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The Night Country
A ghost story that begins in everyday tragedy, from a distinctly American master of both forms: a "scary, sad, funny . . . mesmerizing read" (Stephen King) At Midnight on Halloween in a cloistered New England suburb, a car carrying five teenagers leaves a winding road and slams into a tree, killing three of them. One escapes unharmed, another suffers severe brain damage. A year later, summoned by the memories of those closest to them, the three that died come back on a last chilling mission among the living. A strange and unsettling ghost story, The Night Country creeps through the leaf-strewn streets and quiet cul-de-sacs of one bedroom community, reaching into the desperately connected yet isolated lives of three people changed forever by the accident: Tim, who survived yet lost everything; Brooks, the cop whose guilty secret has destroyed his life; and Kyle's mom, trying to love the new son the doctors returned to her. As the day wanes and darkness falls, one of them puts a terrible plan into effect, and they find themselves caught in a collision of need and desire, watched over by the knowing ghosts. Macabre and moving, The Night Country elevates every small town's bad high school crash into myth, finding the deeper human truth beneath a shared and very American tragedy. As in his highly-prized Snow Angels and A Prayer for the Dying , once again Stewart O'Nan gives us an intimate look at people trying to hold on to hope, and the consequences when they fail.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
34 people are currently reading
1985 people want to read
About the author
Stewart O'Nan
82 books1,346 followersStewart O'Nan is the author of eighteen novels, including Emily, Alone; Last Night at the Lobster; A Prayer for the Dying; Snow Angels; and the forthcoming Ocean State, due out from Grove/Atlantic on March 8th, 2022.
With Stephen King, I’ve also co-written Faithful, a nonfiction account of the 2004 Boston Red Sox, and the e-story “A Face in the Crowd.”
You can catch me at stewart-onan.com, on Twitter @stewartonan and on Facebook @stewartONanAuthor
With Stephen King, I’ve also co-written Faithful, a nonfiction account of the 2004 Boston Red Sox, and the e-story “A Face in the Crowd.”
You can catch me at stewart-onan.com, on Twitter @stewartonan and on Facebook @stewartONanAuthor
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April 26, 2016
I don’t like teenagers. Since I’m not a teenager, and haven’t been for some time, I feel fine saying that. Teenagers are self-involved, narcissistic and utterly boring. They are by turns sullen, indifferent, and hysterical. Thus, it has always been shocking to me (the post-teenage me) that our country allows them to get behind the wheel of an automobile.
Driving is the single most dangerous activity most of us will ever undertake. And yet we allow the roads to be clogged with disinterested, over-emotional, under-functioning teenagers. It is a wonder of wonders.
I was not allowed to buy pornography until I was 18 (this being the pre-Internet years, when pornography was still purchased). I was not allowed to attend an R-rated movie by myself until I was 17. But when I turned 16? Thanks for the keys! Two years before I could watch people having sex, and one year before I could watch people pretending to have sex, I was able to strap myself behind the wheel of hundreds of pounds of metal, glass and rubber that can travel upwards of 80 miles per hour.
My nightmare is a high school senior, an iPhone, and mommy’s Escalade.
I’ll go out on a limb and say we’re all familiar with a local tragedy involving teens and cars. You can probably pull up an image as well: some twisted steel; some shredded rubber; some broken glass; a handmade roadside cross. We’ve known the results of kids and cars long before Pearl Jam covered Last Kiss.
Stuart O’Nan’s The Night Country begins near the one-year anniversary of a car wreck that killed three high school students. Another student was turned into a walking vegetable. A fifth student walked away clean.
The unscathed survivor of the wreck is Tim, who is wracked by the extreme survivor’s guilt we’ve come to expect from novels like this. Kyle is the half-vegetable; where once he was a pot-smoking rebel, he is now an overgrown child, barely able to get dressed in the morning. Tim helps him out as best he can, at their job as grocery clerks. The three dead kids are Marco, Toe, and Danielle. They are also the narrators. Well, Marco is the actual speaker, but the three ghosts come as a package, and much of the time Marco addresses the reader as “we.”
Unlike other dead-person narrations, the three ghosts of The Night Country are not omniscient. Rather, according to the vaguely-sketched rules in O’Nan’s novel, the three ghosts are pulled towards people who are thinking about them. They stay with that person awhile before flying off to someone else. They don’t seem able to interact much, other than to whisper thoughts into the ears of the living (at one point it is hinted that they might be able to have some effect on the physical world).
The three ghosts of The Night Country spend much of their haunt-time with Tim, Kyle, Kyle’s mom Nancy, and Officer Brooks, the policeman who first responded to the fatal accident. There are also cutaway scenes to Travis and Greg, friends of Toe, who are typical high school idiots, all bluster and no wisdom.
Anyone who has read Stuart O’Nan – and you should read Stuart O’Nan – knows him to be a literary chameleon. His modus operandi is to erect a standard genre framework and fill it with the trappings of literary fiction. For instance, in The Good Wife, he tells the story of a convicted murderer – from trial to prison to release – from the point of view of his left-behind wife.
In The Night Country, O’Nan’s chosen genre is horror. And make no mistake: this is horror. It’s like a Stephen King short-story churned out by the Iowa Writers Workshop. O’Nan is telling a ghost story. Literally, it’s a story told by ghosts. But he is also exploring certain themes, chief among them, the process of aging, the dreams of youth that give way to the reality of midlife and beyond. O’Nan’s thematic purpose is apparent in the characters that his ghosts choose to follow the most: Nancy and Brooks.
Nancy’s story is the most touching, and the one most seemingly out of place in a ghost story. She is caught in a world no longer moving forward: a son who will never be able to take care of himself; and a husband who has emotionally checked out. O’Nan’s depiction of Nancy’s date-night with her husband, a night that is happy but also fraught with potential trip-mines, is truly terrifying portrait of a marriage on the brink.
Officer Brooks, like Nancy, is facing something of a middle-class midlife crisis. His travails, however, are more genre typical. Since the accident, he has lost his wife, he is trying to sell his house (at a loss), and his job performance has tanked. He now ekes out a sad, lonely existence with a couple of dogs and a lot of guilt. The source of his guilt is a secret that is slowly revealed throughout the novel.
The older characters are fuller and richer. Which is true to life. The teenagers we spend the most time with – the ghosts Marco, Toe and Danielle – are never really defined as people. (That is, they never “come to life.” Get it? Get it?) To the extent they have any resemblance to once-living human teenagers, it is shown through Marco’s semi-flippant narration. Teenagers have a lot of unearned courage, empty brio, and a fairly consistent disregard for the wider parameters of life. To this end, I suppose, Marco, Toe and Danielle are accurately drawn. Even though they are dead, and can apparently sift back through the entire chronology of their interrupted lives, they have gained absolutely no understanding of life.
Yet, this is a horror story. And perhaps the objectives of these ghosts is not to learn, but to do something else.
To say much more would be a mistake. I will say this, though, as vaguely as possible. I had a pretty good idea of what the novel’s ending would be after reading the back cover. And I’m pretty stupid when it comes to guessing endings. Even so, the climax is so ruthless, cold, and unforgiving, that it actually made my tummy hurt a little. (The sudden swerve from a carefully observed study of a married couple to the macabre is actually quite effective).
The Night Country is not a weighty addition to the O’Nan canon. It did not grip me with the thoroughness of his other works (chief among them Snow Angels, The Good Wife and Songs for the Missing). Then again, it’s not trying to be more than it is: a spook story about restless spirits, haunted souls, and aging, which is one of the scariest things of all.
Driving is the single most dangerous activity most of us will ever undertake. And yet we allow the roads to be clogged with disinterested, over-emotional, under-functioning teenagers. It is a wonder of wonders.
I was not allowed to buy pornography until I was 18 (this being the pre-Internet years, when pornography was still purchased). I was not allowed to attend an R-rated movie by myself until I was 17. But when I turned 16? Thanks for the keys! Two years before I could watch people having sex, and one year before I could watch people pretending to have sex, I was able to strap myself behind the wheel of hundreds of pounds of metal, glass and rubber that can travel upwards of 80 miles per hour.
My nightmare is a high school senior, an iPhone, and mommy’s Escalade.
I’ll go out on a limb and say we’re all familiar with a local tragedy involving teens and cars. You can probably pull up an image as well: some twisted steel; some shredded rubber; some broken glass; a handmade roadside cross. We’ve known the results of kids and cars long before Pearl Jam covered Last Kiss.
Stuart O’Nan’s The Night Country begins near the one-year anniversary of a car wreck that killed three high school students. Another student was turned into a walking vegetable. A fifth student walked away clean.
The unscathed survivor of the wreck is Tim, who is wracked by the extreme survivor’s guilt we’ve come to expect from novels like this. Kyle is the half-vegetable; where once he was a pot-smoking rebel, he is now an overgrown child, barely able to get dressed in the morning. Tim helps him out as best he can, at their job as grocery clerks. The three dead kids are Marco, Toe, and Danielle. They are also the narrators. Well, Marco is the actual speaker, but the three ghosts come as a package, and much of the time Marco addresses the reader as “we.”
Unlike other dead-person narrations, the three ghosts of The Night Country are not omniscient. Rather, according to the vaguely-sketched rules in O’Nan’s novel, the three ghosts are pulled towards people who are thinking about them. They stay with that person awhile before flying off to someone else. They don’t seem able to interact much, other than to whisper thoughts into the ears of the living (at one point it is hinted that they might be able to have some effect on the physical world).
The three ghosts of The Night Country spend much of their haunt-time with Tim, Kyle, Kyle’s mom Nancy, and Officer Brooks, the policeman who first responded to the fatal accident. There are also cutaway scenes to Travis and Greg, friends of Toe, who are typical high school idiots, all bluster and no wisdom.
