Hide by Kiersten White
I admit despite her many credits I was not familiar with this author, and she lives in the same city as me. That is one reason I got this book on a whim at the library. It looked like horror, saw the author was from here and I avoided the plot description on the cover deciding to go in cold. What I have gathered from the acknowledgments and the bio this was the first targeted at adults novel.
There is a degree that this novel suffered from the reader (that would be me) not connecting to it. On a technical level there are several things the novel does very well. The tone, the atmosphere all service the novel which is clear meant to have a point of view and a message. I personally like my genere fiction heavy handed and to the point, it could have even gone further with me and I am there.
Hide has an excellent concept, a reality survival game set in a old creepy abandoned amusement park, the beautifully designed book comes with a map. The idea is a group of young people have to play hide and go seek in the park, they can come out at dark to talk, eat and so on. This is important to the story so the characters can develop and play off each other. As some characters are found they disappear. To the players they are going home losers, with out the big cash prize but for the reader we know something darker is going on.
The main point of view character was a young woman named Mack, who is chosen for the contest because hid while her family was murdered. As a writer/critic who loves parallels and reversals I dig this set-up. Mack is well written character. There is great attention put to the characters and developing them…
“She’s so sick of trying to turn everything into an opportunity, trying to exploit every hobby, every interest, every talent, even her own fucking face and body in a desperate attempt to make enough money. The last time they spoke—a year ago, maybe?—her father accused her of being lazy, of not working, but the truth is, like everyone her age she knows, she’s always working. She’s just not making a living doing any of it. Yet.”
Thee problem is the deeper the novel goes I was having trouble keeping the characters straight. Fourteen characters in a survival horror story is a lot to manage even if the structure includes taking out two a day over the week long game. The structure is interesting, because hiding for the daylight hours provides less suspense then you might think much of the heavy lifting is at night when the characters come together. They are looking for fame and money, there is some interesting stuff to be said about what young people crave, and the lengths they will go.
The structure has chapters representing days and nights at a time. White does a great job balancing the tension. I think the dynamic is the strongest part of the novel, that is what made my trouble telling the characters apart frustrating. I kept thinking about Panic Room. Writer David Koepp uses the geography of the setting to build tension and keep the viewer on edge. That is the thing missing from Hide for me.
Remember when I said it could have been more direct. Looking for Quote from the dog-earred pages I had I found this…
“People pretend things aren’t wrong, even when they can feel the truth, because they’re too afraid of what it means to look right at the horror, right at the wrongness, to face the truth in all its terrible glory. Like little kids, playing hide-and-seek. If they can’t see the monster, it can’t get them. But it can. It always can. And while you aren’t looking, it’s eating everyone around you.”
I think White was doing a good job expressing her anger at the shit our younger generations have to put up with. Yeah, it is some bullshit. This is a novel that didn’t quite gel with me but I think it is as much on me. I want to read White’s other work. This is not a bad novel, I just didn’t connect with it. I like the concept, and I am interested to know if it works for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment