Rating:

Came Outta Nowhere, Didn’t It?

Author: Laurel Hightower

Addy is determined to make it on her own, but the echoing condemnation of her ex-husband continues ringing through her head as she fights a snowstorm, driving alone through West Virginia toward her friends and a horror convention. She’s trying out independence, but her doubts and the worsening road conditions, plus bizarre electrical flickers throughout her car, make her unreasonably grateful for the help of a friendly trucker who gives her his CB and talks to her through the long drive. When he screams and she sees his semi go off the road and over the cliff, she’s determined to do the right thing and make her way down to him. Everything she sees is not as it seems, however. As Addy’s mind assails her with doubts in the form of her ex’s acerbic voice and a pair of glowing red eyes watches her from the frozen road above, she descends into a waking nightmare. She’ll either walk out stronger or insane. Or not walk out at all.

Below is a high octane walk through one-woman’s waking nightmare, complete with grasping soft skinned creatures, dark underwater lakes, dead men talking over static-filled CBs, a creature with wings and glowing red eyes, and a leering man who says “came outta nowhere, didn’t it?” There is no other word for it but scary.

Below is half atmosphere, half character. Addy, in her very weakness, is a character whom we love and want to protect. We only meet the ex in the end, but we start strong by hating him and by hating Addy’s father. Her instilled trauma is visceral, her self-doubt relatable and heartrending. There are two horrors here, and the monsters below are the lesser of the beasts. The men in Addy’s life have destroyed her, and even the kind-hearted truck driver with his easy stories may not be all that he seems. It’s hard to say what is real, deep in that ravine, but it’s obvious from Addy’s mind what a lifetime of verbal and emotional abuse has done.

Image by Amy from Pixabay

There is something in Addy, an inner strength, that leaves us rooting for and fearing for our heroine all in one. This is Addy’s dark night of the soul, and while we are curdled with terror, we’re also kind of enjoying her survival, enjoying the fact that even though she is afraid, she is finally fighting, finally wanting to live. Perhaps she’ll learn from it. Perhaps – if she lives through this night of cannibalistic creatures and specters – she’ll have a chance at quieting the greatest horrors of all, the voices in her head, the men in her life.

The moral of the story is evident, making the story more than just terror. But, be forewarned, there is plenty of terror. I defy you to not keep turning pages, eyes wide and heart pounding. The weirdness is nicely offset by the escalating madness, internal and external, and the fact that we never get complete answers just makes the darkness more pulsating, the horror more real. We’re seeing the tip of the iceberg, and that in and of itself is disturbing.

The only moment I am lost is in the ending. I’m not entirely sure that Addy’s choice makes sense. Is there not another choice, between man and monster? Of course, I can’t say any more without spoiling it. But such a perfect book deserves an ending that sings, and less of a hard moral when the story and the character needed no further explanations. Still, five stars, because I believed in the world, couldn’t stop turning pages, and haven’t seen anything this unique and visceral in a long, long time. Now to replace my Kindle copy with a hardcopy, because this nightmare world belongs on my shelf. Below will live on in my heart and in my panicked, scattered nightmares, after all.

– Frances Carden

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Frances Carden
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