#BookReview ‘Unspeakable Things’ by Jess Lourey

About the book…

Inspired by a terrifying true story from the author’s hometown in Minnesota -a community where nothing is as quiet—or as safe—as it seems.

Cassie McDowell’s life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class. Yes, there are her parents’ strange parties and their parade of deviant guests, but she’s grown accustomed to them.

All that changes when someone comes hunting in Lilydale.

One by one, local boys go missing. One by one, they return changed—violent, moody, and withdrawn. What happened to them becomes the stuff of shocking rumors. The accusations of who’s responsible grow just as wild, and dangerous town secrets start to surface. Then Cassie’s own sister undergoes the dark change. If she is to survive, Cassie must find her way in an adult world where every sin is justified, and only the truth is unforgivable.

‘Unspeakable Things’ is published by Thomas And Mercer in audiobook, e-book and paperback formats and is the first of her true crime based murder thrillers. I say murder thriller because it is a novel as dark as the shadows which Cassie wraps herself in every night. It’s borderline horrific, and the 80’s setting lends it a vibe and atmosphere of unease which , we readers in the light of our accessibility to the internet might not remember so vividly( I all too well recall not having a phone in our house until I was 14, it was stationary, and my father would stand over me timing my conversations). This gives it a sense of isolation enhanced by the distance between neighbours, a distance which creates a sense of dissonance and the background for darkness to grow into twisted shapes.

In Cassie’s life, everything is pretty simple. She aims to grow up to be as glamorous and forthright as her aunty who blows in on the wind, shakes things up like a snowglobe, and blows out again. Her father is an unpredictable mess, often drunk with volatile temper explosions. Her mother works hard whilst her father’s ‘business’ is much less respectable. More on that later.

Cassie begins the book with the discovery of a necklace, just as she is about to go home to an unamed male’s funeral, someone she appears to be glad is dead, and it springs her back to her childhood on a remote farm in Minnesota. Named after Cassandra, cursed to never be believed, she and her sister , Persephone (Sephie) go to school, come home, try to gauge their dad’s mood and pray not to hear his footsteps on the stairs after dark. Cassie seems like a normal girl, crushing on a boy named Gabriel, trying to work out what the adults in her life talk about but never explain to her, and each night tossing a coin to decide whether she sleeps under the bed or in the closet.

The reason for this is not explicitly detailed, however, the reader is quickly aware that Sephie changes over the course of the book, literally and figuratively spending half her year in Hell. Cassie, in her habits, knows that her father means danger but does not really link it to the parties her father has in his barn, his ‘side gig’ to bring money in. She wants to grow up, write ‘Believe It Or Don’t’ columns with astonishing facts, and leave her rural life far behind.

The characters in the town are monstrous, this is from the perspective of a child, her parents are massively ill equipped to keep her and Sephie safe and, when her aunt visits after begging her to take her with her , only to find her aunt has known about the parties and has been part of this scene for a long time.

Cassie is the heart of the story, she wants to find out who has been taking the boys, why they come back so changed, what has happened to them and also why the police don’t seem to be able to do anything about it. Lots of things do not add up. The details regarding child sex abuse are glossed over, thankfully, the implication of Cassie not sleeping in her own bed is super clear, readers don’t need this dragged into sharp relief. This is a girl carrying way more weight than she should be, determined that Gabriel , one of the victims of the person snatching boys and returning them, changed, will be avenged.

‘Unspeakable Things’ is very dark. There is little redemption to be found in any of the adults. They let the children of their town, especially those belonging to ethnic minorities down time and again. You start this book knowing it is based on a true story, and that adds a pathos to it which increases how angry you feel towards the way adults are so derelict of their duties of care towards the children of Lilydale.

About the author…

Jess Lourey writes about secrets.

She is the Amazon Charts bestselling author of nonfiction, YA adventure, magical realism, and crime fiction. She’s a tenured professor of writing and sociology, a recipient of The Loft’s Excellence in Teaching fellowship, a Psychology Today blogger, a TEDx presenter (check out her TEDx Talk to discover the surprising inspiration behind ‘May Day’, her first published novel), and a leader of writing retreats for women.

She lives in Minneapolis with her family and foster cats (and occasional foster puppies, but man those goobers are a lot of work)

Links-http://jessicalourey.com/

Twitter @jesslourey