For many children, the summer of 1988 was filled with sunshine and laughter. But for ten-year-old Kris Barlow, it was her chance to say goodbye to her dying mother.
Three decades later, loss returns―her husband killed in a car accident. And so, Kris goes home to the place where she first knew pain―to that summer house overlooking the crystal waters of Lost Lake. It’s there that Kris and her eight-year-old daughter will make a stand against grief.
But a shadow has fallen over the quiet lake town of Pacington, Kansas. Beneath its surface, an evil has grown―and inside that home where Kris Barlow last saw her mother, an old friend awaits her return.
For my last book on my modest “summery” TBR, I really wanted to find something longer & more deliberately paced. Something that I could really sink into and slow down with a bit. Something haunting and vivid and beautiful.
I don’t think I could have picked a better book for that vibe than Scott Thomas’s VIOLET.
I’m going to take issue with Josh Malerman’s blurb from the front cover, which reads: “Don’t let anybody tell you this book is a slow burn—VIOLET travels at the speed of horror.”
VIOLET is absolutely a slow burn. And while I mean that in a very complimentary way (I don’t think the term “slow burn” is inherently negative), I also want to acknowledge that the pacing & descriptive writing in VIOLET might not be everyone’s cup of tea. I consider myself a bit of a soft reviewer, but this is my first five-star adult horror novel since June, so yeah…this was exactly my cup of tea & it wound up being one of my favorite reads of the year.
Kris Barlow is mourning the recent loss of her husband, who died in a terrible car crash. Grasping for ways to move herself and her eight-year-old daughter Sadie through the complexities of grief, Kris decides to move to her family’s lake house in Kansas for the summer. The house is in a town called Pacington, right on the shore of Lost Lake. The house holds a lot of memories for Kris, some more haunting than others.
But it’s a special place, and Kris wants to share it with Sadie. Kris has inherited the property from her late father, who had been renting the house out over the years since Kris’s mother passed away.
But when Kris and Sadie arrive they find that the property has been left to, quite literally, rot. This glistening gem of a lakefront home has been reduced a weed-infested, moldering ruin. Determined to make it work, Kris & Sadie begin the arduous task of cleaning and restoring the house.
And I think this is where the book might lose the occasional reader, because there is a lot of focus on Kris & Sadie working towards making the house livable again. Thomas’s writing is very detailed, almost granular in a way. And I’m someone who doesn’t always love this style of writing, but in VIOLET it just worked for me. You get sort of nestled in with Kris & Sadie, the long days of cleaning, exploring the forest when the work is done, taking in the views of the lake.
What this ultimately does, and does extremely successfully, is it almost lulls you into this sort of peaceful, comfortable feeling.
So that when the creepy stuff starts happening, when Sadie starts spending all her time playing and chatting with someone who doesn’t seem to be there…it all just sneaks up on you as a reader. There are scenes in VIOLET that froze me in place, chilled me right down to the fucking bone.
There’s something broken in this once-idyllic town, there’s so many missing girls and not nearly enough answers. Something is stirring in Pacington, and it’s a lot closer than Kris thinks. Old memories come back to the surface, traumas she has worked at burying. But now that she’s back in the house…there’s going to be a reckoning.
This is probably the best “quiet horror” novel I’ve ever read. If not, it’s close. Scott Thomas is an author who has been on my radar quite awhile. I picked up his debut novel, KILL CREEK, when it came out in 2017, but like so many books, I just haven’t gotten around to it. But I’m hoping to jump into it sooner rather than later, as well as his collection of novellas, MIDWESTERN GOTHIC (what a title!) In short, VIOLET made a huge fan out of me, and I’m excited to read more of Thomas’s work.
As I’ve said over & over, I think horror is the genre that relies most heavily on having an investment in a story’s characters. In feeling what they feel, and experiencing a creeping sense of dread right along with them. And Kris & Sadie are really compelling. Their hearts are heavy but they are trying to figure out their new normal. Meanwhile there’s any number of forces (some supernatural, some not) trying to rip them apart. It gets messy between them but it always feels so real. The book tackles the ugliness of grief, and addiction, and the uniquely horrifying experience of watching a loved one be ravaged by illness. Without giving away too much, there were shades of a very particular aspect of PET SEMATARY (having nothing to do with pets) that has haunted me since I saw the movie at way-too-young of an age.
I think VIOLET is one of the most brilliant & beautifully written horror novels I’ve read. A new all-time favorite of mine, for sure.
Added to my TBR stack!
LikeLike