What do you think?
Rate this book
Scratch
"The writing is magnificently inventive throughout...a terrific voice and premise."—Kirkus Reviews
"Scratch finds Steve Himmer doing what he does best—putting a magnifier to the fine line between human and beast, between what is tame and what is red in tooth and claw. Then he sets fire to any old platitudes about nature and man, creating a new mythology out of the ashes and shadows."
—Amber Sparks, author of The Unfinished World
“Scratch is not only a ripping tale—of dreams and darkness, humans and houses, and the creatures those houses are meant to keep out—but a contemplation of the beautiful dark mysteries of nature. Like a strange old story you overheard when you thought you were alone in the woods, Scratch is beguiling, haunting, and wild.”
—Kate Racculia, author of Bellweather Rhapsody
"Steve Himmer's particular genius involves giving the minds of his characters room to roam. His take on literary horror might usefully be compared to that of Benjamin Percy or William Gay, but its roots reach back much further, through Shirley Jackson to Hawthorne and Poe. This book, this gift to us, is an absolutely essential reminder that every story starts at the edge of the forest."
—Roy Kesey, author of Any Deadly Thing
Martin Blaskett moves to a small town to oversee construction of a housing development, where he encounters a shape-shifting figure from local legend—Scratch. He is taken under the wing of his new neighbor, a retired hunting guide named Gil Rose, and befriends a local woman named Alison. Along the way, trouble ensues as Scratch feels threatened by changes to the landscape, luring locals out into the woods, including Alison’s son. As the blame for a range of events falls at Martin’s feet, he is beset by increasingly inhuman dreams, and comes to doubt his own innocence. A literary novel of wilderness noir that engages the supernatural elements of folklore in the manner of magical realism, Scratch explores the overlapping layers of history, ecology, and storytelling that make up a place.
"Scratch finds Steve Himmer doing what he does best—putting a magnifier to the fine line between human and beast, between what is tame and what is red in tooth and claw. Then he sets fire to any old platitudes about nature and man, creating a new mythology out of the ashes and shadows."
—Amber Sparks, author of The Unfinished World
“Scratch is not only a ripping tale—of dreams and darkness, humans and houses, and the creatures those houses are meant to keep out—but a contemplation of the beautiful dark mysteries of nature. Like a strange old story you overheard when you thought you were alone in the woods, Scratch is beguiling, haunting, and wild.”
—Kate Racculia, author of Bellweather Rhapsody
"Steve Himmer's particular genius involves giving the minds of his characters room to roam. His take on literary horror might usefully be compared to that of Benjamin Percy or William Gay, but its roots reach back much further, through Shirley Jackson to Hawthorne and Poe. This book, this gift to us, is an absolutely essential reminder that every story starts at the edge of the forest."
—Roy Kesey, author of Any Deadly Thing
Martin Blaskett moves to a small town to oversee construction of a housing development, where he encounters a shape-shifting figure from local legend—Scratch. He is taken under the wing of his new neighbor, a retired hunting guide named Gil Rose, and befriends a local woman named Alison. Along the way, trouble ensues as Scratch feels threatened by changes to the landscape, luring locals out into the woods, including Alison’s son. As the blame for a range of events falls at Martin’s feet, he is beset by increasingly inhuman dreams, and comes to doubt his own innocence. A literary novel of wilderness noir that engages the supernatural elements of folklore in the manner of magical realism, Scratch explores the overlapping layers of history, ecology, and storytelling that make up a place.
200 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 11, 2016
1 person is currently reading
661 people want to read
About the author
Steve Himmer
10 books250 followersSteve Himmer is the author of the novels The Bee-Loud Glade, Fram, and Scratch (coming 2016). His short stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in The Millions, Ploughshares online, Post Road, Los Angeles Review, Hobart, and other anthologies and journals. He edits the webjournal
Necessary Fiction
teaches at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
my-publications
August 13, 2014I wrote this, so I'm not going to rate it. There are lots of wild animals in it.
June 4, 2017
Even when other animals lose their ability to plant fear in your hearts, when the howl of coyotes or the rumbling of bears makes your heart flutter with the nostalgia of ignorance, and you feel yourself drawn back to nature-as if you have ever been able to leave-the call-and-response of a pack in the hills sends you scampering back to your cars, onto the roads, out of the mountains toward home where you lock double-paned windows and pull down heavy shades and turn up the lights as bright as you can. Is there anything else left in the forest as frightening as wolves?
There's me, I suppose. There's still me.
