Lavelle, Victor. Lucretia and the Kroons. Speigel & Grau, 2012. eBook.
From romance to horror is a bit of a jump, but
it’s always nice to spread my reader’s wings and find something new. While I quite enjoy horror writing, it is
more common for me to reach for Poe or Lovecraft when I’m in that mood than to
seek out a more contemporary writer.
However, the descriptor for this novella was interesting enough that I
gave it a chance; and I’m very glad that
I did. "Being young doesn't protect you. Horrors come for kids, too,"
Lucretia’s (better known as Loochie) brother tells her, a warning and a
reminder for the adult reader that dark things and dark places surround us all,
and the things we fear are perhaps much scarier than merely the threat of
things that go bump in the night. Though
the central character of this short work is a child, Lucretia and the Kroons is a story for adults, one in which the
things we all fear – loss, death, loneliness – are given physical form in a
strange world that Loochie must both seek out and escape as she tries to rescue
her friend Sunny from a dark fate.
Richly detailed (Lavalle’s description of flying rats, I must confess,
gave me the heebie-jeebies) and filled with unforgettable and compelling
characters, Lavalle’s novella is a great read – short, intense, and memorable. A prequel of sorts to Lavalle’s The Devil in
Silver, the story stands easily on its own merits while it also demands that
the reader seek out the novel for more of Lucretia’s story.
ARC received from NetGalley.
