SFF

The Blade Between

by Sam J Miller
Ecco: HarperCollins. Dec. 2020. 384p. ISBN 9780062969828. $26.99. HORROR
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Miller (Destroy All Monsters) takes on cosmic horror with chillingly realistic results. Ronan, a famous New York City photographer, comes home to the upstate New York town of Hudson to care for his dying father. Returning to the site of his childhood trauma, a place where being openly gay was dangerous, Ronan reconnects with his first crush, Dom, now a police officer, and hiswife Attalah, a community organizer, to help them save the town from gentrification. But Hudson is more than just a typical down-on-its-luck small town. Its rich history has a power that goes deep into the soil and transcends time and space, one that does not see humans as an obstacle but will protect itself at all costs.
VERDICT Filled with intense dread and unease; well-drawn if flawed characters; social commentary; and a satisfying resolution, this is a great example of how a century-old subgenre can still speak directly to today’s readers. Direct those who want more to John Langan’s The Fisherman, Caitlín R. Kiernan’s Agents of Dreamland, or T. Kingfisher’s The Twisted Ones.
Reviewed by Becky Spratford, La Grange, IL , Oct 01, 2020
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