The Year Of The Storm

by | Sep 8, 2013 | Reviews

The term “southern gothic” is tossed around like a praline in the Louisiana bayou nowadays, as if it will lift any book into best-seller status.  THE YEAR OF THE STORM has been liked to a few of the greats in that category and will likely bring to mind McCammon’s BOY’S LIFE and GONE SOUTH, King’s THE BODY (although not southern), and many tales by Lansdale.

Is it worthy of the comparisons?

Give it a shot and find yourself bleary-eyed the next morning.  John Mantooth is one of those novelists whose debut rises above the hype and will soak the reader in an experience that will have him or her doubting this is a first effort.  What’s so special about it?  The storytelling.  Nothing fancy. Excess is nowhere to be found.  All that is found on the pages is simple magic.

THE YEAR OF THE STORM finds Danny and his father coping with the disappearance of a the other half of their family – a distraught mother and an autistic sister – appearing victims of a freak storm that rips into their quiet town.  Danny refuses to let go of the notion that both are still alive, despite everyone else believing otherwise.  Did they truly die?  Did the mother simply vanish into the night unable to handle having a disabled daughter?  Or did something completely different occur?

The grief process hits Danny in an odd way, staved off somewhat, as his search turns both inward and out.  One day, a grizzled vet Walter Pike shows up on the family’s doorstep with stories that fill Danny with hope and wonder. He, too, believes that Danny’s mother and sister still resides in the world of the living..

In a move that could have derailed the flow and magic of the story, Mantooth weaves in a second narrative, one told by a young Walter.  What’s the point?  Well, it seems that he had his own mysterious history that began when he befriended a boy who was the victim of bullying. The boy had an unusual method of coping with the trauma, something that older Walt believes could be at the center of the disappearances in the present.

Supernatural? Maybe. Maybe it’s just the mystery of the south playing tricks on the eyes and minds of those craving closure and redemption. Either way, the novel’s own magic draws its power from the author’s smooth and simple voice, whispering to the reader as comfortably as if both sat across from each other over a campfire with a mason jar of shine in the hands.

Sure to be one of the most treasured finds of the year, of any genre, any region.

Crack open the pages and kick back with 2013’s most pleasant surprise.

About Dave Simms