Hell Spring by Isaac Thorne
Lost Hollow Books, September 2022
ISBN: 9781938271540
Availabile: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )
March, 1955. A handful of residents in a small Southern hick town get trapped in a mom n’ pop convenience store by a raging flood. What could possibly go wrong? Well, when one of those people is a soul-sucking demon masquerading as a Marilyn Monroe look-alike, a LOT can go wrong, and it does. That’s the basic premise of Isaac Thorne’s Hell Spring. It has its good moments, but may be a bit too slow and drawn out for most readers.
The setup chapters for each character before they become trapped in the store are the best sections of the book: well-written, and good enough to make the reader feel invested in the characters. They are an eclectic bunch, each with their own little secrets. The town piano teacher is hiding the fact that he’s gay, one lady isn’t mentioning that she just killed her abusive wretch of a husband…each person has their own little bit of shame or guilt. These secrets, and the guilt they cause are what the Marilyn Monroe succubus feeds on while trapped with the townsfolk. It’s the middle of the book, a couple hundred pages long, where things slow down and get somewhat routine. Everyone is trapped in the store, and one by one, the demon Marilyn feeds on their guilt and reduces the victim to a chittering crawdad-like creature. No one notices the disappearances, since she somehow alters time and perception around everyone. People just vanish, and the others don’t even know they were ever there at all. It’s interesting the first couple times but then gets repetitive, and bogs the narrative down. The story does pick up again towards the end, and has a kicker of a finish set decades later. Graphing the book, it would look like a peak at the beginning sloping down to a long, flat plain, and then another peak at the end of the story. There are some quick peaks in the middle that involve characters outside the store; that help break up the slow pace and get a different setting involved. Whether those are enough to compensate for the rest will depend on the reader.
Bottom line: there are definite high points, but the somewhat long middle section may not be enough to keep the interest of most readers. This is a story that might have worked much better in a slimmed down form, with the middle section involving the store condensed. A novella of the narrative might have been a perfect fit.
Reviewed by Murray Samuelson
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