If you like crime fiction with a focus on the intrigue and conflict rather than mystery, it's a rewarding read. If you liked any of his short stories, this one is a must read. I knew what was happening, had happened, would happen, and I was compelled and horrified all the same. Nevertheless, it doesn't really matter if it's spoiled - it's relentless and horrible. It describes the story in total, and is definitely insightful, but I'd rather not have had it spoiled. Straub's introduction is best read after the novel IMO. He doesn't stop after the narrative ends. The protagonist is an unwilling participant in the narrative, but after a certain point he's an unstoppable, inscrutable force. Nothing is fully explained, and a few important elements to the story remain ambiguous. Although it's a short novel (in effect, it's two novellas "joined at the hip" as noted in the introduction written by Peter Straub), it's effective and chilling in all the right ways. I put off reading this novel for a while - Evenson wrote such great horror fiction, I figured a novel might leave me feeling wanting. He fills short, blunt sentences and almost-mundane scenarios with a sense of menace and the uncanny. But anyone who's read Evenson's A Collapse of Horses knows that, regardless of the subject matter, Evenson is a horror author of the highest magnitude. This may not qualify as a technical horror novel, as there's no supernatural element (maybe), and it doesn't fit any traditional slasher archetypes.
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