Andrew Van Wey

For fans of the last season of Stranger Things and I Know What You Did Last Summer…

Imagine you’re out on a fishing boat, pulling up crab traps, and in one of those traps is a human head. Arguably a head plus a little bit, but a head without a body, at any rate. What if that head wasn’t dead?!? What if it could read your mind and telepathically communicate, and what if that head wanted—neigh, commanded you—to do terrible things, or else?

Well, then you’d be hauling around a duffel bag with part of a missing girl, Oksana, whose death defies natural law and who is set on revenge. A former Ukrainian boarding school student, her backstory is a complicate mess of lies and betrayals set among a group of former friends in the 90’s.

I’m a 90s teen myself, so this story hit on a note of nostalgia that transported me back to my younger years with pagers and Hot Topic, pay phones and the Blockbuster rental heyday. A time when I was just old enough to be aware of Cold War issues and of world events, like one, in particular, that I won’t include in this review so as not to inadvertently spoil the mystery.

Andrew Van Wey does a commendable job revealing just enough details in each chapter to make this book an absolute page turner.

What happened to Oksana? What about Megan and the group of high school friends now plagued by unusual dreams and memories of things better left forgotten? How in the heck is this head alive? And how is she slowly regaining autonomy? Gasp!

You might not believe me when I tell you this, but the reveal is actually like, “Huh, okay. That might happen (kind-of, not really).” The history is plausible in the way Twilight Zone or Twin Peaks makes you question the existence of alternate realities. Talk about world building!

Head Like a Hole is my first foray into reading body horror, and my first read by Andrew Van Wey, who sets a high bar for the subgenre as a whole. Hole. Hee hee. Part mystery and certainly gross, this book straddles two of my favorite genres (horror/mystery) perfectly. Highly recommended as one of my favorite recent reads. I look forward to seeing what this author cooks up next.… (plus d'informations)

Fun fact: I spent two hours finishing the book right before bed, and as soon as I fell asleep, I dreamt of a cosmic horror that was watching me from above. Woke up with a start, thinking what an immediate and visceral reaction I had!

Judging by the way I couldn't put it down once the plot really got going in the last third of the book, I enjoyed this story quite a bit. The pacing was somewhat off - the beginning started off strong, then the middle lagged, but after the 70% mark it picked up again and finished strong. It's both plot- and character-driven, and I liked the uncle-niece dynamic of Mark and Zelda, one we don't see too often in literature. Both fish out of water, both struggling with loss and their sense of self, both searching for meaning and a place to belong, a sense that I think a lot of readers can relate to.

Zelda and her friends felt a little too 'Stranger Things' or 'IT' to me - other readers mentioned Scooby Doo (as did a character in the book) but I did like the dual parallel perspectives of the adults and the children - having just one or the other might have been too one-note. I also felt that the constant detailed delving into technology was unnecessary, serving to distract the reader rather than ground them in the story, and the teenage jargon was a bit much.

The copy I received needed to go through another round of copy editing, as there were minor errors peppered throughout - spelling a character's name alternatively as 'Stacy' and 'Stacey', or using 'peddling' instead of 'pedaling'. Still, I enjoyed Van Wey's writing style, direct and engaging.

I don't typically read a lot of cosmic horror (although I do love horror of many stripes) so this sub-genre was a bit of a departure for me and I enjoyed it! Everything came together nicely and the setup and resolution was clever. I'll be excited to tune into the next installment of the series.… (plus d'informations)