This is the first book that I have read of Zach’s, but he had me immediately with this book as it covers some of my favourite horror topics. I found his writing to be easy, good and engaging. The kind of story-telling that keeps you on the edge of your seat and then the book is over and your pasta has gotten cold and now you don’t want to eat it. I will definitely be reading more from him in the future. It’s been a little bit and my memory is terrible, but I don’t recall having any issues with editing or formatting.
And let me just say that I love the cover to this book. I would have picked up this book without even knowing the summary based on cover alone.
But, let’s get to the book. It’s not a terribly long book, coming in at 150 pages, but guess who likes her books around that length because she’s a goldfish? I hope you’re pointing at me. Or the computer screen, I guess. Whatever. Anyway. It is a book about a strange little town. Church service is mandatory and you do as the elders say. I mean, that’s it. No back talk. No questioning. You go to church and you obey.
I couldn’t live like that–I’m too rebellious and hard-headed, lmao–but it seems to work out for the citizens. They all have good lives, they’re all happy and they’re living in a thriving town. A quaint little utopia.
Enter Elizabeth.
Elizabeth starts out as your average citizen. You know, until she wakes up and her husband is not in bed. In fact, he’s not anywhere. It’s like Mat just vanished into thin air. Elizabeth is apparently the first person in this town to ever have common sense, because she has a problem with her husband being missing. She has an even bigger problem with everyone acting like him being gone is no big deal, despite the fact that the punishment for skipping Sunday service is fierce and this particular family was already on thin ice for that.
It would have been easy for Elizabeth to leave it in the hands of the sheriff or let the elders comfort her, but no, ma’am. She knows weird when she sees weird and she quickly realizes that if you want a job done in this town, you’re going to have to do it yourself. She’s an amazing character in that, immediately willing to break tradition and iron-clad rules to find the truth. I don’t know if you’ve ever lived in a place or had a family where things were always Done a Certain Way, but breaking out of that isn’t easy. Elizabeth doesn’t even blink.
It doesn’t help that she starts having the weirdest visions. Nighttime. A field. A… knife? Mat’s bleeding. Some other disturbing things that I won’t spoil for you. It’s enough to make anyone question their sanity, but Elizabeth is a fucking train. If anything, the visions just egg her on and make her become more aggressive and more insistent.
Elizabeth eventually gets her answer. I bet she wishes she hadn’t.
A being known as the Great I is revealed to her. He is a horrible, gruesome entity with terrible powers. (I found the I instead of Eye to be fun, btw.) He’s the reason the town is the way that it is. He’s the reason she’s been having visions. But… why would the Great I want to give Elizabeth these visions? Why would he want to show her the truth of what happened? What did he expect Elizabeth to do in response?
… actually, I don’t know. That’s my only complaint with this book and I don’t know if I missed a page or something or if it was just never explained, but the Great I and his choices–and eventual demands–regarding Elizabeth… it was a thing that happened. Maybe he was bored and wanted someone feisty. Maybe he had a crush.
Regardless, it doesn’t take long for the Great I to move from attempts at comfort and calmness to cruelty. He makes a demand of Elizabeth that will change everything she’s ever known. It’s a demand that he says she has a choice in, but anyone reading the book knows she doesn’t. It is a heartbreaking, frustrating scene after all that Elizabeth has gone through and I kind of wanted to chuck my phone across the room…
… but keep reading. Because Elizabeth, dear Elizabeth, actually manages to get what she wants. Despite the Great I. Despite everything. She may be beaten but she is most certainly not out and I ended the book still feeling bad for her but also feeling wildly proud of her. She was an excellent character and I think part of that is because she started out as anyone else. There’s nothing special about her. She’s not a genius, she’s not skilled at fighting or anything like that. She’s just a woman who wants to know what happened to her husband and will defy everything she’s ever known or been told in order to find answers. And I like that.
I would recommend this book for people looking for a good everybody is going to lose in some way but a controlling church and it’s equally as controlling entity leader are gonna get theirs from the most ordinary person in the world. I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading more from Zach.
