I’ve read good Douglas Clegg and bad Douglas Clegg; ISIS, however, is great. This tiny novel is a gem of supernatural horror, with the author channeling the classic style of ghost-storytellers of the past.
One letter removed from the title is Iris, a little girl who lives in a huge, isolated, castle-like home in Cornwall with her mother, two twin brothers and one insane grandfather, while her father is off fighting the war. The gardener warns her not to cross the threshold of the entryway leading to the underground tombs on the property, and with her imagination running wild, she’s more than eager to steer clear.
One person she hates to obey is her spiteful female tutor, whom she catches in flagrante delicto with one of her brothers. A quarrel erupts, sending person or persons out the window to the ground below — at barely over 100 pages, I can’t tell you the identities without spoiling the rest of the story — and tragedy occurs. Let’s just say that the tomb comes back into play, and leave it at that.
What Clegg does best is cast this novella as if it were from the late 19th or early 20th century; it could be told by M.R. James or Sheridan Le Fanu, rich as it with mannered prose, spooky atmosphere and terms like “milk thistle.” It adheres every bit to those old-fashioned tropes, yet never comes off dusty. With his super-short chapters — and subchapters within those chapters — it never has a chance to do so.
The book is rounded out with illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne (THE SECRETARY OF DREAMS), and I can’t think of anyone whose style is more appropriate. Take his opening spread; the more you look at it, the more that details heretofore hidden slowly emerge. The chill that provides puts your spine in the perfect state for all of ISIS. —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• FOUR DARK NIGHTS by Bentley Little, Douglas Clegg, Christopher Golden and Tom Piccirilli
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Hm, I was just about to order my first M. R. James book from Amazon yesterday and let myself be convinced otherwise by a couple of the reviews there. Nothing to do with Clegg’s book, but kind of a coincidence. Milk thistle.
This sounds like a very interesting story and not at all what I was thinking of when I saw the title. I’d like to check this one out. Thank you for sharing your summary.
I’ve seen a few ads for Isis here and there, and every time I think, “I have to read that!”