Disappearance At Devil’s Rock
by Paul Tremblay
Wm. Morrow, ©2016
hc, 1st edition, 327pp
A Review by Gene Stewart
Disappearance At Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay is a delineation of the details of a missing child from the mother’s and sister’s point of view, with a visit from a concerned, supportive grandmother. Friends directly involved with the disappearance are also included in the scope of this probing, compassionate novel.
Rooted in reality and character-driven, scenes of desperation, despair, and determination combine to depict a haunting from very real ghosts. Tommy, who is missing, was a talented artist. HIs sister, Kate, admires him in typical little sister fashion, and in other ways. His friends Luis and Josh are not quite the three musketeers Tommy’s mother calls them but are good kids, the kind we’d want our children to befriend.
Right? Perhaps they’re not quite that, or more, with something else included, something shadowy, secretive, or is it just reluctance?
Even Devil’s Rock, called Split Rock by locals, is revealed as something else as we learn more about each person caught in this appalling dilemma, this torture of suspense and of not knowing much for sure. The rock around which the story swirls is itself unsound, riven, and risky. We follow events internal and external as we gradually see an unraveling of investigations and inquiries, a decay of hope, a blossoming of love. Trusts are tested, broken, reforged. Loyalties are strained.
Despite such a grim situation, Tremblay does not wander into the maudlin, nor resort to cheap theatrics. It is a compelling story told with patience and sensitivity, an eye toward detail, and engaging interactions among vividly real people. Despite the care with which all is observed, it is presented concisely, never bogging down, always light on its feet, alert, and a few steps ahead of the reader. Masterful is the word a writer would use to describe this work.
Haunting becomes a multi-tiered term in this book. Ghosts, shadow figures, and childhood experiences all factor into the intricate, delicate tracings of this tale. Legends both urban and illusory meet myth to dance a jig of tabloid rumor with internet trolls. Media clashes with private thoughts, fears, dreads. One reads fervently, eager to find out what is going on, afraid to find out what is going on, and wondering if what is going on is really what matters, in the heart of all-nighters and sobbing revelations.
Tremblay’s writing is restrained, balanced, and controlled throughout; masterful, as stated. There is not a single false step, not a single false note, not a single falsity of tone, narrative, or expression in this eerie, galvanizing story. Rarely have kids been captured so intact on the page. Rarely do readers get the chance to enter places full of people just like the ones they know, yet entirely fresh to their experience of reality.
Keep an eye out for a faint echo from The Colorado Kid by Stephen King, too, in a fictional book mentioned in passing. Nice wink.
“Elizabeth is not dreaming.” That is the first sentence and acts as the novel’s motto. It is her touchstone, hope, and, yes, dream, one that sustains life as her precious son continues mysteriously disappeared, as time passes, as a resolution inches toward them all in shapes on night lawns, in thumps and thuds, in torn-out diary pages left by hands unseen.
A note on the production value of this edition: The facsimile diary pages are presented wonderfully rendered as wrinkled teenager spoor and this touch adds to the depth of involvement in the story. Bravo to Morrow for going that extra mile; it is genuinely an enhancement.
Paul Tremblay’s prior novel, A Head Full of Ghosts, was so excellent it had me wondering if he, or anyone, could do better. He’s answered, in Disappearance At Devil’s Rock, with a confident Yes.
Strongly recommended, and a contender for this year’s Stoker Award for Best Horror Novel.
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