 Holy Ghost Road firmly deals in a dust-choked, poverty-stricken world of southern Christian binaries: the forces of good and evil exist, physically, in our world, and can be controlled through ritual and objects. Holy Ghost Road by John Mantooth Publisher : Cemetery Dance Paperback : 374 pages ISBN-10 : 1587678608 ISBN-13 : 978-1587678608 A Horror Book Review by Justin Allec John Mantooth’s Holy Ghost Road is Forest’s story, a young girl on the run from Nesmith, a dark preacher who has corrupted her home and family with his nefarious interests. The novel follows Forest’s journey as she frantically searches for safety and sanity along the desolate stretches of southern Highway 278 and the surrounding wilderness. Hunted by Nesmith and his brain-washed sycophants, Forest must evade capture, reach her grandmother’s home, and understand the opposing biblical forces that have upended her life. Mantooth structures the story using Forest’s first-person perspective, and he’s using aspects of several genres to sell the terror, confusion, and unpredictability of her plight. The quest to reach her grandmother’s farm provides the main framework, but aspects of the rural noir colour all the action and characters. Holy Ghost Road firmly deals in a dust-choked, poverty-stricken world of southern Christian binaries: the forces of good and evil exist, physically, in our world, and can be controlled through ritual and objects. Everything is black and white, with only hints of Nesmith’s attempted corruptions of Forest providing shades of grey. As such, a shadowy goat entity invoked by the bad-man Nesmith gives him supernatural powers over nature and people. Opposing this preacher’s influence is a brand of kindly nature-based spirituality practiced by Forest’s grandmother, and the show-down between the two oppositions provides space for Forest to realize her own importance and relationship with the Holy Ghost. While Forest’s story is a quest of sorts, it also follows the trappings of a road-trip, for better or worse. While she has to travel thirty miles to reach her grandmother’s farm, it’s not a straight shot, and Forest steers off into disparate directions and even backtracks at times. Like any quest, these digressions do necessarily add up to making Forest a worthy adversary for Nesmith—as well as help some secondary characters shine—but they also slow the story down. That would be fine, except I found there’s a generic quality to many of these side-trips that only seem to lengthen the story: Forest needs a special object or to hide, she gets further into trouble with Nesmith’s crew who display increasingly frightening powers, she finds a way out or is helped by a kindly stranger, and then, once safe, her ruminations on the situation and backwoods Christianity tell her exactly what she (and the reader) already knew. A few chapters later, repeat. Holy Ghost Road, then, has a few narrative problems, but Mantooth’s advantage is in Forest’s character. She’s smart and practical, with just enough sass to sell a teen-ager’s confusing outlook and dialogue. Tagging along with Forest is a fun enough way to see the Holy Ghost Road, even if it occasionally feels like the wheels are spinning. Justin Allec HOLY GHOST ROAD |
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