As promised in my earlier post, here are the first of a few independent press reviews of books I've enjoyed in the last 12 months or so, kicking off with Aliya Whiteley's The Beauty:
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| picture copyright Aliya Whiteley, Unsung Stories |
It is a catastrophe that strikes to the very heart of men's fears (women's also, I suspect). But it's a credit to the author's strength they do not labour over the catastrophe, instead she draws the reader into the aftermath via a narrator (who may or may not be reliable due to a penchant of re-writing
history or fantasising what others would deem as horrible).
But that’s okay, because like any good storyteller, we’re
taken in and are utterly convinced by this likeable narrator, Nate, who leads us on
a journey down the darkest paths through the woods. A place where even
vegetable matter may prove to be the downfall and resurrection of man. And here
lies the disturbing element; the story is about what it takes to survive. Not as an individual, but as a race, a twisted Edenist vision where humanity must begin
again, but at what cost to the flesh?
What cost to the soul?
What cost to the soul?
To tell you more about the story would be to deconstruct a book
that is more ideas and experience than plot, where each idea should remain a
surprise, if a disconcerting one. This is a story I arrived at without any inkling
as to what might happen, and so, in the finest tradition of weird fiction, I preserve
this for other readers. You don’t need to know much more about the darkness in these pages, just be
prepared for them.
The Beauty is a strange, wonderful, discomforting-at-times,
delight. It is as convincing as it is beguiling, and if there is only one
criticism, the end comes too early, and you wonder if there are more stories to tell. But as
Nate seems reluctant to tell them, (and after what the characters go through,
you’ll understand why) it seems fitting the story is picked up by another, or
left untold as the future feels so uncertain...
Recommended.
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