Horror Book Review | The Keeper by Sarah Langan (2006)

Synopsis: Some believe Bedford, Maine, is cursed. Its bloody past, endless rain, and the decay of its downtown portend a hopeless future. With the death of its paper mill, Bedford's unemployed residents soon find themselves with far too much time to dwell on thoughts of Susan Marley. Once the local beauty, she's now the local whore. Silently prowling the muddy streets, she watches eerily from the shadows, waiting for . . . something. And haunting the sleep of everyone in town with monstrous visions of violence and horror.
Those who are able will leave Bedford before the darkness fully ascends. But those who are trapped here—from Susan Marley's long-suffering mother and younger sister to her guilt-ridden, alcoholic ex-lover to the destitute and faithless with nowhere else to go—will soon know the fullest and most terrible meaning of nightmare.
My Review:
This is Sarah Langan's first book and it's a creepy and gloomy combination of mystery, thriller and horror. Langan manages to weave such an oppressive atmosphere giving her setting an almost palpable sense of loss and foreboding. I found the writing to be exceptional. Langan manages to capture the small town gravity that keeps people there even though they have failed and know that they will continue to fail so long as they stay. Even the dark, depressing town becomes a character all its own, slowly sucking the life out of its inhabitants.

The novel has a slow, languorous pace for the first ¾ of it, but it kicks into high gear for the grand finale. As the novel gets darker and darker, you just feel the characters driven into the pits of depression and despair. Dead things start coming back to life, the old mill starts spewing its poison into the air and Susan Marley and the ghosts of Bedford encroach on its last remaining citizens. The beginning of the book deals mainly with the characters that live in town and their deep secrets, inner conflicts and relationships to Susan Marley. I felt the pace was appropriate throughout the book and didn’t have issue with it.
The descriptions of horror are very effective. People die in very grisly ways and the dark, bad things that slowly seep into Bedford are very disturbing (several scenes that are just plain unsettling). I would definitely recommend reading this book as I was extremely impressed with The Keeper. Hopefully this is the start of a very promising career for Langan!

Book Rate: 9/10