Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Reading ‘Bloodstone,’ Nate Kenyon’s debut novel, is a lot like taking a vacation inside a pressure cooker. From the prologue to the final pages, the reader is drawn through a scary, intense world full of damaged but redeemable characters, disturbing imagery, a cursed amulet, the living dead and forbidden love. For Maine readers, the book may be particularly scary, as they will recognize many locations described by the author, himself a Maine native. This familiarity brings the horror that much closer to home.
In the classic tradition of such horror greats as Stephen King and Peter Straub, Nate Kenyon has created the fictional town of White Falls, Maine, one of the prettiest villages you would never want to call home. White Falls is a town with a secret, which is only completely revealed to the reader in the novel’s climactic ending. The novel spans centuries, starting with the terrible corruption of one of White Falls founding fathers. Drawn to Maine by his own nightmares, Billy Smith is a pawn in an ancient game over which he seemingly has no control. His partner in this adventure is a West Coast drug addict, a beautiful but lost girl named Angel.
Kenyon’s true gift lies in his ability to terrify readers without resorting to graphic gore. While there are a few bloody messes over the course of the novel, by and large it is in Kenyon’s subtlety that the real horror lies. Kenyon’s characters seem like real people, fragile, flawed, but most of all loving. ‘Bloodstone’ is a horror novel, but it is also a novel about love and redemption, about letting go of the past and becoming the hero of your own life.
Nate Kenyon may not be a household name yet, but if ‘Bloodstone’ is any indication, he is on his way. Horror fans everywhere can look forward to Kenyon’s next effort. Let’s hope he doesn’t keep us waiting for too long.
