Unbury Carol by Josh Malerman

Del Rey Books, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-0399180163

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

Josh Malerman is arguably the best new writer horror has witnessed in the past decade. His debut novel, Bird Box, was truly original and was recently made into an outstanding movie by Netflix. Black Mad Wheel added a musical touch to the weird and supernatural, Goblin tied six mind-bending tales together into a town that Ray Bradbury and Charles Grant would love, and the recently released Inspection is an intriguing dystopian look at gender roles, education, and parenting.

Unbury Carol takes a sharp left turn into a world familiar to Joe Lansdale and John Wayne. The plot of this Gothic-tinged historical horror novel with a hint of romance whisks readers back to the Old West in the 1800’s, complete with cowboys, stagecoaches, and saloons filled with whiskey, cards, and women.

Carol Evers has a unique medical condition. She can’t stop dying. Literally. She periodically falls into a coma so deep that doctors believe she’s dead. Only a few people are aware of the illness: her awful husband, Dwight; her two friends; and her long-lost love, the outlaw James Moxie.

When the coma hits, Carol freefalls into a dark world she’s named Howltown, a place where she’s not alone, but as in life, cannot move. Dwight decides to go after her fortune and declare her dead. A telegram makes its way to Moxie, twenty years gone from Carol’s life but still pining for her. Moxie hits the infamous Trail, where unspeakable, legendary horrors occur daily, blazing his own path, to save Carol before she is covered by six feet of fresh dirt. He is unaware that a deadly hired gun is hot on his tail, a sadistic man who leaves a path of burned destruction behind him. Meanwhile, Carol fights her own battle within Howltown, struggling to awaken, to move, to let the world know of her husband’s diabolical plans. On the periphery, Rot, an intriguing supernatural character, taunts both Moxie and Carol in their efforts to remain in the land of the living.

This novel begins as a slow burn like the best Western films of the sixties, and slowly catches fire, grasping hold of readers with a strong narrative that feels like what you’d get in a Clint Eastwood movie, if he traded drinks with Stephen King. This book will likely draw some comparisons to some of the greats, but deserves its own category and acclaim.

Unbury Carol is easily one of the best and most original novels readers will love in 2018.

Editor’s note: Unbury Carol is a candidate on the final ballot for the 2018 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Novel.