ALETHEIA by J.S. Breukelaar (Crystal Lake Publishing, March 2017) Kindle Edition, 387 pages. Awards: Aurealis Award 2017 Nominee for Best Horror Novel, Australian Shadows Award 2017 Nominee for Novel.
Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .
The remote lake town of Little Ridge has a memory problem. There is an island out on the lake somewhere, but no one can remember exactly where it is - and what it has to do with the disappearance of the eccentric Frankie Harpur or the seven-year-old son of a local artist, Lee Montour.
When Thettie Harpur brings her family home to find Frankie, she faces opposition from all sides - including from the clan leader himself, the psychotic Doc Murphy.
Lee, her one true ally in grief and love, might not be enough to help take on her worst nightmare. The lake itself.
A tale of that most human of monsters - memory - Aletheia is part ghost story, part love story, a novel about the damage done, and the damage yet to come. About terror itself. Not only for what lies ahead, but also for what we think we have left behind.
My Five-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .
This is one of those novels that blends genres so well (mystery, thriller, horror, dark fantasy) it should appeal to a mass audience, even though I would not hesitate to classify ALETHEIA as fine literary horror. Sometimes that's a turn-off for many readers; but please don't make assumptions too quickly.
The supernatural elements are there from the beginning, although more like hints/foreshadowing and atmosphere-building rather than jump-scares. What pulled me in and kept me immersed in this story from the very first chapter is the rich characterization. All the players are fully-developed and seem real and complex, none more so than primary characters Thettie Harpur and her new lover/confidante Lee Montour. Both are trying to recover something that they lost and a bond is formed that not even tragic events can break. Even the lake and mysterious misty island serve as abstract characters.
Breukelaar's world building and dynamic descriptive skills make it all seem real, despite the heavy symbolism and metaphors that enhance enough paragraphs that anyone seeking a deeper read can really dive beneath the surface of ALETHEIA.
The author works memory theory into many cracks and crevices of the novel. I thought it was a brilliant exploration of some deep subject matter.
The supernatural and ghostly elements really don't manifest until well beyond the mid-point of this novel. I didn't really notice that so much because I was completely driven by the story and following the development of these characters.
This is a lengthy book for a horror novel that is too dense to try and binge-read quickly. You'll need to pause and reflect at several key points.
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