Anyone who has read Stuart O’Nan – and you should read Stuart O’Nan – knows him to be a literary chameleon. His modus operandi is to erect a standard genre framework and fill it with the trappings of literary fiction. For instance, in The Good Wife, he tells the story of a convicted murderer – from trial to prison to release – from the point of view of his left-behind wife.
In The Night Country, O’Nan’s chosen genre is horror. And make no mistake: this is horror. It’s like a Stephen King short-story churned out by the Iowa Writers Workshop. O’Nan is telling a ghost story. Literally, it’s a story told by ghosts. But he is also exploring certain themes, chief among them, the process of aging, the dreams of youth that give way to the reality of midlife and beyond. O’Nan’s thematic purpose is apparent in the characters that his ghosts choose to follow the most: Nancy and Brooks.
Nancy’s story is the most touching, and the one most seemingly out of place in a ghost story. She is caught in a world no longer moving forward: a son who will never be able to take care of himself; and a husband who has emotionally checked out. O’Nan’s depiction of Nancy’s date-night with her husband, a night that is happy but also fraught with potential trip-mines, is truly terrifying portrait of a marriage on the brink.
Officer Brooks, like Nancy, is facing something of a middle-class midlife crisis. His travails, however, are more genre typical. Since the accident, he has lost his wife, he is trying to sell his house (at a loss), and his job performance has tanked. He now ekes out a sad, lonely existence with a couple of dogs and a lot of guilt. The source of his guilt is a secret that is slowly revealed throughout the novel.
The older characters are fuller and richer. Which is true to life. The teenagers we spend the most time with – the ghosts Marco, Toe and Danielle – are never really defined as people. (That is, they never “come to life.” Get it? Get it?) To the extent they have any resemblance to once-living human teenagers, it is shown through Marco’s semi-flippant narration. Teenagers have a lot of unearned courage, empty brio, and a fairly consistent disregard for the wider parameters of life. To this end, I suppose, Marco, Toe and Danielle are accurately drawn. Even though they are dead, and can apparently sift back through the entire chronology of their interrupted lives, they have gained absolutely no understanding of life.
Yet, this is a horror story. And perhaps the objectives of these ghosts is not to learn, but to do something else.
To say much more would be a mistake. I will say this, though, as vaguely as possible. I had a pretty good idea of what the novel’s ending would be after reading the back cover. And I’m pretty stupid when it comes to guessing endings. Even so, the climax is so ruthless, cold, and unforgiving, that it actually made my tummy hurt a little. (The sudden swerve from a carefully observed study of a married couple to the macabre is actually quite effective).
The Night Country is not a weighty addition to the O’Nan canon. It did not grip me with the thoroughness of his other works (chief among them Snow Angels, The Good Wife and Songs for the Missing). Then again, it’s not trying to be more than it is: a spook story about restless spirits, haunted souls, and aging, which is one of the scariest things of all.
October 16, 2017
It has been many, many years since I found this slim novel on sale in the cramped 'Cult Book' section of my local bookstore, so while my recollections of it are a little faded, the impression it's left of me is as strong as ever. Right now, in fact, my copy is sitting under a dusty pile of paperbacks on the other side of Dublin, but I can still remember a cover quote which claimed that all good ghost stories are sad ones at their core.
If so, this must be the best ghost story I've ever read, because the title alone sucks me right back into its autumnal pages.
The narrative of The Night Country follows a small group of teenage ghosts who died in a car accident. They're still floating around their hometown, watching their families, school friends and other familiars eke out their existences in the living realm. The style is more literary than genre-specific, so don't expect them to haunt their loved ones or seek revenge on the world that let them down. What you'll find is a muted portrait of a couple of kids who just got a rotten deal.
I'm glad the book has a good score on Goodreads. I'd have thought a lot of people would find it dull. The ghosts are lonely, real people who are just as boring as the rest of us. It just so happens they were unfortunate enough to die young. Given the stories popularity, I think that Stewart O'Nan must have struck upon something honest in the way he focuses on the banalities of having been apart of a tragedy, whether as a victim or an onlooker, and I highly recommend picking up a copy if you want to experience something melancholy but true.
If so, this must be the best ghost story I've ever read, because the title alone sucks me right back into its autumnal pages.
The narrative of The Night Country follows a small group of teenage ghosts who died in a car accident. They're still floating around their hometown, watching their families, school friends and other familiars eke out their existences in the living realm. The style is more literary than genre-specific, so don't expect them to haunt their loved ones or seek revenge on the world that let them down. What you'll find is a muted portrait of a couple of kids who just got a rotten deal.
I'm glad the book has a good score on Goodreads. I'd have thought a lot of people would find it dull. The ghosts are lonely, real people who are just as boring as the rest of us. It just so happens they were unfortunate enough to die young. Given the stories popularity, I think that Stewart O'Nan must have struck upon something honest in the way he focuses on the banalities of having been apart of a tragedy, whether as a victim or an onlooker, and I highly recommend picking up a copy if you want to experience something melancholy but true.
January 24, 2012
My friend Oren owned a battered, gold colored, extended cab Ram Charger in high school. Outside of town on the road leading to the Jarvis farm, where Oren worked when his pickup would start, was a set of railroad tracks set on a fairly steep hill for Kansas. For fun we used to gun the Ram Charger for all it was worth, getting up as much speed up as we could before going up the incline to the railroad tracks. The speed, the built in ramps would send us airborne. This was real Dukes of Hazzard shit, no doubt about it. All four wheels came off the ground and for a moment we were a plane without wings. I can remember that moment when we were suspended up in the air, my heart in my throat, my body stiffening for the crash landing. My brain filling with endorphins, my pulse rate increasing. The crash was not without payment. We sustained contusions, crap in the back seat came to the front, and the stuff in the front ended up on the dash board, pens, cups pliers, etc. My head would rebound off the windshield and then rebound again when the pickup gave another hop after hitting the ground. The best part...the spare tire from the bed of the pickup would come flying over our heads and land in the road in front of us. After we finished laughing and checking to see if anything was bleeding, it was usually my job, being the co-pilot, to go pick the spare tire up out of the road and throw it back in the pickup bed.
It was not unusual for us to have a couple of girls in the pickup with us. Girls do like watching and even sometimes participating in the colossally stupid daring-do that boys manage to get up to for entertainment. This book by Stewart O'Nan reminded me of a night when we had two young ladies in the cab with us. I had my arm around one and was enjoying how good she smelled as we sped down the road getting ready to impress them with our best trick. It was dark, clouds covered the moon, starring out my window was like staring out into space. Mud from another excursion covered up the headlights dimming the meager glow, cutting Oren's vision down by several feet. The engine growling and sputtering, Oren was trying to coax as many horses out of that laboring engine as he could. I'm sure he was also distracted by the young lady sitting next to him. We came up to the crossing. The only way I knew we were close was because I could feel the grade pulling against the truck.
Suddenly Oren hits the brakes.
The tires bit into the gravel, and we sloughed sideways. He turned the wheel, and the truck slid around, and we came to a halt. I can hear it now. As each boxcar went by, the pressure of its passing rocked the pickup. I rolled down my mud smeared window and felt the train. It was so close I could touch it.
The girls laughed, and if there had been any light at all, when Oren and I looked at each other, we would have seen identically pale faces, I'm sure.
We never did go jump the railroad tracks again.
Well the kids in The Night Country were not as lucky as my friend Oren and I and our oblivious companions.
The book starts out with conversations between teenage ghosts. It takes awhile to figure out what is going on which doesn't bother me. I like being discombobulated for awhile. Once I do get on track and get everyone figured out, I then start to search for a plot. In the initial crash three kids die, one kid sustains traumatic head injury, and the fifth kid buckled into the backseat walks away without a scratch. The three dead kids are back as ghosts, plus the part of the traumatic head injury kid that escaped in the crash is also present though a brooding, non talking ghost. I read other reviewers that found the kids annoying, even snarky as one person put it. I would have preferred snarky. I found them utterly boring; for ghosts they really lacked imagination. They had little impact on the plot (wait there is a plot?), and actually for teenagers are relatively well behaved even with their comments.
Tim is the survivor and suffers from the standard survivor's guilt. The accident occurred on Halloween, and now that Halloween has rolled around again, he has plans to join his companions in yet another accident, plowing into the same tree that brought them all to such an abrupt halt a year ago. Brooks is the cop who also feels guilty; you will have to read to the end of the book before you understand why. He is tracking Tim, having a premonition???? that Tim is going to do something stupid.
Okay I won't tell you how it turns out. I was hoping for a big twist, in fact was expecting a big twist after reading the wonderfully written A Prayer for the Dying (see my friend Mike Sullivan's review)and Last Night at the Lobster. Please read those books by O'Nan first before delving into this one. The afore mentioned expected twist is not really a twist, but a pretty close version of what I (and you will to) expected to happen.
This book was dedicated to Ray Bradbury and the first chapter is called "Something Wicked", but he falls well short of the best of the grand master, and I can only hope the next book I pick up by O'Nan will be more in the vein of his more stellar work. I do have to thank him for drudging up a memory I had nearly forgotten. I enjoyed a moment in the warm glow of how wonderful it feels to be alive.
It was not unusual for us to have a couple of girls in the pickup with us. Girls do like watching and even sometimes participating in the colossally stupid daring-do that boys manage to get up to for entertainment. This book by Stewart O'Nan reminded me of a night when we had two young ladies in the cab with us. I had my arm around one and was enjoying how good she smelled as we sped down the road getting ready to impress them with our best trick. It was dark, clouds covered the moon, starring out my window was like staring out into space. Mud from another excursion covered up the headlights dimming the meager glow, cutting Oren's vision down by several feet. The engine growling and sputtering, Oren was trying to coax as many horses out of that laboring engine as he could. I'm sure he was also distracted by the young lady sitting next to him. We came up to the crossing. The only way I knew we were close was because I could feel the grade pulling against the truck.
