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A review by daneekasghost
The Wanderer by Timothy J. Jarvis
5.0
Do you like ichor?
Do you like ichor as a word? Because The Wanderer is a book where a word like ichor feels right at home. The vocabulary is extensive and the description is remarkable. The prose is described as poetic in more that one place, and it's easy to see where that comes from.
Do you like ichor as a substance? The description is concerned with things often visceral, often gory, often downright repulsive. Horrible things are happening in The Wanderer. And they keep happening.
Do you like ichor as a signifier of horror? A signpost telling you that this book you hold in your hands is a horror novel? If the description and the viscera and the gore don't give it away, Jarvis loves what horror can be. The structure of the book is very aware of itself. A manuscript that describes something eldritch is found in the apartment of a recently disappeared author. Before you know even that, the first words of the book are an excerpt from that author's story:
The whole book careens along through the various stories that come from chance meetings with strangers (another self-aware nod to "weird tales" and horror stories) while updating the main plot. It only perhaps loses steam once or twice but quickly finds its footing.
I enjoyed it very much, for all the ichor in every sense.
Do you like ichor as a word? Because The Wanderer is a book where a word like ichor feels right at home. The vocabulary is extensive and the description is remarkable. The prose is described as poetic in more that one place, and it's easy to see where that comes from.
Do you like ichor as a substance? The description is concerned with things often visceral, often gory, often downright repulsive. Horrible things are happening in The Wanderer. And they keep happening.
Do you like ichor as a signifier of horror? A signpost telling you that this book you hold in your hands is a horror novel? If the description and the viscera and the gore don't give it away, Jarvis loves what horror can be. The structure of the book is very aware of itself. A manuscript that describes something eldritch is found in the apartment of a recently disappeared author. Before you know even that, the first words of the book are an excerpt from that author's story:
"What is it?"
"An old manuscript. Much of it is hard to make out, but..."
Mr. Leatherbotham cut in.
"What? That worn-out old Gothic trope?"
He rolled his eyes.
The whole book careens along through the various stories that come from chance meetings with strangers (another self-aware nod to "weird tales" and horror stories) while updating the main plot. It only perhaps loses steam once or twice but quickly finds its footing.
I enjoyed it very much, for all the ichor in every sense.