The Horror by Seb Doubinsky
I would like to thank the author for an advance copy of this novella in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – IFWG Publishing International
Published - 27/5
Price – £9.91 paperback
When a famous horror writer arrives in a lovely coast town to work on his new novel, he is immediately seduced by its picturesque beauty and friendly locals. It looks like he finally found the ideal place to concentrate after a difficult and stressful period of his life. But when strange and frightening events begin to happen all around him, he begins to wonder if behind the beautiful facade of reality lurk some well-hidden and much darker secrets-- or, maybe worse, if he's purely and simply losing his mind?
Suspense is a skill. Build the atmosphere, the possibilities of what may be about to happen and what that will then create for characters. Ideally things should be uncertain but at the same time some form of logic falls behind it. In Seb Doubinsky’s engrossing horror novella The Horror we have a tale that deftly builds a sense that someone bad is going to happen but to whom, how and why is kept dangling until things are far too late for anyone to escape.
Our narrator is a once- successful horror writer (even with the odd for whom recent life has been hard. A bad car accident, a broken relationship and a general feeling he is lost. The solution is a summer away from it all in a coastal summer house and he wants to write. But this remote house feels watched, strange occurrences and note are left, and the writer finds the nearby village is under its polite and pleasant exterior are local feuds, bigotry and deadly secrets.
I hugely enjoyed this as Doubinsky creates a refreshingly stripped bare tale where our unnamed narrator slowly walks us through the events of the summer. Character voice works here. Our narrator comes across a little lost, weary, and yet amiable. They’re not where they want to be in life but not taking it out on the world. Their plans for a supernatural tale battling nazis come across as genuine (and interesting). They feel middle-aged, a little keen to break into literary and most of all someone you worry about as things get weird.
Havin a horror writer as a main character works neatly as our character is aware that strange cats, messages, and odd flowers left behind are more likely down to be down to a weird fan, tiredness or a hyperactive imagination than a supernatural presence. Which outs us as the reader of a horror story into an interesting dissonance. We know something bad is clearly happening but what is it? What works really well is that just as the supernatural ramps up we find the polite village is worried about the wealthy landowner who seems to want to take ove the town; the polite locals we see at night have racists and sexist attitudes and there is a feeling of a rising threat if our writer crosses the wrong path. Which Doubinsky then cleverly undercuts in the final acts of the story. Then we get our writer less a victim and more a player to some extent into the drama that unfolds. As we have been in this nice kind man’s headspace for two thirds at this point the book feels different…darker and creepier and we wonder who we should believe. Things go very wrong but then in the classic style after chaos there appears a return to order, and we get an explanation for the events we saw. It neatly sows all the elements together and the build-up earns the supernatural explanations for what has happened.
The Horror is a distilled classic style tale that never feels dated; lean; knows when the beats must be played and yet keeps us readers on our toes. The sense of menace I found very effective and hugely enjoyable to read. Perfect for a summer evening just when you feel a chill starting on their air. Highly recommended!