Suddenly Oren hits the brakes.
The tires bit into the gravel, and we sloughed sideways. He turned the wheel, and the truck slid around, and we came to a halt. I can hear it now. As each boxcar went by, the pressure of its passing rocked the pickup. I rolled down my mud smeared window and felt the train. It was so close I could touch it.
The girls laughed, and if there had been any light at all, when Oren and I looked at each other, we would have seen identically pale faces, I'm sure.
We never did go jump the railroad tracks again.
Well the kids in The Night Country were not as lucky as my friend Oren and I and our oblivious companions.
The book starts out with conversations between teenage ghosts. It takes awhile to figure out what is going on which doesn't bother me. I like being discombobulated for awhile. Once I do get on track and get everyone figured out, I then start to search for a plot. In the initial crash three kids die, one kid sustains traumatic head injury, and the fifth kid buckled into the backseat walks away without a scratch. The three dead kids are back as ghosts, plus the part of the traumatic head injury kid that escaped in the crash is also present though a brooding, non talking ghost. I read other reviewers that found the kids annoying, even snarky as one person put it. I would have preferred snarky. I found them utterly boring; for ghosts they really lacked imagination. They had little impact on the plot (wait there is a plot?), and actually for teenagers are relatively well behaved even with their comments.
Tim is the survivor and suffers from the standard survivor's guilt. The accident occurred on Halloween, and now that Halloween has rolled around again, he has plans to join his companions in yet another accident, plowing into the same tree that brought them all to such an abrupt halt a year ago. Brooks is the cop who also feels guilty; you will have to read to the end of the book before you understand why. He is tracking Tim, having a premonition???? that Tim is going to do something stupid.
Okay I won't tell you how it turns out. I was hoping for a big twist, in fact was expecting a big twist after reading the wonderfully written A Prayer for the Dying (see my friend Mike Sullivan's review)and Last Night at the Lobster. Please read those books by O'Nan first before delving into this one. The afore mentioned expected twist is not really a twist, but a pretty close version of what I (and you will to) expected to happen.
This book was dedicated to Ray Bradbury and the first chapter is called "Something Wicked", but he falls well short of the best of the grand master, and I can only hope the next book I pick up by O'Nan will be more in the vein of his more stellar work. I do have to thank him for drudging up a memory I had nearly forgotten. I enjoyed a moment in the warm glow of how wonderful it feels to be alive.
October 4, 2021
There is no longer any doubt. Whenever someone asks me who my favorite author of all time is, I usually think for several seconds, mull over the names of few different writers, then reply "probably Stewart O'Nan". No longer shall I hesitate, and no longer shall I use the word "probably".
'The Night Country' is an outstanding little novel. One year after a horrific car accident claims the lives of three teenagers in suburbia on Halloween night, the ghosts return with a vengeance to further haunt the living they left behind. Five souls were in the car when it rocketed into a tree. Of the two survivors, one was miraculously pulled out of the wreck with barely a scratch, and the other tragically stumbled away with barely a face. The first cop on the scene is tormented by the blood and bodies and one dark personal secret. All the characters, alive and dead, slide toward an unavoidable event that's been primed to take place on the anniversary of the fateful night.
The story is told from the perspective of one ghost as the trio of specters are drawn back and forth across town, magnetized to those who can't shake the memory of them, preying on nostalgia and suffering. On the surface, the story seems simplistic, but O'Nan mines the depths of despair, regret, and survivor's guilt. A ghost story in the hands of Stewart O'Nan transcends genres and rises to a level beyond what most writers can realize, let alone reach. I couldn't recommend this book enough.
'The Night Country' is an outstanding little novel. One year after a horrific car accident claims the lives of three teenagers in suburbia on Halloween night, the ghosts return with a vengeance to further haunt the living they left behind. Five souls were in the car when it rocketed into a tree. Of the two survivors, one was miraculously pulled out of the wreck with barely a scratch, and the other tragically stumbled away with barely a face. The first cop on the scene is tormented by the blood and bodies and one dark personal secret. All the characters, alive and dead, slide toward an unavoidable event that's been primed to take place on the anniversary of the fateful night.
The story is told from the perspective of one ghost as the trio of specters are drawn back and forth across town, magnetized to those who can't shake the memory of them, preying on nostalgia and suffering. On the surface, the story seems simplistic, but O'Nan mines the depths of despair, regret, and survivor's guilt. A ghost story in the hands of Stewart O'Nan transcends genres and rises to a level beyond what most writers can realize, let alone reach. I couldn't recommend this book enough.
October 17, 2018
Not "horror" despite it occurring on Halloween. More literary in an observational way, than anything else. A very well-written story, and certainly "haunting", mentally. Unfortunately, the pacing was very slow, and the characters were difficult to get attached to, under the circumstances.
October 30, 2023
*The ghost story I recommend for a spooky Halloween read*
If your mother told you, “Nothing good happens after midnight,” she was correct. Five teens are in a car traveling at a high rate of speed when they crash into a tree on a dark country road. Three are killed, one permanently disabled and one physically unharmed but now suicidal with survivor’s guilt. What exactly happened is told from different points of view including the dead teens. It’s one year later and once again Halloween. Kyle was so severely injured and Tim misses him, his other two friends and his girlfriend. He’s planning to take Kyle in his Jeep on the same dark road they traveled a year ago and end their lives.
There were so many people left behind with lives changed forever that night. The parents of the dead teens, the parents with a son who now has a traumatic brain injury, the parents of the teen who is struggling to cope and the guilty feeling police officer who arrived at the scene of the accident.
Stewart O’Nan is such a talented storyteller and The Night Country may be the best ghost story I’ve read. I felt like he perfectly captured the sarcastic personalities of teenagers, survivor’s guilt and how the parents might be feeling on the anniversary date. And that ending!
November 20, 2022
Kein Horror - sondern ein Drama
Ich muss gestehen, dass ich etwas völlig anderes erwartet hatte als das, um was es schließlich in dieser Geschichte geht. Der Titel, das Cover und auch der Klappentext klangen für mich nach einer coolen Story an Halloween, an dem die drei Geister der verunglückten Jugendlichen zurückkehren und, um eine schreckliche Tat ihres überlebenden Freundes aufzuhalten.
Die drei Geister kommen tatsächlich ein Jahr nach ihrem Tod zurück und das war auch ein Aspekt, der ziemlich cool gemacht war. Denn wir erleben diese Geschichte aus ihrer Sicht. Immer wenn jemand an sie denkt, zieht es sie sozusagen zu demjenigen hin und sie sehen, was er tut und fühlen, was derjenige denkt.
Dadurch lernt man die verschiedenen Personen kennen, hauptsächlich Kyles Mutter, deren Sohn damals überlebt hat - der jetzt aber völlig entstellt und mit dem Verstand eines Kleinkindes umsorgt werden muss.
Außerdem Tim, der zweite Überlebende, der den Unfall und dessen Folgen nicht verkraftet.
Dann haben wir noch Brooks. Den Detektiv, der damals irgendwie involviert war und eine Schuld mit sich trägt, die einem als Leser erstmal verschlossen bleibt.
Es ist eine ruhige, flüssige Erzählung die sich im Grunde darum dreht, wie diese Menschen mit dem harten Schicksal, das sie getroffen hat, weiterleben bzw. zu überleben suchen. Der Autor hat eine ganz besondere Art, diesen Gefühlen Ausdruck zu verleihen und findet mit seiner Offenheit und passenden Szenen genau den richtigen Ton, um diese an uns Leser zu transportieren.
Allerdings hab ich eben überhaupt nicht mit so einem Drama gerechnet. Ich hab versucht, mich darauf einzustellen, was mir auch im großen und ganzen gelungen ist, aber so richtig packen konnte mich das ganze im Endeffekt doch nicht.
Was mir sehr gefallen hat waren die Geister, die hier ihren Todestag sozusagen nochmal erleben und sich auch immer wieder zwischendurch untereinander kurz unterhalten oder einen Kommentar dazu abgeben, wen sie gerade sehen und was dieser macht. Das hätte gerne mehr sein können.
Auch Kyle selber, der ja völlig neben der Spur ist, hat einen Nebeneffekt ausgelöst, den ich jetzt hier nicht verraten möchte, der mich fasziniert hat - aber auch irgendwie zu sehr untergegangen ist.
Die Auflösung am Ende hatte keinen Wow-Effekt, aber sinnvoll erklärt was tatsächlich passiert ist. Ich hatte hier einen ruhige, aber stimmungsvollen Geisterroman erwartet - bekommen hab ich ein Drama, das auch in jeder anderen Nacht stattgefunden haben könnte als an Halloween, mit einem interessanten Blick auf die Figuren und ihre Reaktionen nach einem harten Schicksalsschlag.
Ich muss gestehen, dass ich etwas völlig anderes erwartet hatte als das, um was es schließlich in dieser Geschichte geht. Der Titel, das Cover und auch der Klappentext klangen für mich nach einer coolen Story an Halloween, an dem die drei Geister der verunglückten Jugendlichen zurückkehren und, um eine schreckliche Tat ihres überlebenden Freundes aufzuhalten.
Die drei Geister kommen tatsächlich ein Jahr nach ihrem Tod zurück und das war auch ein Aspekt, der ziemlich cool gemacht war. Denn wir erleben diese Geschichte aus ihrer Sicht. Immer wenn jemand an sie denkt, zieht es sie sozusagen zu demjenigen hin und sie sehen, was er tut und fühlen, was derjenige denkt.
