***Spoiler for Sparrow Rock in 4th graph***
Although I don't admit it much, I love horror novels. I'm not quite sure why, but Stephen King and Dean Koontz still manage to amaze me and horrify me. I'm always on the look-out for smart horror books -- I seem to be drawn to "end of the world" books a lot; one of the reasons why, I think, is because they deal with life's "big issues". See "The Road: End of the world Pulitzer novel".(Plus, there are all the other books I like to read: classics, award-winning books, fantasy, romance and science fiction, plus non-fiction that's written really well. For some reason, mysteries aren't my favorite just because they always seem like the same thing - a murder and the search for the killer. Okay, I digress.)
"Sparrow Rock" by Nate Kenyon caught my attention because the world has come to an end (nuclear) and the only survivors seem to be a group of teenagers in a well-stocked bomb shelter. Soon, they are attacked by weird, mutated, half-dead creatures. And some of the teens start to "transform," another one of my favorite horror themes. See "Writing what you read: Transformations in horror novels".
The book was very tense, but short and good in a horror way. You do learn about the characters a bit and you do begin to care about them, especially the narrator, a nice kid with a bad past that's caught in a bad situation. That's why I was so dismayed at the end of the book (spoiler here) when I found out one of his friends isn't real! He made her up for the entire book, and none of the other characters knew she was there.
Woah! His unreal friend happens to be his dead sister who helps him through traumatic times! Okay, this was a little too much for me to handle, what with everything else going on in the book. I felt cheated and disappointed. I was hoping the two would "get together" -- that they'd at least have each other in this crazy world as lovers. They could produce kids and go on. Nope. All hopes dashed. He's a nut on his own.
I think this is a pet peeve of mine, but I really don't like unreliable narrators, especially if you don't know they're nutty until the very end of the book! This book reminds me of "Shutter Island" by Dennis Lehane especially. I didn't feel as bad about that one, though. I knew there was something wrong with the main character. Maybe Kenyon could have made it a little clearer through the book or maybe I just didn't catch the signs. See "A character's character: Trickery" for one other book with an imaginary character.
Just be careful if you put an unreliable narrator in your book. Your readers will see the world through his eyes, and if he's a total nut job, they may feel cheated at the end.
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