Unearthed

by Ashley McConnell

Beneath the earth it sleeps, upon your soul it feeds.

Genres: Horror

Paperback

First published March 1, 1991

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

McConnell's first novel, Unearthed, is just past novella length and reads quickly, but ultimately could have been a lot better. Our main protagonist, David Esher, is a journalist from Ohio working on a story about an old mine in Nevada which will be reopened soon. We quickly learn David is an alcoholic and killed his wife and daughter in a car wreck, but he is on the rebound and this is his big break.

So, what is the story about? Basically, Nintucca was the site of a silver strike back at the turn of the century, quickly becoming the biggest town in Nevada, until tragedy struck, collapsing the biggest mine with most of the miners there, and the town eroded until the present era. The grandson of the owner of the big mine now wants to reopen it, but the townies refuse to work there. Apparently, there is some lore about 'the beast' that killed the former miners and most everyone just wants to let sleeping dogs lie. Meanwhile, the mine owner is working with some scientist types who are formulating a new chemical to bond the rock faces in the mine, saving therefore lots of money; too bad the chemical seems to be rather toxic...

There is the bones of a great story here and yeah, old mines are spooky to begin with. As a creature feature, however, it is sorely underdeveloped. The 'earth spirit' (e.g., the 'beast') was known about by some local Native Americans, the decedent of one of them keeps warning everyone about reopening the mine, but he is written off as old and crazy. Unearthed reminded me of The Portent, another 'earth strikes back' novel that had a great premise, but never really came together. McConnell's pacing of this one was off and the ending far too rushed. If you want a killer 'earth strikes back' novel, check out The Bridge. 2.5 stars, rounding up for the solid start and because it was her first novel.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

Unearthed is a weird book. It’s written well and has some unique moments but at the same time it goes nowhere and ends abruptly and without much fanfare.

Not necessarily disappointed (this was a quickly produced horror novel from the early 90s after all), yet I still think there could have been more here.

[Wayne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate to be negative, but there was little to nothing in this book to interest me. It had no tension. No thrills. No action. When I came to an end of a chapter, I really didn't feel like reading on. The setting was boring. All the miner history was dry. The characters were worse than one dimensional. All I can say is bury this sucker as deep as you can. Waste of 99 cents.

[Tania]

Ending was average, with the other parts having great use of imagery

[Drew Dietsch · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointing effort that never finds the right pacing for this kind of horror simplicity. Clunky (and way too many) characters make this doubly tough to get through.