Hell by Kathryn Davis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Rich, luscious, and almost entirely without signposts along the way. A mesmerizing novel in some ways (I’m thinking especially of the 1950s domestic drama), and nearly inscrutable in others (the story of Edwina Moss, for one; Benny Gold, for another). But what’s happening here takes second-place to the atmosphere of tension and real horror, and for that I’ll follow along. A brilliant passage describing a state dinner at Napoleon’s Malmaison is a highlight. Also, I enjoyed seeing techniques that would be put to better use eventually in The Thin Place, like the sentience of animals, for instance.