that is true then are there ‘small deaths’ that pass us by unnoticed? Can you remember the names of people who simply passed away that you read about mentioned in a paper but have no connection to? What happens to them and the remnants of their lives? In Jonathan Sim’s excellent horror novel Family Business this idea gets explored to chilling effect.
Slough and Sons is a near hundred year old business that specialises in cleaning up the homes (or last resting spots) of the dead. Wiping away what bodies have left behind; sorting out possessions and making places ready for the occupant. Into this role has entered Diya a thirty-something young woman who has lost her best friend Angie and has spent weeks in grief; cutting herself off from the world and losing her office job in the process. The Sloughs patriarch Frank though has thought Diya may be suitable and so she now learns the ropes alongside his daughters the not quite psychic Mary and the death metal loving and constantly laughing at life Xen. But Diya finds certain of the cleaning jobs having an impact on her; dreams that appear to be the deceased’s final moments; suggestions that they were killed not victims of their own life and slowly Diya finds herself staring to explore the Slough’s most constant employer Mr Bill and that the business may have more links than she ever expected.
This is a brilliant character filled story that Sims has really made to capture you from the first page. The unusual nature of this type of cleaning; the dissonance of the subject compared with a normal gently rowing family who do it make the situation stand out as something we are unfamiliar with. Sims also makes it clear Diya is not when we first meet her in a good place. Sims in this story explores how grief for those we remember can be soul crushing - we get to feel how important Angie was and how empty life now is. Angie and Diya were school friends and flatnates. Bonds on so many levels from in-jokes; shared memories and film nights and now it’s all stopped forever. Only this strange cleaning job gives her something to do but as we find out it may not be the safest option.
Sims has a rather excellent way in this story of capturing the reader unawares. One minute Diya is cleaning and suddenly we notice that the words no longer fit that scene. We are instead experiencing various people’s final moments. As you can imagine that is when the terror builds up am especially as we also know the final outcome. This is where we also discover that an outside force has secretly murdered these people and this entity preys on those who fall out of society - the hoarder; the agoraphobic( the asylum seeker. There is a reminder throughout that our society does itself sort people out into those it believes are worthy of attention and those do not. These people we ignore or forget about because they seem on the outside; well who will notice a few extra disappear? And once their final remains and possessions are removed from the planet who will ever remember them? A chilling idea and yet we know a true one which makes this horror element so powerful.
Knitting these moments together is Slough and Sons and I was really impressed how over the course of the story Sims adds history; newspapers and family testimony to create a sense that Diya is walking into a culmination of an unearthly scheme. One for whom the puppet master behind it all when we finally meet them is both unnerving and we feel going to be very hard to stop. The stakes get raised and the finale will keep you on edge as to the final outcome. But with all this darkness there are moments of lightness with Diya establishing new connections with the Slough daughters despite her desire not to come out of her shell anymore. A simple scene of a geeky games night brings some much needed human warmth before the story’s final act and reminds life must carry on.
Family Business cements Sims as one of our most interesting horror writers. This offers scale, character and an emotional focus that will really pull the reader in. There is a possibility that we can revisit this world again and I would not be averse to that at all. Highly enjoyable; excellently written and well worth your time. Strongly recommended!
