 The older I get, the more I like flawed characters, unreliable narrators and untidy endings – all three are much more reflective of real life. You’d hardly expect to find such depth and dynamics in a book about cannibals, but that’s what you get in Kenzie Jennings’ debut novel Reception, which is a brilliant combination of snark, grue, madness and disturbing terror from a narrator who is as much of a hot mess as anyone you’re likely to encounter. The reception in question? A wedding, of course. It’s a great premise (Will you have the fish, the chicken or one of the guests?) and would’ve been entertaining enough had it just been simply a prose version of the type of B movie you’re likely to see Joe Bob Briggs host. What sets this novel apart though is it aims to dig a lot deeper, and not just in the gut bucket. Ansley Boone is a wreck of a person. A bad breakup, a lost job after a work meltdown, jail, rehab, family members whose opinions of her range from displeased to outright ashamed – plenty of threads are unraveling in Ansley’s life. She’s been let out of rehab for the weekend to attend her sister’s wedding at a remote resort, a Not-so-Basic White Girl version of 48 Hours in which all she really has to do is show up, behave, and try to fight off the cravings and side effects of pill withdrawal. She pulls off none of this. The first half of this book requires a little patience. Jennings spends that time drawing a portrait of a woman seemingly stuck at the bottom of a downward spiral who sometimes wonders how to get out and other times seems to enjoy floating around down there with the dregs. Ansley says she loves her sister and wants to be there for her, but Ansley’s biggest problems are always her own: It’s hot. My head hurts. I need my pills. Can’t my mother shut the hell up? Will daddy ignore me forever? Maybe that’s what I want. That stranger sure is scary. Should I call the cops or sleep with him? What makes the first half intriguing is Ansley could easily be a whiny garbage can of a person, but you end up rooting for her to get out of her own way. The problems Ansley creates for herself are the kind that have seemingly simple solutions to the outside observer while being overwhelmingly complex for Ansley – or maybe they’re just too much work. Either way, the drama surrounding her becomes so engrossing leading up to the wedding that just about the time you start asking “When are these cannibals going to show up?” you find yourself hoping they’ll hold off just a bit longer. The cannibals don’t stay away, of course, and when they do arrive it’s with all the subtlety of an airstrike, a scene made more effective by just how subtle the lead up to the mayhem is. A hand held too long here, a gaze held too long there, snide comments and background noise are all the hints you get of what’s to come. The second half of the novel is a runaway train of a nightmare, the cannibals and their dinner fighting it out in a battle to see who gets eaten and who goes hungry. A cannibal attack is bad enough. A cannibal attack while you’re jonesing is infinitely worse. And every time you think it can’t get any worse, it does. Plenty of opportunities arise to root for the victims to escape their pursuers. But honestly, this story would’ve fallen apart right there if that’s how it played out. After such an intricate character study, a how-will-the-killer-die slasher-movie finale would’ve been quite a letdown. But remember what I said about untidy endings? You get one here. And just for good measure, you get a twist on a twist, a device that can often fail, but here it had me cheering because a chapter prior I was downright angry at what I thought had happened. A novel blessed by fan-favorite author Jeff Strand and recently nominated for a Splatterpunk Award hardly needs more endorsement, but I’ll give it mine. Is it too cheesy to say I’m hungry for the next meal Jennings serves up? Probably. But much like Ansley Boone would, I’m just going to say it anyway and see what happens. Five stars. This website has always been forward thinking in its coverage of women in horror month, if you would like to find more articles from and about great female horror authors just use the search function which can be found on each page of the website  While her rehab counselor’s advice replays in her mind, Ansley Boone takes on the role of dutiful bridesmaid in her little sister’s wedding at an isolated resort in the middle of hill country, a place where cell reception is virtually nonexistent and everyone else there seems a stranger primed to spring. Tensions are already high between the Boones and their withdrawal suffering eldest, who has since become the family embarrassment, but when the wedding reception takes a vicious turn, Ansley and her sister must work together to fight for survival and escape the resort before the groom’s cannibalistic family adds them to the post wedding menu. be sure to check in tomorrow for our interview with Kenzie  Comments are closed.
|
Archives
May 2023
|
RSS Feed
|
|