The Booking by Ramsey Campbell, illustrated by Santiago Caruso
Dark Regions Press, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1-62641-139-5
Available: Trade paperback, ebook edition.

The Booking is a book collector’s nightmare. Kiefer, an unemployed librarian, finds work creating a website for the proprietor of a bookshop selling rare (or at least old) books, called Books Are Life. This isn’t a well organized, pleasant place to work: it’s dark and dusty, and the owner, Brookes, is abrasive, secretive, and paranoid. Kiefer is expected to describe the books in a way that misrepresents their condition and post the descriptions online, and to work his way through the piles of disorganized books quickly. Brookes, mistrustful of technology, insists that Kiefer turn off the camera to his laptop, making communication difficult, especially after his living arrangements are disrupted and he is forced to move into the shop. Kiefer becomes obsessed with cataloging the books, rarely sleeping or leaving the store, and the atmosphere becomes more and more claustrophobic. Cut off from the outside world, he begins to buy into Brookes’ paranoid belief that he is being spied on through a chip secretly installed in his head. As the story progresses, the shop seems bigger and more crowded, a maze crowded with books that are closing in on Kiefer, finally trapped, alone, in the shop.

As a book lover who is surrounded by books, I found this to be profoundly unsettling. The treatment of the books, which are neglected, misrepresented, and disorganized, is disturbing. The atmosphere of the bookshop is closed-in, crowded, and labyrinthine; it takes a setting and activity I typically find enjoyable and transforms it into an extremely uncomfortable situation that makes me want to get as far away from crowded bookshelves as possible. Those who aren’t avid readers still will experience the creeping dread that accompanies Kiefer’s growing paranoia and isolation, but people who surround themselves with books will feel the impact the most. Highly recommended for lovers of psychological horror and of books.

Note: The Booking is the third novella from the Black Labyrinth imprint of Dark Regions Press. The Black Labyrinth imprint is a series of psychological horror novellas, illustrated by artist Santiago Caruso. The copy I reviewed is an advance copy that did not include the artwork. However, based on Caruso’s previous work, I am sure it will make an excellent complement to the story.