Effective Horror: The Red Tree
Last night, happily ensconced against the last of the snowstorm, I finished reading Caitlin R. Kiernan’s The Red Tree. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so affected by a horror story. I started off being lukewarm on the book; by the end, I couldn’t put it down.
Part of the reason for the way I felt initially vs. the way I felt at the end is the skillful way the book is written. Like a tapestry, you can’t fully appreciate it until you can step back and see the whole picture. Kiernan pulls off several very tricky things, things which are difficult to successfully accomplish. Even so, they’re the kind of things that may turn off many readers or leave them dissatisfied.
Right up front, the author tells you the fate of the main character. Even so, she manages to weave a sense of tension throughout the story that keeps you reading to see what happens. Kiernan offers the reader multiple unreliable narrators, and laces the story with deliberate inconsistencies. There are loops in the text, references and meta-references. More questions are raised than are answered. The end of the story is deliberately left open, but to my mind, it’s the very unresolved nature of the story that makes it so haunting.
Alfred Hitchcock is supposed to have said that nothing is more frightening than an unopened door. This applies perfectly to The Red Tree. It is what is unseen, what is hinted at, that makes the book so unsettling. Immediately upon finishing it, I wanted more, and I found myself flipping back to earlier sections, trying to tie together pieces of the narrative. It’s the kind of book that probably bears re-reading, knowing (more or less) what happens, to try to catch all the hints woven through the story. I was still vaguely creeped out this morning, long after putting the book down. It’s the kind of horror writing I can only aspire to.
February 12th, 2010 at 11:52 am
Sounds intriguing! Added it to my wish list. I’m nearly due for a fresh stock of bookorderings!