Oblong

by Jenevive Desroches

alt cover edition for ISBN 9780985022754

Ernie Johnson will do almost anything for Dianne Wright, his beautiful and brilliant girlfriend. She restores his faith in humanity and gives him hope. When she asks him to follow her into a fun house maze—her favorite place—he quickly agrees, but gets lost in the shuffle of mirrors. One in particular draws his attention and when he's pushed into it, he wakes up in another reality where he comes face to face with a difficult truth about himself. Struggling to come to terms with his guilt, and running from Dianne's revenge, Ernie must find his way back to the world he knows before he loses his life.

ebook

First published October 21, 2013

About the author

A knitter, book lover, and sometimes-writer living in the Pacific Northwest. I work at a small, independent bookstore.

Reviews

[Danika Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written from the point of view of Ernie, a man struggling to overcome childhood trauma, Jenevive Desroches’ “Oblong” begins as Ernie and his girlfriend, Dianne, head into a house of mirrors on a desire-charged game of cat and mouse. The moment the happy couple enters the maze, however, things change. Ernie loses sight of Dianne amidst the twisted reflections, and takes a spill before he can find his way out. When he awakens, the world around him is just slightly off kilter. As the night passes, he and Dianne begin to conflict in small, but steadily increasing steps. Ernie’s shadowy past emerges in snippets and with it, Dianne’s own demons are unleashed in brutal, decimating clarity.

Like the house of mirrors, this story is never quite what you expect it to be. Desroches’ writing is lyrical, but the bedroom scene she paints crawls with the darker side of sexuality and domestic violence, begging questions we so often, as a culture, ignore. Her characterization is particularly stellar: Ernie’s transition from protagonist to antagonist was subtle enough I had to go back and figure out when I’d stopped worrying about him and started genuinely disliking him. And, as all good writers do, Desroches didn’t stop there. She turned the tables on me a second time, bringing Dianne’s darkness to the forefront, leaving me unsettled by both her characters.

In “Oblong”, Desroches captures the flavour of the suspense writers of the 1960’s: the world she’s written feels familiar to the reader, yet unnerving at the same time. There is a Ray Bradbury-esque quality to the escalating interactions of Ernie and Dianne and a satisfying twist to their storyline. As with life, “Oblong” is a complicated mix of past and present, truth and lies, and Ms. Desroches explores this dark side of human nature without flinching. A definite must-read!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating story about a man named Ernie, who falls through a mirror in a funhouse and ends up taking a good long look at his darker side, as well as that of his girlfriend, Dianne. The really intriguing part is that this dark side is a part of them that they're suppressing, believing themselves to have risen above their past. I also was surprised at how quickly I went from thinking they were a charming couple, to feeling a little bit sick to my stomach by their behavior. A physical reaction that helped illustrate the two different versions of the characters. I liked the way that this glimpse of himself helped Ernie realize that there were issues he wasn't facing, thinking he had turned his back on the past and it no longer had a claim on him.

So, why four stars instead of five? I wish the story could have been longer. I have a hard time really getting attached to short stories, at least enough to give them a full five stars. This even happens with my favorite author!

I really don't think you can go wrong with this book. It's fascinating, and it really makes you think, what would I be like on the dark side of that mirror?