Dadurch lernt man die verschiedenen Personen kennen, hauptsächlich Kyles Mutter, deren Sohn damals überlebt hat - der jetzt aber völlig entstellt und mit dem Verstand eines Kleinkindes umsorgt werden muss.
Außerdem Tim, der zweite Überlebende, der den Unfall und dessen Folgen nicht verkraftet.
Dann haben wir noch Brooks. Den Detektiv, der damals irgendwie involviert war und eine Schuld mit sich trägt, die einem als Leser erstmal verschlossen bleibt.
Es ist eine ruhige, flüssige Erzählung die sich im Grunde darum dreht, wie diese Menschen mit dem harten Schicksal, das sie getroffen hat, weiterleben bzw. zu überleben suchen. Der Autor hat eine ganz besondere Art, diesen Gefühlen Ausdruck zu verleihen und findet mit seiner Offenheit und passenden Szenen genau den richtigen Ton, um diese an uns Leser zu transportieren.
Allerdings hab ich eben überhaupt nicht mit so einem Drama gerechnet. Ich hab versucht, mich darauf einzustellen, was mir auch im großen und ganzen gelungen ist, aber so richtig packen konnte mich das ganze im Endeffekt doch nicht.
Was mir sehr gefallen hat waren die Geister, die hier ihren Todestag sozusagen nochmal erleben und sich auch immer wieder zwischendurch untereinander kurz unterhalten oder einen Kommentar dazu abgeben, wen sie gerade sehen und was dieser macht. Das hätte gerne mehr sein können.
Auch Kyle selber, der ja völlig neben der Spur ist, hat einen Nebeneffekt ausgelöst, den ich jetzt hier nicht verraten möchte, der mich fasziniert hat - aber auch irgendwie zu sehr untergegangen ist.
Die Auflösung am Ende hatte keinen Wow-Effekt, aber sinnvoll erklärt was tatsächlich passiert ist. Ich hatte hier einen ruhige, aber stimmungsvollen Geisterroman erwartet - bekommen hab ich ein Drama, das auch in jeder anderen Nacht stattgefunden haben könnte als an Halloween, mit einem interessanten Blick auf die Figuren und ihre Reaktionen nach einem harten Schicksalsschlag.
December 17, 2018
Ich werde definitiv mehr von Stewart O'Nan lesen!
January 18, 2009
I loved Lobster but didn't care for this. Like other people have said, the teenagers are kind of stereotypes and their voices are annoying. Mostly I just don't care for books that have an extremely straightforward, you might even say, non-existent plot, that are only moved along because the reader has to figure things out based on clues that would be revealed quickly in the course of normal storytelling. You spend half the book figuring out what Tim's plan is, when Tim, the police officer, and all the ghosts *including the one who's narrating* know what it is. It's like the movie Memento but without the excuse of the primary POV having a brain lesion. It's like Secret Window, Secret Garden without the excuse that the main character has a split personality. There's zero *reason* why you should be having to work to figure out what's going on, except I guess for the fact that the story would be boring otherwise.
Another way of putting it: This book is like if every night you closed your eyes and threw your car keys into the back yard so that you could have the "fun" of finding them the next morning, an exciting start to your day! Why not just put your keys somewhere you can easily find them so you can get out and go somewhere and get some actual excitement?
SPOILER alert for things that you will learn in the first 30 pages:
Toe, Danielle, and Marco are the names of the ones who died. Tim and Kyle survived but Kyle is seriously messed up and disabled. Brooks is an older cop, the one who investigated their accident. The accident happened a year ago.
Yes, the names of all the characters and the timeframe all of that takes 30 pages--of a short book--to figure out. The first chapter is in 2nd person and ends talking to the You who survived, and then the next chapter takes you to Brooks in his squadcar so you assume he's the "you" and if he's still upset about this he must be pretty young and new to the force? But no there's a hint about how few years he is away from retirement so okay the accident was a long time ago but then there are other hints that it wasn't and then finally you meet Kyle and you assume he's the "you" but then it turns out there were two survivors when you meet Tim and then you still go awhile not knowing how long ago the crash was, etc. It's not incoherent; it's just a matter of paying attention to figure this stuff out, but you go through making certain assumptions and then having to revise them. And it's not like you're making assumptions about storypoints that are supposed to be mysterious; you're going through a lot of confusion just to figure out who the characters are! After you figure out where things are headed, there are no more interesting realizations.
Another way of putting it: This book is like if every night you closed your eyes and threw your car keys into the back yard so that you could have the "fun" of finding them the next morning, an exciting start to your day! Why not just put your keys somewhere you can easily find them so you can get out and go somewhere and get some actual excitement?
SPOILER alert for things that you will learn in the first 30 pages:
Toe, Danielle, and Marco are the names of the ones who died. Tim and Kyle survived but Kyle is seriously messed up and disabled. Brooks is an older cop, the one who investigated their accident. The accident happened a year ago.
Yes, the names of all the characters and the timeframe all of that takes 30 pages--of a short book--to figure out. The first chapter is in 2nd person and ends talking to the You who survived, and then the next chapter takes you to Brooks in his squadcar so you assume he's the "you" and if he's still upset about this he must be pretty young and new to the force? But no there's a hint about how few years he is away from retirement so okay the accident was a long time ago but then there are other hints that it wasn't and then finally you meet Kyle and you assume he's the "you" but then it turns out there were two survivors when you meet Tim and then you still go awhile not knowing how long ago the crash was, etc. It's not incoherent; it's just a matter of paying attention to figure this stuff out, but you go through making certain assumptions and then having to revise them. And it's not like you're making assumptions about storypoints that are supposed to be mysterious; you're going through a lot of confusion just to figure out who the characters are! After you figure out where things are headed, there are no more interesting realizations.
November 4, 2007
I was given this book a few years ago by a German colleague and I finally opened it up a few weeks ago. O'Nan is a writer who, like Paul Auster, seems to enjoy more literary celebrity in Europe than in the US. His books, translated into German, line the shelves of bookshop windows, you can even find them at airports and train stations. But I'm not sure if he's at all popular or "acclaimed" in the US.
I found this book extremely disturbing, cold and creepy, and it left me feeling horrible and empty and even colder when I finally finished it. It is written from the perspective of a group of dead teenagers in a small suburban town in Connecticut. They die in a car crash on Halloween and their ghosts return to the town one year later, and, so long as anyone in the town thinks of them, they are somehow present with that person, watching over his shoulder, peering into his thoughts. The ghosts are most often visiting one kid who survived the car accident (and who is suicidally bent on recreating the accident one year later) and the cop who was chasing the kids on the night of the accident and in fact, by chasing them too closely, too quickly, in fact caused them to run off the road. The cop's and kid's lives are totally destroyed by this accident, and the book consists of a relentless description of what they do on this one-year anniversary, when they both decide that they simply do not want to live anymore. The book is relentless, and I didn't realize how much I was hoping it would end differently until I finally finished it.
It is short, it reads like a short story stretched out to the length of a short novel. The language, world and emotional life of American suburban teenagers seem, as far as I can tell or remember, realistically depicted in the novel. Otherwise, we see this wealthy suburban town through the mind of this guilt-ridden cop and of the mother of another survivor of the accident, a boy who suffered so much physical and mental damage that he is unrecognizable to her.
The book is marketed as a horror novel, or "American Gothic" or something. What is so chilling and horrifying here is the total emptiness and ugliness of a certain kind of American life. The "thesis" of O'Nan's book, as I see it, is that this kind of life tends inevitably, albeit with varying degrees of explicitness, but inevitably, inevitably toward suicide. One thinks, mutatis mutandis, of a film like Mulholland Drive, that is saturated with the idea of suicide as the ultimate ground of narrative coherence.
The book is striking, makes a huge impact, well written; but I'm reluctant to recommend it.
I found this book extremely disturbing, cold and creepy, and it left me feeling horrible and empty and even colder when I finally finished it. It is written from the perspective of a group of dead teenagers in a small suburban town in Connecticut. They die in a car crash on Halloween and their ghosts return to the town one year later, and, so long as anyone in the town thinks of them, they are somehow present with that person, watching over his shoulder, peering into his thoughts. The ghosts are most often visiting one kid who survived the car accident (and who is suicidally bent on recreating the accident one year later) and the cop who was chasing the kids on the night of the accident and in fact, by chasing them too closely, too quickly, in fact caused them to run off the road. The cop's and kid's lives are totally destroyed by this accident, and the book consists of a relentless description of what they do on this one-year anniversary, when they both decide that they simply do not want to live anymore. The book is relentless, and I didn't realize how much I was hoping it would end differently until I finally finished it.
It is short, it reads like a short story stretched out to the length of a short novel. The language, world and emotional life of American suburban teenagers seem, as far as I can tell or remember, realistically depicted in the novel. Otherwise, we see this wealthy suburban town through the mind of this guilt-ridden cop and of the mother of another survivor of the accident, a boy who suffered so much physical and mental damage that he is unrecognizable to her.
The book is marketed as a horror novel, or "American Gothic" or something. What is so chilling and horrifying here is the total emptiness and ugliness of a certain kind of American life. The "thesis" of O'Nan's book, as I see it, is that this kind of life tends inevitably, albeit with varying degrees of explicitness, but inevitably, inevitably toward suicide. One thinks, mutatis mutandis, of a film like Mulholland Drive, that is saturated with the idea of suicide as the ultimate ground of narrative coherence.
The book is striking, makes a huge impact, well written; but I'm reluctant to recommend it.
November 17, 2022
Wer hätte gedacht, dass traurige Geister mich so berühren würden?!
