Fiona Webster (melusina) - , reviewed on 2/13/2009 + 32 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

Despite its superficial resemblance to a whodunit, The Church of Dead Girls is not a "thriller." Don't expect it to be suspenseful. This is a literary horror tale--slow-paced, contemplative, meticulous in its descriptions--a horror tale about a formerly sleepy small town in which the crucial distinction between public and private life is dissolving, as suspicion spreads like a toxin. The reader's guide to this process of corruption is a high school biology teacher--reserved, somewhat snotty, but a thoughtful man, and reliable in spite of his cynicism. He says, "It is dreadful not to be allowed to have secrets. Years ago I happened to uncover a nest of baby moles in the backyard and I watched them writhe miserably in the sunlight. We were like that." Ultimately you realize that the killer's identity, even the deaths of three girls, are small matters compared to the collapse of the town's very soul.

This novel is available from my Bookshelf.

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