Starred review from June 7, 2021
College student Brandon Cossey, the narrator of this impressive thriller from Thriller Award finalist Clifford (The Lakehouse), gets a call from his friend Jacob Balfour’s mother informing him that Jacob, who’s mentally ill, has disappeared from their hometown of Utica, N.Y. This news sends Brandon racing back to Utica, plagued by guilt for neglecting Jacob after going to college. In his friend’s bedroom, Brandon is unsettled to find a pile of homemade magazines, titled Illuminations, containing Jacob’s conspiracy rants about the moon landing, alien lizards controlling the U.S. government, and “a sinister race of doppelgängers, plants sent to spy on us from netherworlds and report back” called the Shadow People. The stakes rise after Brandon learns that Jacob’s body was found in a Minnesota quarry, with a fatal puncture wound to his stomach, and Jacob’s grandfather shows up to suggest that the Shadow People really exist. Clifford does a great job of facilitating engagement with his lead and at tossing in satisfying twists. Blake Crouch fans should take note. gent: James McGowan, BookEnds Literary.
July 30, 2021
Brandon Cossey and his best friend, Jacob, became surrogate brothers when Jacob's mom took Brandon in, and they grew up riding the unpredictable waves of Jacob's schizophrenia. Now, as Brandon i packing his apartment to leave for grad school, news from home thrusts him into a world of conspiracy-soaked paranoia. Jacob has disappeared, and it's evident that he's stopped taking his meds when Brandon discovers that Jacob has published a zine dedicated to theories about menacing Shadow People lurking beyond mainstream awareness. Finally, Jacob's body is inexplicably found six states away in rural Minnesota. Brandon tries to dismiss Jacob's Shadow People, but when he's followed by a mysterious figure and his apartment is burglarized, a road trip investigation with Jacob's slightly unhinged grandfather, Francis, seems like a solid plan. Shockingly, when they reach the meth-ruled backwater where Jacob died, they find that the Shadow People are rooted in deadly reality. Clifford (Skunk Train, 2019) wields clever use of an unreliable narrator, gritty portrayals of those marginalized by mental illness, and a masterful twist to create a constantly shifting reality.
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