In The Night Country begleiten wir drei Geister am ersten Jahrestag ihres Todes (Autounfall) dabei, wie sie verschiedene Hinterbliebene besuchen und diesen dabei zusehen wie sie mit dem Verlust umgehen und zurechtkommen. Das klingt vielleicht sehr banal, ist es aber ganz und gar nicht. Es ist schmerzhaft mit anzusehen wie sich die Hinterbliebenen Vorwürfe machen, von Trauer zerfressen werden und mit den Auswirkungen der ganzen Tragödie zu kämpfen haben. Gleichzeitig driftet die Geschichte aber nie ins schnulzige ab oder versucht auf die Tränendrüse zu drücken. Vielmehr fühlt sich die Handlung, trotz der Geister, sehr real an und die Gefühle die Stewart O'Nan bei mir erzeugt hat waren es auf jeden Fall.
In The Night Country begleiten wir drei Geister am ersten Jahrestag ihres Todes (Autounfall) dabei, wie sie verschiedene Hinterbliebene besuchen und diesen dabei zusehen wie sie mit dem Verlust umgehen und zurechtkommen. Das klingt vielleicht sehr banal, ist es aber ganz und gar nicht. Es ist schmerzhaft mit anzusehen wie sich die Hinterbliebenen Vorwürfe machen, von Trauer zerfressen werden und mit den Auswirkungen der ganzen Tragödie zu kämpfen haben. Gleichzeitig driftet die Geschichte aber nie ins schnulzige ab oder versucht auf die Tränendrüse zu drücken. Vielmehr fühlt sich die Handlung, trotz der Geister, sehr real an und die Gefühle die Stewart O'Nan bei mir erzeugt hat waren es auf jeden Fall.
November 9, 2012
I can see why people are split on this one. I enjoyed the prologue, but the beginning of chapter one nearly made me put it down. I am one of those people that turns into a crankypants when presented with a present tense narrative if there isn't a VERY compelling reason for the POV choice. Here, I think there is one, but it takes a while for it to become apparent. Some elements of the narration were confusing at first, too. Having to go back and reread when I am totally paying attention (not skimming!) also makes me cranky. But...
Once I figured out what was going on and got into the groove of it, I thought it was extraordinarily well done. I stayed up way past my bedtime last night because I had to finish it. I could not guess what was going to happen and I absolutely had to know. Love it when that happens. It hit some great emotional depths while being concise, too.
In short, a great piece of storytelling.
Once I figured out what was going on and got into the groove of it, I thought it was extraordinarily well done. I stayed up way past my bedtime last night because I had to finish it. I could not guess what was going to happen and I absolutely had to know. Love it when that happens. It hit some great emotional depths while being concise, too.
In short, a great piece of storytelling.
August 31, 2013
Another book that to me did not live up to its accumulative praises or its nice cover or the promise of its premise. Very stylized and unquestionably well written, this story of the ramifications of car crash just didn't draw me in. For one thing, it is severely mismarketed as a horror novel. While the story does take place on Halloween (both times) and does feature ghosts performing a somewhat very nontraditional haunting of their town and the crash survivors, it is very much a literary novel, lacking the classic horror novel aspects. These ghosts are neither vengeful nor fun, they merely observe. By the same token this novel is neither particularly character driven nor entertaining, it merely occurs. Molasses paced, nothing much happens, it might have made a good short story, but as a novel it bores and as a Halloween read it massively disappoints. Just because a story takes place on October 31st and feature ghosts...oh well, lesson learned.
October 9, 2023
Die Nacht der Lebenden Toten…
…Doch anders als man denkt.
Ein Jahr ist es her als Tim mit seinen Freunden einen Autounfall hatte. Er und ein weiterer Freund sind die einzigen Überlebenden.
Kyle ist nicht mehr der, der er vor dem Unfall war. Entstellt und durch seinen Gedächtnisverlust ein anderer Mensch.
Tim ist mit seiner Körperlichen Unversehrtheit davon gekommen, doch fällt es ihm schwer mit den Verlusten seiner Freunde weiterzuleben.
An Halloween kehren die Geister seiner Freunde zurück und schauen wie es den Lebenden ergeht und versuchen Tim von seinem verhängnisvollen Plan abzuhalten.
Wird das gelingen?
Der Roman war unheimlich fesselnd und dramatisch geschrieben. Mit einer Prise Herbst - und Halloween Liebe gewürzt.
Jedoch ist es keine unheimliche Halloween Geschichte. Die Geister haben mit ihren Kommentaren einen gewissen Witz in die Geschichte gebracht.
Dennoch ist es insgesamt eher tragisch und verhängnisvoll und keine fröhliche Geschichte.
Es geht vielmehr um Verlust, Trauer, Schuldgefühle und Suizid. Die Geister lockern das ganze in einem gewissen Maße wieder auf.
Für mich auf jeden Fall ein Lesenswertes Buch mit Tiefgang.
…Doch anders als man denkt.
Ein Jahr ist es her als Tim mit seinen Freunden einen Autounfall hatte. Er und ein weiterer Freund sind die einzigen Überlebenden.
Kyle ist nicht mehr der, der er vor dem Unfall war. Entstellt und durch seinen Gedächtnisverlust ein anderer Mensch.
Tim ist mit seiner Körperlichen Unversehrtheit davon gekommen, doch fällt es ihm schwer mit den Verlusten seiner Freunde weiterzuleben.
An Halloween kehren die Geister seiner Freunde zurück und schauen wie es den Lebenden ergeht und versuchen Tim von seinem verhängnisvollen Plan abzuhalten.
Wird das gelingen?
Der Roman war unheimlich fesselnd und dramatisch geschrieben. Mit einer Prise Herbst - und Halloween Liebe gewürzt.
Jedoch ist es keine unheimliche Halloween Geschichte. Die Geister haben mit ihren Kommentaren einen gewissen Witz in die Geschichte gebracht.
Dennoch ist es insgesamt eher tragisch und verhängnisvoll und keine fröhliche Geschichte.
Es geht vielmehr um Verlust, Trauer, Schuldgefühle und Suizid. Die Geister lockern das ganze in einem gewissen Maße wieder auf.
Für mich auf jeden Fall ein Lesenswertes Buch mit Tiefgang.
January 15, 2023
ocr:
p43: "hank you."
p54: "You driving Kyle?" his mom asks.
"yet."
p78: There's a quiet mindtulness about the library, a clarity, the arched windows letting in the sun, the functional carpet and ceiling tiles softening the smallest sound.
p105: Coachlights pop on, windows glow It's not even five o'clock, and the anticipation is killing.
p151: Neg o2 Westerly view of collision scene illastrating vehicle at rest and contact marks on tree.
More haunting than creepy, this is generally a departure from the usual horror fare. A tad similar to Straub, maybe?
p43: "hank you."
p54: "You driving Kyle?" his mom asks.
"yet."
p78: There's a quiet mindtulness about the library, a clarity, the arched windows letting in the sun, the functional carpet and ceiling tiles softening the smallest sound.
p105: Coachlights pop on, windows glow It's not even five o'clock, and the anticipation is killing.
p151: Neg o2 Westerly view of collision scene illastrating vehicle at rest and contact marks on tree.
More haunting than creepy, this is generally a departure from the usual horror fare. A tad similar to Straub, maybe?
October 31, 2023
Vor einem Jahr an Halloween sind drei Jugendliche bei einem Autounfall verunglückt. Als Geister kehren sie zu den Überlebenden zurück und merken, dass diese seither innerlich gestorben sind. Außerdem bahnt sich etwas Furchtbares an.
„Halloween“ von Stewart O’Nan habe ich gemeinsam mit anderen Bücherbegeisterten Ende Oktober gelesen. Titel und Cover versprechen die perfekte Schauerlektüre für diese Jahreszeit und wir waren allesamt ernüchtert, weil der Roman in eine andere Richtung geht.
Weder Klappentext noch Titel tragen die Schuld, weil beides passend zur Geschichte ist. Das Geschehen spielt an Halloween und im Mittelpunkt der Handlung steht der Autounfall der Jugendlichen, der sich zum ersten Mal jährt. Doch es ist weder ein Horror-Roman noch eine Gespenstergeschichte, sondern es handelt sich um ein Gegenwartsdrama, welches in einer amerikanischen Kleinstadt spielt.
Eingangs beschreibt Stewart O’Nan die Halloween-Stimmung und hüllt den Leser mit herbstlichem Blätterrauschen, kühlen Temperaturen und dem Geruch von modrigem Laub ein. Sofort war ich gefangen in der Atmosphäre und wartete gebannt, wie es weitergeht.
Dennoch brauchte ich meine Zeit, bis ich mich im Roman orientieren konnte. Obwohl ich anfangs behaupte, dass es keine Schauergeschichte ist, wird diese von den drei toten Jugendlichen erzählt. Toe, Danielle und Marco führen als Gespenster durch die Geschichte. Sie sehen dem aktuellen Treiben zu, schauen zurück und ahnen, was kommen wird. Dabei greift Stewart O’Nan zu einem fliegenden Erzählstil, denn die Geister sind immer da, wo gerade an sie gedacht wird.
Diesen Gedanken habe ich als sehr schön empfunden. Es ist eine tröstliche Vorstellung, dass unsere Verstorbenen als Geister bei uns sind, wenn wir uns an sie erinnern.
Trotzdem war der Stil zu Beginn anstrengend, weil mir dadurch die Orientierung schwer fiel, bis ich das System dahinter durchschaut hatte.
In diesem Drama wird der Unfall aufgearbeitet, nachgestellt und die beteiligten Personen rücken in den Fokus. Neben den drei jugendlichen Geistern saßen ihre Freunde Tim und Kyle im Wagen, die - wenn teilweise auf bedrückende Weise - mit ihrem Leben davon gekommen sind. Außerdem spielt der städtische Cop Brooks eine tragende Rolle, weil er in beruflicher Funktion am Unfallort gewesen ist.
