WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW
Life in a small town takes a dark turn when mysterious footage begins appearing on VHS cassettes at the local Video Hut
Jeremy works at the counter of Video Hut in Nevada, Iowa. It’s a small town—the first “a” in the name is pronounced ay—smack in the center of the state. This is the late 1990s, pre-DVD, and the Hollywood Video in Ames poses an existential threat to Video Hut. But there are regular customers, a predictable rush in the late afternoon. It’s good enough for Jeremy: It’s a job; it’s quiet and regular; he gets to watch movies; he likes the owner, Sarah Jane; it gets him out of the house, where he and his dad try to avoid missing Mom, who died six years ago in a car wreck.
But when Stephanie Parsons, a local schoolteacher, comes in to return her copy of Targets, starring Boris Karloff—an old movie, one Jeremy himself had ordered for the store—she has an odd complaint: “There’s something on it,” she says, but doesn’t elaborate. Two days later, Lindsey Redinius brings back She’s All That, a new release, and complains that there’s something wrong with it: “There’s another movie on this tape.”
So Jeremy takes a look. And indeed, in the middle of the movie the screen blinks dark for a moment and She’s All That is replaced by a black-and-white scene, shot in a barn, with only the faint sounds of someone breathing. Four minutes later, She’s All That is back. But there is something profoundly disturbing about that scene; Jeremy’s compelled to watch it three or four times. The scenes recorded onto Targets are similar, undoubtedly created by the same hand. Creepy. And the barn looks a lot like a barn just outside of town.
Jeremy doesn’t want to be curious. In truth, it freaks him out, deeply. This has gone far enough, maybe too far already. But Stephanie is pushing, and once Sarah Jane takes a look and becomes obsessed, there’s no more ignoring the disturbing scenes on the videos. And all of a sudden, what had once been the placid, regular old Iowa fields and farmhouses now feels haunted and threatening, imbued with loss and instability and profound foreboding. For Jeremy, and all those around him, life will never be the same . . .
8.5 out of 10
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| “Not everybody wants to get out and see the world. Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you just want to figure out how to fit yourself into the world you already know.”- Universal Harvester, John Darnielle |
Jeremy works at the counter of Video Hut in Nevada, Iowa. It’s a small town—the first “a” in the name is pronounced ay—smack in the center of the state. This is the late 1990s, pre-DVD, and the Hollywood Video in Ames poses an existential threat to Video Hut. But there are regular customers, a predictable rush in the late afternoon. It’s good enough for Jeremy: It’s a job; it’s quiet and regular; he gets to watch movies; he likes the owner, Sarah Jane; it gets him out of the house, where he and his dad try to avoid missing Mom, who died six years ago in a car wreck.
But when Stephanie Parsons, a local schoolteacher, comes in to return her copy of Targets, starring Boris Karloff—an old movie, one Jeremy himself had ordered for the store—she has an odd complaint: “There’s something on it,” she says, but doesn’t elaborate. Two days later, Lindsey Redinius brings back She’s All That, a new release, and complains that there’s something wrong with it: “There’s another movie on this tape.”
So Jeremy takes a look. And indeed, in the middle of the movie the screen blinks dark for a moment and She’s All That is replaced by a black-and-white scene, shot in a barn, with only the faint sounds of someone breathing. Four minutes later, She’s All That is back. But there is something profoundly disturbing about that scene; Jeremy’s compelled to watch it three or four times. The scenes recorded onto Targets are similar, undoubtedly created by the same hand. Creepy. And the barn looks a lot like a barn just outside of town.
Jeremy doesn’t want to be curious. In truth, it freaks him out, deeply. This has gone far enough, maybe too far already. But Stephanie is pushing, and once Sarah Jane takes a look and becomes obsessed, there’s no more ignoring the disturbing scenes on the videos. And all of a sudden, what had once been the placid, regular old Iowa fields and farmhouses now feels haunted and threatening, imbued with loss and instability and profound foreboding. For Jeremy, and all those around him, life will never be the same . . .
Well, that was weird. I hadn't read Darnielle's other book, Wolf in White Van, and I had little interest in picking it up- synopsis just didn't really appeal to me. Maybe if I had I would have been less pleasantly surprised by just how bizarre this story was.
I mean, I did expect some weirdness, as I did read the summary on the flap, but I didn't know I get some David Lynch horror here. More specifically, I kept thinking of the first episode of the Twin Peaks revival, with the glass box that had all the cameras trained on it and the constant atmospheric humming. And the shadowy demon that ate the horny couple's faces off, but mostly the first part.
I also want to take this moment to say that I really liked that it took place in Iowa, especially because prior to reading this the only other book I read that ever took place in Iowa was The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson, and this book could not be more different than that one (though I highly, highly recommend the latter).
Subject matter-wise, this book isn't exactly the creepiest book in the world. But the atmosphere is where the most of the horror elements come in. I was impressed by this to say the least- most authors focus solely on plot when writing horror, simply because that is the easiest and most effect way to write horror books, much in same way that horror directors do. But if Darnielle had focused purely on plot, this, in my opinion, wouldn't be a horror novel. It would be a mystery-thriller with some horror elements, but not a horror book the way we think of horror. Instead, Darnielle focuses on the setting and atmosphere of the book, allowing that to add the creepiness needed. In that respect, he reminds me yet again of David Lynch and how Lynch works with cinematography and especially sound to make a shot as unnerving as possible.
The nonlinear storyline made this book a bit hard to follow, at first, but at the same time, I wasn't too bothered by it. My favorite part was part three, I believe, that followed Lisa's family and explained, somewhat, the reason for the tapes- though it took me a while to figure that out- but I also kind of liked all of the parts. I was surprisingly unbothered by the lack of development in the characters. Perhaps because in this book, it's clear that these characters are pawns for telling the story and not meant to be well-developed any more than a few backstories or a dead mother here or there. I did, however, want more of the cult, but that's just me. I'm interested in cults, but the two books I've read about them- Awake, which I admittedly didn't read for an actual realistic take on cults, and The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, which only was okay because I ended up not liking any of the characters and thinking the author seemed awfully proud of herself for writing that book. So that part of this novel was interesting to me.
However, I admit that this book is confusing, to say the least. I'm not going to pretend I'm some highbrow intellectual who automatically understands everything I read, so after reading I had to look it up on Goodreads just to see if someone could concisely explain the ending to me. After letting the book sit in my mind for a few days, I think I could come to the same conclusion that the people on Goodreads came to, but I could see why a lot of people would be turned off reading this book and I do think Darnielle could have made it a lot more accessible.
On the flip side, I can also say I would be disappointed if I didn't have to look up the end of Goodreads. Darnielle clearly does not want to write for the public, he wants to write for a niche group of people, and I can't fault him for that. Sure, his debut novel ended up being fairly popular, but I think that, by writing this second book and probably maintaining his style, he limited his fan base down to a select few who will now likely read everything he comes out with. I suppose, in that respect, Darnielle is creating his own cult fan base.
I don't know if I'll consider myself a Darnielle devotee yet. I am a bit more interested in picking up Wolf in a White Van then I was prior to beginning Universal Harvester, since I did, if you couldn't tell, really like this book, as I've been known to look past the synopsis if I like the author's writing. I also admit that I do see something Submachine-esque (one of my favorite games ever) in the plot than I used to, so that might happen eventually. Of course, it might go the way of the Lunar Chronicles ended up going (which is nowhere at the moment) so we'll see.
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