Trauma is a topic that is too often neglected in the horror genre. We got it in full force with Rob Zombie's Halloween 2. Kealan Patrick Burke's Kin poses a hypothetical: what happens to Sally at the end of Texas Chainsaw Massacre? She just saw her friends brutally murdered. How will she cope?
Kin answers this. Only it ramps things up to the nth degree.
"On a scorching hot summer day in Elkwood, Alabama, Claire Lambert staggers naked, wounded and half-blind at the scene of an atrocity. She is the sole survivor of a nightmare that claimed her friends, and even as she prays for rescue, the killers- a family of cannibal lunatics- are closing in."
The Merrills, the family of cannibalistic lunatics in question, have a more than twisted belief system. They believe that God has given them a sign to kill all sinners and consume them. The Men of the World is who they deem as the poison that corrupts. The parents are named Ma-in-bed and Papa-in-gray, for reasons discussed in the book. The former being a hideous mass of flesh and stink that resides on a mattress. Papa-in-gray's backstory we don't find out until later in the story.
Kealan Patrick Burke writes each chapter from a different character's perspective. In this, we are introduced to a number of damaged individuals with haunted pasts. There is Jack and Pete, the father and son who find Claire, naked and shambling down the road. There is Finch, an Iraq War vet whose brother Daniel, saw his end at the hands of the Merrills. Daniel was Claire's boyfriend. The one who decided to take a backwoods detour for 'adventurous sightseeing'. There is Louise, a waitress in snowbound Detroit who is trapped in an abusive relationship and soon gets an unexpected visit that leads her back on a road to a past she was trying to outrun.
If you like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, backwoods horror, or just a great book to read for the occasion, make the trip up to Elkwood.
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