 In Ross Jeffery’s novella, Juniper is a ‘pissant town’ in America’s south which is described as ‘circling the drain’. After suffering floods in the recent past, the town is now in the middle of a relentless heatwave. The conditions have left residents desperate, so hungry they’ll eat what many others would consider uneatable. That’s why we find one of the two protagonists, Betty, trundling down the road with her wheelbarrow, looking for roadkill for sustenance. But when Betty realises that the biggest potential meal she’s ever found isn’t quite dead, she realises she’d prefer company to a carvery, and decides to nurse it back to full health. Meanwhile the rest of the town have turned to another source of nutrition, the cats bred by our second protagonist, Janet and her hideously abusive husband, Klein. But they too have their problems: the dominant male in their cat farm, Bucky, an enormous tomcat, the father of so many Juniper meals, is missing, feared run over on the road. With Betty’s amazing find coinciding with Janet and Klein’s misfortune with their lost tomcat a strangely compelling plot kicks off. This is certainly intriguing, and the narrative of these two women, stuck in their dead-end town with the odds firmly stacked against them, is entirely captivating. The relationship between Janet and Klein is horrifically real. Klein had spent time in prison recently for a ferocious beating he gave to Janet, and as the novella progresses there is constant tension and fear for Janet, as Klein proves himself more than willing to go a step further. Some of these scene left me seriously concerned for the safety of Janet, and Klein is depicted as being thoroughly wicked. That said there is history to the relationship, and as much as you hate the idea, you can understand, to some degree, why they are still together. Meanwhile, Betty’s attempts to rehabilitate what was almost roadkill provides moments of surgical horror. Jeffery dwells on some of these details, going into detail about grim elements of surgery. One moment in particular almost made my eyes water. The two women form an unlikely kinship and come together for a most unlikely conclusion which is wholly satisfying. It’s near impossible to do this unique and bizarre plot justice, but it all concludes in a very satisfying and surprising way. Throughout, the writing is strong. Jeffery has an eye for an image and the descriptions of Juniper in the first chapter, and the use of imagery there really bring this town to life. At this point it feels very much like a character in the novella. ‘Juniper’ is the first of a trilogy set here, and it’s certainly a location fit for plenty more stories. While that description of Juniper brings it to life in the first part, it perhaps isn’t utilised to its full potential here. While the baking hot sun is a constant and the hopelessness of the environment was a constant, given the way it was established first of all meant I was expecting it to become an even more significant part of the story. If you’re looking for a plot that will surprise you, a great setting with well-drawn characters then, if you’re not going to be put off my domestic violence and surgery detail, there’s a lot to enjoy in a visit to Juniper. Review by Ben Langley  Juniper is the first book in Ross Jeffery’s proposed trilogy: a post-apocalyptic horror about an insane American town seemingly at the edge of reality. As Juniper suffers from scorching drought and medieval famine, the townsfolk are forced to rely on the ‘new cattle’ for food: monstrous interbred cats kept by the oppressed Janet Lehey. But there’s a problem: Janet’s prized ginger tom, Bucky, has gone missing, flown the coop. As Janet and her deranged ex-con husband Klein intensify their search for the hulking mongrel, Betty Davis, an old woman clinging to survival on the outskirts of Juniper, discovers something large and ginger and lying half-dead by the side of the road. She decides to take it home… Juniper is surreal, dark, funny, and at times: excruciatingly grotesque. Buckle up for a wild ride through the dust-ridden roads of a tiny, half-forgotten American town…   Comments are closed.
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