Any new book by Joe R.
Lansdale is cause for celebration, and having just finished The Thicket today,
this time is no different. It continues this strange legacy he has been
building for the past 30 years he has been writing. It is a legacy built on a
lot of heart, a lot of gumption and a lot of guts, most of the time literally.
You are not going to find a more unique experience in literature than the one
that he provides for you, whether it is a scary and down right skin crawling
one in novels like The Nightrunners or the story Night They Missed They Horror
Show, or something a lot bit stranger and weirder like his trilogy of Drive-In
novels, I have encountered no other writer who is better able to take me on a
long journey into another world that is both archaic and completely new. His
talent is also the kind that can change and adapt over time, as evidence by his
most recent published books. The Thicket, much like his last novel, Edge of
Dark Water, shows a great maturing in the themes that he is dealing with.
Rarely are there any outright horror elements (although there are some that are
downright horrible), and the seriousness in which things unfold show in the
love he has each of his characters, and the need to do them justice by
portraying them honestly. But rarely is there a boring moment. These new novels
of Lansdale are coming-of-age fables set in distant times, with lots of
intrigue and complexity. The story focuses on Jack who, along with his sister,
have come upon some really rough times at the turn of the 20th
century: both of their parents have succumbed to small pox, his widowed
grandfather is forced to send them to unknown relatives, and on the way his
grandfather is killed and his sister is captured by a brutal gang of outlaws
with the worst intentions. Jack, alone, must seek the help of a weird duo made
up of an alcoholic ex-slave named Eustace and a tougher-than-he looks midget
named Shorty with a poor attitude and a short temper. What begins as an uneasy
alliance based on Jack giving away everything he has, becomes a deeply moral
story about right and wrong, and how forces of nature can guide us into making
decisions we will regret. We witness the ambiguous hatred Jack has in his heart
for the people that kidnapped his sister and murdered his grandfather, but in
moments of urgency, like when Eustace and Shorty are interrogating a man by
nailing his manhood to a chair, he falls back on his religion, and questions
whether killing is the right thing to do. It’s really the deepest Lansdale has
gotten in any of his stories, and it shows how serious he has gotten as he has
aged. But this book still has its fun moments, many involving people
underestimating Shorty’s potential for harm, to their unending regret. Violent
and funny, sometimes simultaneously, The Thicket is a good place to start with
Lansdale. A great world awaits.
Rating: 5/5
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