Followers, the debut novella
from Indianapolis based writer Adam Fleming Petty has an infectiously archaic
quality even though it is a story set in modern times and deals extensively
with modern technology. This is an old world kind of story that I would expect
from a Southern Gothic writer (full disclosure, I had a chat with the author at
a local event before I decided to buy his book and he told me that he had
Flannery O’Conner in mind when he was writing it). It never feels like an
artifact of this moment despite its time period. It exists in a world filled
with a strange sense of wonder, danger and malevolence that is pretty hard to
find in the modern era. It stumbles a bit at times, with a few too many framed
stories to my liking, but this is a brisk enjoyable 67 page story that offers
up quite a few chills and a nice twist. It begins with Hannah Gustafson waiting
in the airport. She is waiting to pick up Carolina Diaz, a writer of listicles
who has been summoned to Colorado to do a story on Karen Kerry, a quadriplegic religious
leader with a significant following. Petty is scarce with details early on, but
it unfolds smoothly and when things start getting crazy with one of Karen’s
supposedly paralyzed feet, he is able to create a sense of tension and danger
with great ease. As I said, some of the back-story that is given is presented
as flashbacks and as stories told by the characters themselves. It doesn’t derail
the book too much, but it tended to take me out of the story sometimes and
could have been put forth in a more covert fashion. I don’t read too many local
books, but after reading something like this, I feel I need to immerse myself a
little bit more in a community that is not too far from my doorstep.
Rating: 4/5
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