Tag: The Least of My Scars

  • Stephen Graham Jones’s The Least of My Scars (Book Review)

    51FEhkZbqNL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_The horror genre has a lot of good lyrical writers and a lot of good visceral writers. Most of the time, those traits are exclusive. I don’t know why. Perhaps those who write with a more visceral style use conversational tone in order to maximize the effect. Brian Keene and Jack Ketchum are two examples. Their books are well-written, but so linguistically relaxed that the words disappear. On the other end of the spectrum, writers like Ramsey Campbell and Peter Straub write lyrically and specialize in so-called “quiet horror.” Much like the artist who works with negative space, these writers use what isn’t on the page as much as they do the written words.

    There are several writers who are exceptions to the rule, and one of the best among them is Stephen Graham Jones. His novel The Least of My Scars serves as an example of what can be done when lyrical writing meets visceral imagery. It is an exceptional example of that grey area between horror and noir fiction.

    William Colton Hughes is a serial killer. He lives in an apartment complex, supported by a mob boss. His job is simple. When the boss sends someone to the door, Hughes kills them and disposes of the body in a methodical way that has to be read to be believed. The apartment exists as Hughes’s little chunk of paradise, an island where he settles in to a homicidal dream-come-true. That dream crumbles, along with Hughes’s sanity, as the story progresses.

    The novel is told from Hughes’s perspective. Using an unreliable, unsympathetic narrator is tricky, but Jones pulls it off masterfully. Another reviewer/writer, Caleb J. Ross jokingly called the book “Native American Psycho.” Certainly, The Least of My Scars reminds you of Bret Easton Ellis’s book, as well as Joyce Carol Oates’s Zombie. You feel no empathy for Hughes. It doesn’t matter. All the other characters are just as rotten as he is, but without the excuse of insanity. (more…)