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A review by anti_formalist12
Les brumes de Babylone by Michael McDowell
5.0
How does horror manifest itself in our world? Is it the things that go bump in the night, the terrors that live in the shadows, or the thing out of the corner of your eye that simply should not be? Or is it perhaps the horrors of the flesh? Evil men given power and safety from the law. Cold Moon Over Babylon suggests that the true evil is the latter. It also suggests that true justice might be the former.
Cold Moon Over Babylon follows the Larkin clan, an impoverished family of berry farmers whose lives have been marked by tragedy after tragedy. After losing their parents to a freak accident when they were children, Ruth and her brother have lived on their own, under the supervision of their increasingly infirm grandmother. The book opens with Ruth being brutalized and murdered by an unseen assailant. The story only grows darker for the Larkins from there. Much of the town of Bablyon appears unfazed by the suffering of these small land-holders. Then the perpetrators began to be menaced by unseen forces. These unseen forces seem intent on dragging the Larkins aggressors into a watery grave.
At times more resembling a tale of gothic horror than the blood and sex-drenched horror that was in vogue in the 70s and 80s, Cold Moon’s true success is in the craft of the tale. McDowell winds the story so tight it almost feels like it’s going to burst. The tension emulates the condition of the characters, always on the brink of completely breaking, either under the stress of generational poverty or the stress of insanity. Babylon is a town where the past weighs on the residents.
Its a magnificently told story. The characters feel so well realized, you find yourself loving and hating them as if they were characters in your own life. You despise the sheriff for his almost willful naiveté. You hate the cynical lawyer who assists in the Larkin’s downfall, and who consciously isolates himself from it in order to spare his own soul. The Larkins themselves are more than deserving of pity, even though it is only the grandmother who is smart enough to see their doom approaching. And when the supernatural begins to rear its bloated, water-logged head, it feels totally unique and natural.
Cold Moon Over Babylon follows the Larkin clan, an impoverished family of berry farmers whose lives have been marked by tragedy after tragedy. After losing their parents to a freak accident when they were children, Ruth and her brother have lived on their own, under the supervision of their increasingly infirm grandmother. The book opens with Ruth being brutalized and murdered by an unseen assailant. The story only grows darker for the Larkins from there. Much of the town of Bablyon appears unfazed by the suffering of these small land-holders. Then the perpetrators began to be menaced by unseen forces. These unseen forces seem intent on dragging the Larkins aggressors into a watery grave.
At times more resembling a tale of gothic horror than the blood and sex-drenched horror that was in vogue in the 70s and 80s, Cold Moon’s true success is in the craft of the tale. McDowell winds the story so tight it almost feels like it’s going to burst. The tension emulates the condition of the characters, always on the brink of completely breaking, either under the stress of generational poverty or the stress of insanity. Babylon is a town where the past weighs on the residents.
Its a magnificently told story. The characters feel so well realized, you find yourself loving and hating them as if they were characters in your own life. You despise the sheriff for his almost willful naiveté. You hate the cynical lawyer who assists in the Larkin’s downfall, and who consciously isolates himself from it in order to spare his own soul. The Larkins themselves are more than deserving of pity, even though it is only the grandmother who is smart enough to see their doom approaching. And when the supernatural begins to rear its bloated, water-logged head, it feels totally unique and natural.