The Corpse Road by Sean Hogan
Publisher – PS Publishing
Published – Out Now
Price – £14.99 paperback £2.99 ebook
A senseless tragedy sends two sisters fleeing back to the refuge of Goaway, their isolated family cottage. As children, Goaway was always a safe and comforting place, a fairy-tale realm of myths and legends. But the sisters have now left childhood far behind them, and the arcane mysteries they discover there as adults promise to lead them down an even more shadowy path. The woods surrounding the cottage may be filled with secrets, but it soon transpires that each of the sisters nurtures a dark secret of their own. What will happen when they discover the dreadful truth about the lies they have told each other . . . and the shocking reality of what awaits them at the end of the Corpse Road?
When times are tough for many its family that will always be where we turn to. But not always will that work for everyone. Sometimes being with the people who know us best also mean we know who can hurt us in the most painful way. Cycles of the past can repeat themselves. In Sean Hogan’s great modern folk horror novel The Corpse Road we meet two sisters whose turbulent relationship is rocked by a tragedy that means even more danger awaits in a sinister part of the Cornish countryside.
Ruth and her younger sister Annie haver always had a difficult relationship. They’re very much opposites. Ruth the lively outgoing on who has become successful in publishing and Anie the introverted shy one who has drifted through life, work and relationships. The one place both though are drawn to is the small Cornish cottage their family has always made trips to a place called Goaway. Even after their parents died they both return with their partner but tragedy is coming to wreak havoc on the sisters and their tense relationship will go through even more changes and the ancient legends of the countryside will put them both in great peril.
This is a hugely impressive piece of storytelling as Ruth and Annie in alternating chapters tell their sides of the story. We have a section called before leading up the key moment that wrecks their lives and then After. Hogan gives each a unique voice. Ruth is bossy, lively and often scornful of her sister and her life choices. Annie is unconfident, unsure whether she is even in love with her boyfriend and obsessed with myths. But what really makes this tale work is the more we hear from them the more we realise the complexities of their relationships and the many sides that await in each other. Ruth is actually in love with her husband and wants to settle down more. Annie wants to also move on. However, much is going on in their lives they do seem to be the only ones who get each other but at the same time each has an amazing ability to just annoy the other in seconds and undoing any previous attempts to repair things. When the tragedy finally hits what is shocking is the drastic changes each undergoes. This adds further dimensions to their relationships; each loses their way and gets pushed into much more extreme behaviour that we would not have guessed from the early chapters. Yes, I’m being coy here but its powerfully executed in the middle acts of the story. Both women’s changes delivered organically so we can see how they made their next choices but also there is our horror at how far these two women are now prepared to go. Our initial loyalties are being pushed although can we ever forgive someone for tearing the head off a Luke Skywalker toy?
On its own it would just be a powerful character study of a fracturing family, but Hogan also adds a supernatural dimension throughout. The mysterious Goaway that sits in the woods is your typical cut off countryside cottage by some very eerie woods. There is a constant feel of claustrophobia, being watched and that the locals may know more than they have told these outsiders. Strange events start and then in the latter half of the book we find the bigger myths being concealed. There is a touch of the dark fairy tale with two sisters finding themselves alone in a woodland cottage, but this story is getting dark fast. Grief and love are a powe4rful combination and so how far would each go to feel better about themselves? This isn’t a tale of blood and gore but how much people can transform themselves and do the unthinkable for their own goals. Hogan uses the dark magical atmosphere to amplify and unpeel the sister’s lives and secrets and that sets it up for a truly surprising final act.
The Corpse Road is an intimately told horror story, filled with beautiful character studies and by the end we feel that know these two sisters so well and yet they still manage to surprise us. Are they victims of the powers awaiting in Goaway or sowing the seeds of their own tragedy? Neither answer is going to make us feel better about what happens, but this tale is very hard to let go of. A story that really works for a chilly spring evening as the light fades. Highly recommended!
