Book Review: Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

Paperback, 112 pages

Published June 2017 by Tor.com Publishing

Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction (2017)

World Fantasy Award Nominee for Novella (2018)

“I was twelve the first time I saw my dead father cross from the kitchen doorway to the hall that led back to the utility room.”

I don't even know where to start this review. If you are not familiar with Stephen Graham Jones that might be the best place to start. I think often about authors who die never having been given the respect they deserve. It is a by-product of doing a Philip K Dick podcast I suppose but PKD died with a bibliography a mile long and a few awards but the respect for his genius didn't happen until years after his death. SGJ is the opposite. He is getting respect in awards and his continues to publish not just in the small presses but has had mainstream success with his amazing coming of age Werewolf novel Mongrels.

Mongrels worked for me because I laughed, I was disturbed and in the end, I floored by the ideas. When you combine all those elements you end up with a winner. It was on my year's best reads the year it came out but we are here to talk about the Tor novella Mapping the Interior. This story also has coming of age elements and kicks off when a young man - Junior sees a ghost of dead father late night in his kitchen.

Clocking in just over 100 pages this is a powerful and emotionally rich tale of a family haunting. It also involves the struggles of a native American family, struggling with sleepwalking and seizures. Junior has to step it up to take care of his brother because his mother is working multiple jobs to support them. He is desperate to get answers or to get close to his dead father. As I lost my mother at a young age I could relate and found these moments heartbreaking. The worst part is as Junior gets closer to his father it seems to have a painful effect.

This has been a good year for me and novels about grief. As with Duncan Barlow's soon to be released A Dog Between Us the elements of grief cut close for me and it appears it has worked other readers of this short but creepy book. SGJ has proven himself to one of the best most original dark voices in the post Stephen King/ Clive Barker generation. I have to admit his first novel that I read Demon Theory didn't work for me. Since then everything I read have all been masterpieces of dark fiction.

Sign me up for everything Stephen Graham Jones writes now.