Es ist ein melancholischer Roman, der zwischen Vergangenheit und Gegenwart schwenkt. Beleuchtet werden die direkt Beteiligten genauso wie die Hinterbliebenen. Durch den tödlichen Unfall hat sich das Leben vieler Menschen von einer Minute auf die andere auf erschreckende Weise geändert, und so hängt jeder seinen Gedanken und Erinnerungen nach.
Meinem Gefühl nach hat die Grundthematik mit Halloween als Rahmen hervorragend gepasst. Einerseits sind es die jugendlichen Geister, die genau vor einem Jahr ihr Leben ließen, andrerseits zeigt der Autor die Überlebenden, welche seither wie lebendige Tote durch den Alltag gehen.
„Es kommt ihm länger vor als ein Jahr. Woran liegt das? Es ist Montag, dann Sonntag, und das Ganze fängt wieder von vorne an.“ (S. 86)
Ich mag stimmungsvolle Dramen, die in amerikanischen Kleinstädten angesiedelt sind. Zwar war ich erstaunt, dass es keine „echte“ Halloween-Geschichte ist, aber ich habe diesen dramatischen Roman um den Unfallhergang dieser Jugendlichen gern gelesen.
Außerdem war ich vom poetischen Stil und dem melancholischen Blick äußerst angetan. Stewart O’Nan schreibt in anmutiger Sprache, stellt zarte Querverweise, übt ein bisschen Gesellschaftskritik und manches Mal gibt es einen schmerzhaften Seitenhieb.
Weniger mochte ich das Ende, weil es geradlinig kommt und bis auf eine kleine Wendung alles eintritt, wie es vorausgesehen wird. Zudem gibt es zwei Figuren, die für Trubel und Anspannung sorgen, aber nach einem kurzen Gastauftritt in der Schwärze der Nacht verschwinden. Deren Sinn ergibt sich mir auch nach der Lektüre nicht.
Wichtig ist, dass man sich keine Horror-Story erwartet, weil es ein beklemmender, intensiver Roman ist, der zeitlich an Halloween angesetzt ist. Für mich war es ein fesselndes, bedachtes und melancholisches Drama, welches an die Seiten bannt, und ich gerne gelesen habe.
„Halloween“ von Stewart O’Nan habe ich gemeinsam mit anderen Bücherbegeisterten Ende Oktober gelesen. Titel und Cover versprechen die perfekte Schauerlektüre für diese Jahreszeit und wir waren allesamt ernüchtert, weil der Roman in eine andere Richtung geht.
Weder Klappentext noch Titel tragen die Schuld, weil beides passend zur Geschichte ist. Das Geschehen spielt an Halloween und im Mittelpunkt der Handlung steht der Autounfall der Jugendlichen, der sich zum ersten Mal jährt. Doch es ist weder ein Horror-Roman noch eine Gespenstergeschichte, sondern es handelt sich um ein Gegenwartsdrama, welches in einer amerikanischen Kleinstadt spielt.
Eingangs beschreibt Stewart O’Nan die Halloween-Stimmung und hüllt den Leser mit herbstlichem Blätterrauschen, kühlen Temperaturen und dem Geruch von modrigem Laub ein. Sofort war ich gefangen in der Atmosphäre und wartete gebannt, wie es weitergeht.
Dennoch brauchte ich meine Zeit, bis ich mich im Roman orientieren konnte. Obwohl ich anfangs behaupte, dass es keine Schauergeschichte ist, wird diese von den drei toten Jugendlichen erzählt. Toe, Danielle und Marco führen als Gespenster durch die Geschichte. Sie sehen dem aktuellen Treiben zu, schauen zurück und ahnen, was kommen wird. Dabei greift Stewart O’Nan zu einem fliegenden Erzählstil, denn die Geister sind immer da, wo gerade an sie gedacht wird.
Diesen Gedanken habe ich als sehr schön empfunden. Es ist eine tröstliche Vorstellung, dass unsere Verstorbenen als Geister bei uns sind, wenn wir uns an sie erinnern.
Trotzdem war der Stil zu Beginn anstrengend, weil mir dadurch die Orientierung schwer fiel, bis ich das System dahinter durchschaut hatte.
In diesem Drama wird der Unfall aufgearbeitet, nachgestellt und die beteiligten Personen rücken in den Fokus. Neben den drei jugendlichen Geistern saßen ihre Freunde Tim und Kyle im Wagen, die - wenn teilweise auf bedrückende Weise - mit ihrem Leben davon gekommen sind. Außerdem spielt der städtische Cop Brooks eine tragende Rolle, weil er in beruflicher Funktion am Unfallort gewesen ist.
Es ist ein melancholischer Roman, der zwischen Vergangenheit und Gegenwart schwenkt. Beleuchtet werden die direkt Beteiligten genauso wie die Hinterbliebenen. Durch den tödlichen Unfall hat sich das Leben vieler Menschen von einer Minute auf die andere auf erschreckende Weise geändert, und so hängt jeder seinen Gedanken und Erinnerungen nach.
Meinem Gefühl nach hat die Grundthematik mit Halloween als Rahmen hervorragend gepasst. Einerseits sind es die jugendlichen Geister, die genau vor einem Jahr ihr Leben ließen, andrerseits zeigt der Autor die Überlebenden, welche seither wie lebendige Tote durch den Alltag gehen.
„Es kommt ihm länger vor als ein Jahr. Woran liegt das? Es ist Montag, dann Sonntag, und das Ganze fängt wieder von vorne an.“ (S. 86)
Ich mag stimmungsvolle Dramen, die in amerikanischen Kleinstädten angesiedelt sind. Zwar war ich erstaunt, dass es keine „echte“ Halloween-Geschichte ist, aber ich habe diesen dramatischen Roman um den Unfallhergang dieser Jugendlichen gern gelesen.
Außerdem war ich vom poetischen Stil und dem melancholischen Blick äußerst angetan. Stewart O’Nan schreibt in anmutiger Sprache, stellt zarte Querverweise, übt ein bisschen Gesellschaftskritik und manches Mal gibt es einen schmerzhaften Seitenhieb.
Weniger mochte ich das Ende, weil es geradlinig kommt und bis auf eine kleine Wendung alles eintritt, wie es vorausgesehen wird. Zudem gibt es zwei Figuren, die für Trubel und Anspannung sorgen, aber nach einem kurzen Gastauftritt in der Schwärze der Nacht verschwinden. Deren Sinn ergibt sich mir auch nach der Lektüre nicht.
Wichtig ist, dass man sich keine Horror-Story erwartet, weil es ein beklemmender, intensiver Roman ist, der zeitlich an Halloween angesetzt ist. Für mich war es ein fesselndes, bedachtes und melancholisches Drama, welches an die Seiten bannt, und ich gerne gelesen habe.
August 3, 2022
Halloween in New England: few amalgamations of time and place invoke such loaded metaphors. Yet this novel is very much a modern, suburban ghost narrative, so its Connecticut landscape is littered with smashed pumpkins in the streets, fast-food restaurants, and ostentatious strip malls.
A year earlier, on Halloween night, five teenagers hit a tree in a speeding car, killing Toe, Danielle, and Marco and leaving one friend enduringly brain-damaged and the other uninjured but suicidal. Now the three dead teens are back, their spirits revisiting parents, classmates, and the policeman whose high-speed chase contributed to the lethal accident.
Narrated by Marco — with Danielle and Toe's infrequent scathing comments—the tale moves with a sense of trepidation and apprehension toward its inexorably disastrous finale.
For relatively a jiffy now, supposed "literary" and "genre" fiction have been moving from absolute resistance to a careful rapprochement. Nevertheless, horror has its classics – Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker, for example, though both are better known from celluloid than paper.
And the early 20th century pioneers – MR James and HP Lovecraft, both, in their own way, traumatised by modernity itself.
This is a contemporary tome. O'Nan was enthused to carve this novel by a newspaper article about two teenagers who endured a car crash but returned to the equivalent location a year later and consciously crashed their car, killing themselves.
Never astounding, the book develops its atmosphere; the characters are compassionately limned; and the ethereal narrators are a luminous touch.
The author's fascinating, deliberately imprecise portrayals of how these spirits communicate, right away travel from place to place, and contribute in the lives of the living hint at a worrying parallel existence that will both soothe and freeze readers. This redolent and poignant novel is the perfect choice for anyone who thinks horror stories habitually fail as literature.
A year earlier, on Halloween night, five teenagers hit a tree in a speeding car, killing Toe, Danielle, and Marco and leaving one friend enduringly brain-damaged and the other uninjured but suicidal. Now the three dead teens are back, their spirits revisiting parents, classmates, and the policeman whose high-speed chase contributed to the lethal accident.
Narrated by Marco — with Danielle and Toe's infrequent scathing comments—the tale moves with a sense of trepidation and apprehension toward its inexorably disastrous finale.
For relatively a jiffy now, supposed "literary" and "genre" fiction have been moving from absolute resistance to a careful rapprochement. Nevertheless, horror has its classics – Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker, for example, though both are better known from celluloid than paper.
And the early 20th century pioneers – MR James and HP Lovecraft, both, in their own way, traumatised by modernity itself.
This is a contemporary tome. O'Nan was enthused to carve this novel by a newspaper article about two teenagers who endured a car crash but returned to the equivalent location a year later and consciously crashed their car, killing themselves.
Never astounding, the book develops its atmosphere; the characters are compassionately limned; and the ethereal narrators are a luminous touch.
The author's fascinating, deliberately imprecise portrayals of how these spirits communicate, right away travel from place to place, and contribute in the lives of the living hint at a worrying parallel existence that will both soothe and freeze readers. This redolent and poignant novel is the perfect choice for anyone who thinks horror stories habitually fail as literature.
