BookGeek: The Missing

THE MISSING
By Sarah Langan
Harper Books

I want to be Sarah Langan when I grow up.

Langan's follow-up to her amazing debut novel, THE KEEPER, weaves a supernatural disaster around a
small Maine town with greater skill than anyone since Stephen King. The horror that seemingly died with most of the town of Bedford in THE KEEPER resurfaces to eat nearby Corpus Christi - literally.

Imagine, if you will, a 'SALEM'S LOT with plague-ridden near-zombies instead of vampires. Then get rid of any thought of happy endings or ultimate redemption, because Langan pulls no punches at all. Don't get too attached to anybody in a Langan novel.

Langan has the ability to create a fully-realized, three-dimensional person in only a few short pages. Near the beginning of THE MISSING, a woman walks out of her house to pick up the newspaper. On her way back, she sees a bird eating poisonous berries. If a lesser author were to write this sequence, it would be half a page and we would know no more about this woman when she returned to the house than we did at the beginning of the chapter.

With Langan behind the wheel, this ordinary moment is a glimpse into a life both complex and ordinary, a woman frustrated in her role as mother and wife, full of regret and hope and sadness all at once. She is a real person, someone we know or might even have been, and we suddenly care very much what happens to her.

This is where most horror movies and many novels fail: making characters into archetypes, easily disposed of when the monster appears. Langan never falls into stereotype, making each character nuanced and real, with flaws that remind us that they are human beings. We never cheer for any of the deaths, even when they are characters we wouldn't want to know in real life. But we feel real sorrow at their flailing and ultimate futile attempts to save themselves.

Langan's voice will echo in your head for days after you finish reading this book. I find myself eagerly awaiting her next outing, even if the path down which she leads us is lined with poisonous flowers.

In case you missed it, this book won the Bram Stoker Award this year, beating out (among others) HEART-SHAPED BOX by Joe Hill. THE MISSING is currently available in most bookstores and Amazon.com.

Comments

[David Tyler]

Huh, "Heart Shaped Box"...I like that song!