 The writing is clear, authentic and touches on feelings that you thought were inexplicable, with that sinister element always waiting on your shoulder, ready to feed on the pain. The Pain Eater by Kyle Muntz A book review by Jay Slayton-Joslin We all cope with grief, pain and loss in many different ways. Over the past few years, people have had to face different aspects of this more so than in the history of humanity, and people have various ways to numb the pain. In his latest novel, The Pain Eater, Kyle Muntz offers an alternative medicine to this, a mysterious cat that can take the dark feelings away. Steven and Michael are brothers who have just lost their father. Steven has recently completed his degree and Michael has summer ambitions as far as choosing which anime to watch. Muntz chooses not to show characters who are content in their life drift downwards but instead show us people who are already lost in life realise that they have not yet reached rock bottom. This isn’t a story of those who lose joy, but perhaps those that have never truly experienced it – which is why a strange creature that is born from the body of a dead cat is the fitting catalyst that the two need. The creature is a companion that feeds off pain. It offers a release greater than realising that you have an extra day off after the weekend and makes any other high not worth chasing. The trouble begins when the awareness of relief and joy only makes the darkness that Steven and Michael are used too that much more obvious, and what they will do to keep that good feeling and away from the darkness will never let their family be the same. The horror of the novel is made all that more real by Muntz’s ability to capture the fractured family dynamic with remarkable detail. The minute-aggressions of the family dynamic are uncomfortably real. Passive-aggressive remarks and familial annoyances could come straight from an uncomfortable Christmas. The characters feel fleshed out and real – none of them are bastions of right or wrong but instead, acting as people with their own drives and emotions. What makes them more real is that they hurt, and they want to not feel the pain. The creature is simpler, but it is how it makes everyone around it change that is more terrifying. It allows everyone to feel without inhibition and that kind of feeling is not one that people want to give up. The novel isn’t terrifying because of something jumping out at you from a cellar, but in how it keeps you stepping down into the darkness with it. The Pain Eater is a success because of Muntz’s writing and how he uses horror and mystery to elevate and develop a family story. The writing is clear, authentic and touches on feelings that you thought were inexplicable, with that sinister element always waiting on your shoulder, ready to feed on the pain. Think Marriage Story meets The Thing, think Franzen meets Koontz, think of the feeling you want most in life versus the complications when you get it. It’s the risk of happiness on a monkey-paw, but it’s one that’s definitely worth reading about. THE PAIN EATER BY KYLE MUNTZ Some wounds are too deep to ever heal.Two brothers from Michigan are reunited after the death of their father. They’ve never been close, but now they have to live together—and it gets more difficult when one discovers a strange creature, vomited from the body of a dead cat. A creature that eats human pain. It feels good: too good. Soon he wants to hurt himself more, just so the pain can be taken away. But the more the creature becomes a part of his life, the more he damages everything around him. JAY SLAYTON-JOSLIN Jay Slayton-Joslin is the author of Sequelland (CLASH), a book that interviews horror sequel directors, and Kicking Prose (KUBOA). He was born in England and lives in China. You can follow him on twitter here (https://twitter.com/Jaythecool). CHECK OUT TODAY'S OTHER ARTICLES BELOW
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