October 14, 2025
Striking. Affecting. Mercurial. Haunting. Arresting. Incredible. Notable.
I'm clever. How bout you?
I'm clever. How bout you?
February 16, 2021
I love O'Nan's writing. He can say a whole lot with very few words/pages. This is sort of a strange take on a ghost story. A car accident leaves 3 teenagers dead. We examine the lives of the people left behind through the eyes of the 3 ghosts and their thoughts intertwine. It took some getting used to.There is very little plot here. If you need a plot, this one might not be for you.
November 29, 2015
As the first anniversary of their deaths in a Halloween car crash approaches, the ghosts of three teenagers drift through the suburban town of Avon, Connecticut. They are Toe, Danielle, and Marcoe. The crash involved no drugs or alcohol. They were driving too fast on a country road, lost control on a blind curve, and sailed into a tree. Tim and Kyle were also in the car. Danielle was sitting in Tim's lap in the backseat of the car and cushioned the impact. She was catapulted through the windshield but he walked way unharmed. Kyle was found wandering in the woods, his face crushed and his brain severely damaged. Now released from the hospital, his every action is strictly ordered by routines that allow him to function at the special school he attends and at the grocery store where he works alongside Tim.
O'Nan's novel is the most melancholy ghost story I have ever read. His meticulous attention to detail, always graceful and never tedious, places us in Avon, a suburb that retains its original downtown shopping district but has become a familiar sprawl of strip shopping centers and upscale residential communities for commuters into Hartford and beyond. Toe, Danielle, and Marcoe remain the angsty teenagers there were in life, their banter ranging from good-natured ribbing to bickering with a biting edge. As O'Nan follows them for a day and a night we learn the sad parameters of their ghostly existence. They are tied to the people who remember them, but since their death was only a year ago, that gives them considerable if joyless freedom to roam their hometown. (In one brief scene, we encounter the ghosts of two small girls who died years ago. They can only stand by the curving road and the tree that took their lives. The girls' parents have moved away and Avon residents only think of them when they see that location. Few people can remember their names.) The trio of friends spend most of their time with Tim but also observe Kyle's mom, a woman who struggles to come to terms with a life that will now be devoted to the care of her damaged child. Toe, Danielle, and Marcoe are also aware of a spirit they call The Real Kyle, but he exists on a different plane than they and there is no communication. And then there is Brooks, a third generation townie whose life and career on the Avon police force is falling into ruin. He was the first responder on the scene of the accident, but there is a question hanging over his involvement that fuels much of the story.
Tim plans to commemorate the anniversary of the accident with his own suicide, and there is every indication that he will take what is left of Kyle with him. His friends' ghosts of can only watch this situation unfold over the course of the day, and although this may not be O'Nan's intention, in their combination of omnipresence and powerlessness they are like nothing so much as the readers of a novel. In this case we readers are in O'Nan's expert hands, but he leads us down dark, sad roads where only his empathy and the assuredness of his vision make the journey bearable.
O'Nan's novel is the most melancholy ghost story I have ever read. His meticulous attention to detail, always graceful and never tedious, places us in Avon, a suburb that retains its original downtown shopping district but has become a familiar sprawl of strip shopping centers and upscale residential communities for commuters into Hartford and beyond. Toe, Danielle, and Marcoe remain the angsty teenagers there were in life, their banter ranging from good-natured ribbing to bickering with a biting edge. As O'Nan follows them for a day and a night we learn the sad parameters of their ghostly existence. They are tied to the people who remember them, but since their death was only a year ago, that gives them considerable if joyless freedom to roam their hometown. (In one brief scene, we encounter the ghosts of two small girls who died years ago. They can only stand by the curving road and the tree that took their lives. The girls' parents have moved away and Avon residents only think of them when they see that location. Few people can remember their names.) The trio of friends spend most of their time with Tim but also observe Kyle's mom, a woman who struggles to come to terms with a life that will now be devoted to the care of her damaged child. Toe, Danielle, and Marcoe are also aware of a spirit they call The Real Kyle, but he exists on a different plane than they and there is no communication. And then there is Brooks, a third generation townie whose life and career on the Avon police force is falling into ruin. He was the first responder on the scene of the accident, but there is a question hanging over his involvement that fuels much of the story.
Tim plans to commemorate the anniversary of the accident with his own suicide, and there is every indication that he will take what is left of Kyle with him. His friends' ghosts of can only watch this situation unfold over the course of the day, and although this may not be O'Nan's intention, in their combination of omnipresence and powerlessness they are like nothing so much as the readers of a novel. In this case we readers are in O'Nan's expert hands, but he leads us down dark, sad roads where only his empathy and the assuredness of his vision make the journey bearable.
July 17, 2013
My friend and dissertation director from grad school recommended this years ago. She taught it in one of her Gothic courses, recommended it not only as a good read but also as easily teachable, and added the extra enticement of telling me the chapter titles (all but the prologue) were taken from slasher films--interesting intertextuality. But I shelved it for a long time because, honestly, I hadn't loved the little I'd read by O'Nan in the past. I'm really glad I finally dove into this short novel.
In the most effective use of combining 1st, 2nd, AND 3rd person POV I've seen, the novel is told from the viewpoints (sometimes omniscient because, well, they're ghosts and can get into other peoples' minds) of a trio of teen ghosts. The primary narrator, Marco, really tells the story in first person, but he often takes the Greek chorus approach and speaks for all three, allowing the three teens to become one voice. It's been a year since a Halloween car accident took their lives, damaged another teen irrevocably (mentally and physically), and left a last teen alive and well to walk away from the crash. This last boy, Tim, is suffering from extreme survivor's guilt and slowly spins out his macabre plan (in memoriam? for some misplaced justice? for his own peace? for love?) to be enacted on the one-year anniversary of the accident.
This novel (through ghostly visits) also follows other characters who are left in the aftermath of the event, including the mother of the severely injured boy and the cop who was involved in the high-speed chase that inadvertently caused the accident.
It's a haunting, disturbing, unsettling book. It's horror in both the traditional Gothic sense, but more so in the American Psychological sense: these characters are haunted by their memories, their fears, and their failings more so than by the actual "haunts" following them around. I read this in July and only wished I would have read it in the fall--despite the 100 degree temperatures, I felt like it WAS fall, that Halloween was right around the corner while reading this. Also, this book authentically (and disturbingly) calls to mind the memories that most of the living have--of those high school tragedies we remember and have left in the past.
It's a dark read, but a good one.
In the most effective use of combining 1st, 2nd, AND 3rd person POV I've seen, the novel is told from the viewpoints (sometimes omniscient because, well, they're ghosts and can get into other peoples' minds) of a trio of teen ghosts. The primary narrator, Marco, really tells the story in first person, but he often takes the Greek chorus approach and speaks for all three, allowing the three teens to become one voice. It's been a year since a Halloween car accident took their lives, damaged another teen irrevocably (mentally and physically), and left a last teen alive and well to walk away from the crash. This last boy, Tim, is suffering from extreme survivor's guilt and slowly spins out his macabre plan (in memoriam? for some misplaced justice? for his own peace? for love?) to be enacted on the one-year anniversary of the accident.
This novel (through ghostly visits) also follows other characters who are left in the aftermath of the event, including the mother of the severely injured boy and the cop who was involved in the high-speed chase that inadvertently caused the accident.
It's a haunting, disturbing, unsettling book. It's horror in both the traditional Gothic sense, but more so in the American Psychological sense: these characters are haunted by their memories, their fears, and their failings more so than by the actual "haunts" following them around. I read this in July and only wished I would have read it in the fall--despite the 100 degree temperatures, I felt like it WAS fall, that Halloween was right around the corner while reading this. Also, this book authentically (and disturbingly) calls to mind the memories that most of the living have--of those high school tragedies we remember and have left in the past.
It's a dark read, but a good one.
May 18, 2012
In a small New England town on Halloween night, a car hurtles down a wooded road, fails to make a curve and crashes head-on into a tree. Three teens riding in the car are immediately killed, one must resume life with the brain of a child and lacking his trademark rebellious attitude and the fifth survives “intact” but emotionally scarred. Officer Brooks, the first respondent, is also deeply affected by what he has witnessed.
Now, those left behind are forced to alter their lives, live with their trauma and carry on the best that they can. The three dead teens serve as a Greek chorus – commenting, clarifying and kibitzing about the lives of those left behind. (Indeed, one of the victims, Toe, is the narrator.) As in Seboldt’s “The Lovely Bones”, they have no power but that of observation – of realizing how their deaths have marked their community and those they love. The reader immediately understands that this is not a gory horror story but rather an emotional one.
O’Nan tells his story softly, dramatically, demonstrating his ability to draw the reader in and to make him/her feel a part of the community of loss. His dead teens remain teens in their attitudes, vocabulary and interactions with each other; they have not ascended to the status of angels with harps. Those left behind are tasked with living their lives with holes in their hearts and with a bravado masking a deep sorrow. O’Nan realistically depicts the measures that are taken by their friends, family and the community at large to plod through each day while missing an important part of their lives.
Grade: B+
Now, those left behind are forced to alter their lives, live with their trauma and carry on the best that they can. The three dead teens serve as a Greek chorus – commenting, clarifying and kibitzing about the lives of those left behind. (Indeed, one of the victims, Toe, is the narrator.) As in Seboldt’s “The Lovely Bones”, they have no power but that of observation – of realizing how their deaths have marked their community and those they love. The reader immediately understands that this is not a gory horror story but rather an emotional one.
O’Nan tells his story softly, dramatically, demonstrating his ability to draw the reader in and to make him/her feel a part of the community of loss. His dead teens remain teens in their attitudes, vocabulary and interactions with each other; they have not ascended to the status of angels with harps. Those left behind are tasked with living their lives with holes in their hearts and with a bravado masking a deep sorrow. O’Nan realistically depicts the measures that are taken by their friends, family and the community at large to plod through each day while missing an important part of their lives.
