BOOK REVIEW: ​QUILT BY DAN PADAVONA

BY John Boden 

This was my first experience of reading the work of Dan Padavona.  I can assure you it will not be the last.

Quilt is a very dark tale of commitment and sense of duty, threaded with compassion and then sewn-- roughly at times-- to urban mythos and nightmarish legend.

Jadyn Werth is a promising student and athlete.  He made an impression on his teacher Annelise and she has made it her mission to save the boy from the suffocating tentacles of poverty and inner-city squalor.  She sees a light in the boy that she knows she can nurture.  Then he stops showing up for class.

She grills his friends and acquaintances and all they can offer is shrugging shoulders and ridiculous stories of the "Halloween Man." A gruesome being that snatches and kills those who wander in areas of the bad part of town they aren't supposed to.

Annelise decides to go in search of the boy herself, after not finding much in the way of support from her fellow teachers or the principal.  Her quest takes her to a part of town unfamiliar and terrifying, well before the real terrors start for her. Well, before she comes face to face with the stuff of legend.

Quilt is a fast read. Written well with an attention to detail and some stunning prose. I enjoyed the characters and the visuals conjured by the writing. If I had a criticism, it would be how it sort of felt rushed. Like it was threatening to be a longer sprawling mythos of a story. In fact, I feel that Padavona could easily sustain a series of dark tales set in this location and it would remain wholly believable.  If Candyman had been directed by Rob Zombie, it'd be in the ballpark of what you're going to read here. Only this is better.
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Quilt is available through www.danpadavona.com  and at Amazon.




 


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