Caretaker of Lorne Field by Dave Zeltserman
My rating: 4/5 cats
short and sweet, with a classic horror feel to it.
this reads like an episode of the twilight zone—one of the old classic ones, not one where kiefer sutherland flies a plane which i am realizing as i am typing this was actually an episode of amazing stories but i’m not even going to go back and fix it—it will be like you and i are having a conversation together over wine instead of this remove—this barrier of a review between us. cuz we are BFFAE.
so this book is about killer plants. so it made me think about Ordinary Horror and the happening (oh, god, did i just spoil that movie?? i don’t even care – that movie was spoiled by the people who made it. it should be illegal to make good trailers for shitty movies)
but back to the book. it is a slow-building psychological horror novel with a potentially unreliable narrator who is convinced of his own important role in this 300-year-old contractual dealie where he, and all the eldest male members of his family before him, have been responsible for weeding this field for the princely sum of 8,000 per annum. but the weeds—they aren’t weeds—they are aukowies. monster plants that, left to their own devices, unweeded, will turn into human-eating plant monsters. sho nuff.
he has been so good at weeding and adhering to even the tiniest points of his beloved contract that he has managed to keep them at bay for his entire tenure. but he is older now, it is becoming more difficult, and the town is changing. all the old timers are dying off, and the young bucks and even his wife do not believe in this quaint legend, and do not offer durkin the same respect and perks that he and his family have come to expect. and 8,000 dollars is no longer the fortune it once was, even if you keep in mind the free house. and his eldest son is in no way interested in carrying on the family tradition.
times are changing.
people are turning their backs on him.
but he will not allow one shred of doubt to enter his mind.
no matter what.
you are the reader.
whaddya think?
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