Grade: B+
December 26, 2016
This premise was fascinating to me - Halloween night, last year a group of high school students are involved in an accident. Three are killed, one suffers severe mental and physical injuries and one walks away unscathed. Now Halloween approaches again and we relive the experience and see what is happening now in the lives (and deaths) of the five from the car, Brooks, the police officer who investigated the accident and the mother of the teenager who suffered the severe injuries.
Marco, one of the dead teenagers (and the least important...it would be interesting to see a paper exploring that) narrates the story, there's a fair amount of foreshadowing (speaking of the real Kyle, who occasionally makes a silent appearance, "Maybe he's supposed to stop it, I say. May not, Toe argues. Oh shit, Danielle says." and "No one blames you, Melissa used to say. No one has to, Brooks thinks (What about us? Toe says. We do.)" and more) and the dead whip in and out based on who is remembering them, and whom they choose to see. The ending seems so preordained that one thinks it can't possibly end that way.
So I'm not sure how I feel about it. I didn't love it, but, at the same time, I know it's going to stay with me, so it was certainly successful on that level. Fascinating, perhaps. Maybe my thoughts will be more complete once I've had some time to sit with this one.
Marco, one of the dead teenagers (and the least important...it would be interesting to see a paper exploring that) narrates the story, there's a fair amount of foreshadowing (speaking of the real Kyle, who occasionally makes a silent appearance, "Maybe he's supposed to stop it, I say. May not, Toe argues. Oh shit, Danielle says." and "No one blames you, Melissa used to say. No one has to, Brooks thinks (What about us? Toe says. We do.)" and more) and the dead whip in and out based on who is remembering them, and whom they choose to see. The ending seems so preordained that one thinks it can't possibly end that way.
So I'm not sure how I feel about it. I didn't love it, but, at the same time, I know it's going to stay with me, so it was certainly successful on that level. Fascinating, perhaps. Maybe my thoughts will be more complete once I've had some time to sit with this one.
March 6, 2010
My favorite O'Nan book so far. I noted at least one reviewer who felt that the teenagers seemed whiny and lacked depth, so I approached the book with some trepidation. But I feel that O'Nan really captures what it means to be a teenager. He builds up his portrayal with small details, like disagreements over who gets the shotgun seat and thoughts on the best places to hide drugs. His characters are not the cheerleaders and jocks usually cast in a high-school drama, but the outsiders who feel trapped in their suburban lives - and now afterlives. The commentary by the dead teens is a perfect counterpoint to the mundane existence of the survivors; their experience as inert observers is mirrored by the reader and it seems fitting that the dead narrate the tale. Therefore, it is appropriate that the writing style is straightforward. The first five pages set the mood perfectly, could in fact be a standalone work. I definitely will be reading more O'Nan in the future.
October 30, 2018
Update 2018: Decided to re-visit this Halloween novel. Re-read (3rd time). Kindle version.
2013 Remarks:
On re-reading I still really like this Halloween story with its softball moral/ethical questions and Americana and petulant teenagers. A little disappointed in the audio version - the reader just read too fast! I like a brisk reading pace for nonfiction books, but here I just couldn't stop to digest anything and the reader's tone rarely changed: Imagine a spoken recording that blitzes through a story narrated by a disgruntled group of dead kids who are simultaneously bitching at one another, and directly addressing living characters (who can't hear them), and darting around town at the speed of light for a 24-hour period - without ceasing for a breather. Add in lots of driving - I'd forgotten how much driving there was in this novel. Still 4 stars to reflect my general fondness for this imperfect book, but next Halloween I will read it on the page (or e-reader).
2013 Remarks:
On re-reading I still really like this Halloween story with its softball moral/ethical questions and Americana and petulant teenagers. A little disappointed in the audio version - the reader just read too fast! I like a brisk reading pace for nonfiction books, but here I just couldn't stop to digest anything and the reader's tone rarely changed: Imagine a spoken recording that blitzes through a story narrated by a disgruntled group of dead kids who are simultaneously bitching at one another, and directly addressing living characters (who can't hear them), and darting around town at the speed of light for a 24-hour period - without ceasing for a breather. Add in lots of driving - I'd forgotten how much driving there was in this novel. Still 4 stars to reflect my general fondness for this imperfect book, but next Halloween I will read it on the page (or e-reader).
November 2, 2019
I get what O'Nan was doing, and I respect it. He was writing his own nostalgic look back at youth as shown in one moody Halloween. And yeah, Something Wicked This Way Comes is wonderfully moody. But rereading it last year I didn't love it as much as I thought I did. And my biggest problem with it is also my biggest problem with this: so much nostalgia, so little of anything else.
Marco is telling us the story. He's one of several teens who died in a wreck on Halloween one year ago. Marco, Toe, and Danielle are ghosts. Tim survived in good physical shape but with an unbearable burden of guilt and loss. Kyle survived but lost his personality and his memories and many of his life skills. His mother has devoted this past year to his recovery and rehabilitation and is aware that he's never likely to be an independent adult. Brooks is the first officer on the scene and the wreck has ruined his life as well.
It's very stylish this story, but not very engaging.
Personal copy
Marco is telling us the story. He's one of several teens who died in a wreck on Halloween one year ago. Marco, Toe, and Danielle are ghosts. Tim survived in good physical shape but with an unbearable burden of guilt and loss. Kyle survived but lost his personality and his memories and many of his life skills. His mother has devoted this past year to his recovery and rehabilitation and is aware that he's never likely to be an independent adult. Brooks is the first officer on the scene and the wreck has ruined his life as well.
It's very stylish this story, but not very engaging.
Personal copy
October 29, 2020
Stephen King friend and recommended author. He specifically recommended this book. He said: "The Night Country takes you away to a strange and special place while reminding you of the places you’ve been—especially the spooky Halloween places. A gracefully written, mesmerizing read."
August 7, 2012
This book is a heartbreaking look at the aftermath of tragedy. Told in an etheral style, it doesn't hold much in the way of plot. I usually prefer plot-driven stories over character-driven ones, yet this one held by interest. A great book that explores grief and regret in all its forms.
August 18, 2019
Čini mi se da nema savremenog autora s više dobrih knjiga od Stjuarta O'Nana. Sve što sam dosad pročitao je na veoma visokom nivou, različito a opet protkano zajedničkim motivima. O'Nan je glavnotokovski pisac, ali često koketira sa žanrovima. Najčešće su to drame sa elementima krimića, ali u romanu Molitva za umiruće okušao se čak i s hororom (ovozemaljskim, doduše). The Night Country prva njegova knjiga koja se bavi natprirodnim. Naravno, O'Nan ne bi bio pisac kalibra kojeg jeste kad bi bilo šta uzeo zdravo za gotovo, tako da je i ovde glavni motiv izvrnut naglavačke.
Priča prati tri lika koji se na različite načine nose s posledicama saobraćajne nesreće u kojoj je učestvovalo pet tinejdžera (troje je poginulo, jedan je prošao neozleđen, a jedan s teškim oštećenjem mozga). Prvi fokalizator je neozleđeni Tim, drugi policajac koji se prvi našao na mestu nesreće i treći Kajlova majka koja pokušava da iznova upozna i zavoli oštećenog sina. Pored njih se pojavljuju i duhovi nastradalih i premda su njima misli fokalizatora dostupne, oni ni na šta ne mogu da utiču, već su tu više sa funkcijom antičkog hora.
Pomenuta nesreća se dogodila na Noć veštica, a roman je smešten na godišnjicu tog događaja. Čitalac veći deo romana nije siguran u kojem smeru se priča kreće, šta to protagonisti rade i zašto, pa čak ni šta to duhovi koji su nevidljivi za sve izuzev za čitaoca žele. Opet, sve vreme se oseća napetost jednog trilera. Smeštanje radnje na tragičnu godišnjicu ne deluje nimalo slučajno, a sva tri glavna lika su toliko nestabilna i izmenjena da se od njih može očekivati bilo šta.
O'Nanova proza je, kao i uvek, ekonomična, precizna, jasna i upečatljiva. I on još jednom dokazuje da ga je nemoguće smestiti u jednu ladicu. A to je, najverovatnije, i razlog što nije šire i više poznat.
Priča prati tri lika koji se na različite načine nose s posledicama saobraćajne nesreće u kojoj je učestvovalo pet tinejdžera (troje je poginulo, jedan je prošao neozleđen, a jedan s teškim oštećenjem mozga). Prvi fokalizator je neozleđeni Tim, drugi policajac koji se prvi našao na mestu nesreće i treći Kajlova majka koja pokušava da iznova upozna i zavoli oštećenog sina. Pored njih se pojavljuju i duhovi nastradalih i premda su njima misli fokalizatora dostupne, oni ni na šta ne mogu da utiču, već su tu više sa funkcijom antičkog hora.
Pomenuta nesreća se dogodila na Noć veštica, a roman je smešten na godišnjicu tog događaja. Čitalac veći deo romana nije siguran u kojem smeru se priča kreće, šta to protagonisti rade i zašto, pa čak ni šta to duhovi koji su nevidljivi za sve izuzev za čitaoca žele. Opet, sve vreme se oseća napetost jednog trilera. Smeštanje radnje na tragičnu godišnjicu ne deluje nimalo slučajno, a sva tri glavna lika su toliko nestabilna i izmenjena da se od njih može očekivati bilo šta.
O'Nanova proza je, kao i uvek, ekonomična, precizna, jasna i upečatljiva. I on još jednom dokazuje da ga je nemoguće smestiti u jednu ladicu. A to je, najverovatnije, i razlog što nije šire i više poznat.
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