Book Review: "Reprieve" by James Han Mattson

When you want to write a horror novel you must always remember not to make the structure too complex. If the reader spends too much time thinking about the structure, they aren't thinking about the events of the story or the descriptions. Books such as: "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson, "Carrie" by Stephen King and even books as twisted as "Exquisite Corpse" by Poppy Z. Brite have a simple structure. Unless you're going for a "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski thing where the structure is involved in scaring the reader, then I would pass on making the structure overtly post-modern.

I had a number of problems whilst reading this book and the structure was just one of them. Recommended by a friend, I was told that it had an interesting premise - which it does. However, books with interesting premises don't get the whole five out of five. Especially when it comes to horror, the book has to be well written in order for the reader to truly immerse themselves in the text and get the wits scared out of them. This book simply didn't do that. There was nothing really shocking and nothing very surprising. The novel relied too much on gore and twists to create the horror and missed the mark when it came to creating something truly psychologically disturbing or distressing.

Set almost twenty-five years' ago in the year 1997, this book concerns a bunch of people who reach the final room of an all-contact haunted escape room. Littered with the usual buckets of fake blood and screams, the book takes a wicked turn when someone breaks in and murders a contestant. The whole book then tells the story of how that contestant was murdered and what led up to it. Honestly, the sound of a 'all-contact haunted escape room' novel sounded like a great idea until it turned into witness statements, accounts and police involvement. Then it turned into every police drama ever.

The characters were wholly unlikeable and since there is no real attachment to any particular character, the problem with whether the reader cares about what is going on arises. When the murder happens in the first part of the book, the reader cares deeply about what's happening, but unfortunately as we learn about the characters and their juvenile nature of dealing with their feelings - we feel more and more distant from them and therefore, care less and less about them. It certainly becomes more of a problem when we deal with the stories of the different characters in between the witness statements.

As for the atmosphere, there is no atmosphere. This book seemingly jumps from one part to the next, from an event to an interview and we are left with very little time to take in what we have read and what kind of characters we have. Characters bursting into anger, or acting like moody teenagers as well are probably not conducive when they are supposed to be adults - it just makes them seem unlikeable. The atmosphere being completely non-existent on top of this makes for a non-immersive experience.

In conclusion, I can honestly say that though I didn't hate this book, it is definitely not marketed well. It is not a horror novel for adults. It is more like a YA thriller and I think it would be better marketing it as that as it would get more of an audience with better thoughts on the novel. Thus, it would get a more accurate review from readers who want to read that kind of book. However, it has disappointed me in its execution. The premise was good, the ideas were there, but the execution was a massive let-down.