4.5 stars
This book was such a pleasant surprise. I am easily sucked in by a good book cover and that is about 80% of the reason I picked up Scratch. That and the title. I barely even skimmed over the summary before I added it to my TBR. Usually this ends badly for me, but Scratch is a very happy exception.
It's a hard book to describe. On the surface it is about a construction planner named Martin who starts a project in a small town. It's a very isolated community, but he falls in love with it and wants to live in one of the houses he is building. But something about the town is... off. Martin begins having very strange dreams, the animals start acting bizarrely, and people are slowly disappearing.
It's a good setup, but the charm of this book lies in the narrator. Because it's told to us by the devil. Or rather, a devil. Scratch is a disembodied entity who lives in the forest Martin is building in, and he has complete control over the environment. Most of the book follows Martin directly but we get increasingly eerie asides as Scratch talks directly to the reader. It's used sparingly and very effectively. It's clear that Scratch has a plan for Martin (and the reader!), and watching it play out is an increasingly stressful experience.
This is a tense, psychologically-driven book. It's not a thriller per say because the pacing is slow and there is only a faint air of mystery, but if you like spooky woods and devils and mayhem I really can't recommend this enough.
There's me, I suppose. There's still me.
4.5 stars
This book was such a pleasant surprise. I am easily sucked in by a good book cover and that is about 80% of the reason I picked up Scratch. That and the title. I barely even skimmed over the summary before I added it to my TBR. Usually this ends badly for me, but Scratch is a very happy exception.
It's a hard book to describe. On the surface it is about a construction planner named Martin who starts a project in a small town. It's a very isolated community, but he falls in love with it and wants to live in one of the houses he is building. But something about the town is... off. Martin begins having very strange dreams, the animals start acting bizarrely, and people are slowly disappearing.
It's a good setup, but the charm of this book lies in the narrator. Because it's told to us by the devil. Or rather, a devil. Scratch is a disembodied entity who lives in the forest Martin is building in, and he has complete control over the environment. Most of the book follows Martin directly but we get increasingly eerie asides as Scratch talks directly to the reader. It's used sparingly and very effectively. It's clear that Scratch has a plan for Martin (and the reader!), and watching it play out is an increasingly stressful experience.
This is a tense, psychologically-driven book. It's not a thriller per say because the pacing is slow and there is only a faint air of mystery, but if you like spooky woods and devils and mayhem I really can't recommend this enough.
October 21, 2016
[Actually 3.5]
Scratch had just about everything I want in a book. A forest with more going on in it than we know? Check. Mysterious disappearances? Check. Weird animal stuff? Check. A formless shapeshifting narrator who puts our main character in harm's way for the sake of the story he wants to create? Ok, maybe I didn't explicitly want that, but I got it. Scratch's concept is pretty brilliant. A shapeshifter (named Scratch) has lived in a forest in the middle of nowhere since...forever, basically. At first he didn't have a form at all, but then he tried turning himself into animals to live like them and, hey, it worked! Scratch is both a protector and a mischief maker, and we get the opportunity to hear this story from his point of view. This novel gives a whole lot of credit to animals, nature, and dreams, which I love.
Martin, the main character, is a hapless man who doesn't have a lot going on in his life apart from his house constructing/real estate career. He decides to build a collection of homes in a very small town and in the back of his head he has the idea that he will move there and get away from the city too. He interacts with very few people other than Gil, the hunter across the road who is a delight, and Alison, the woman he's hired to oversee the construction of the houses. One day, he follows a fox into the forest and he can't seem to stop himself. He gets horribly lost and ends up sleeping in the woods, only to be awoken by a bear attacking him. That's where it all begins. The animals acting strangely, the surreal dreams Martin has about the wild, and people in the town beginning to disappear. Martin is somehow connected to all of it, and of course Scratch, the local legend, has something to do with it.
This book is only very slightly creepy. It was slow going at some points, and we spend perhaps too much time in Martin's head thinking about his past (living with a neglectful single mother) and the borderline stereotypical issues that past brings up. I wouldn't have minded had the book gotten a little bit weirder than it did, but that's obviously just a personal preference. I really enjoyed the concept and the idea of the ending, but it lacked a little in execution and consequence. There was nothing bad about this book, but the plot could have packed a little more of a punch for where the characters all end up.
Full Review: Outlandish Lit
Scratch had just about everything I want in a book. A forest with more going on in it than we know? Check. Mysterious disappearances? Check. Weird animal stuff? Check. A formless shapeshifting narrator who puts our main character in harm's way for the sake of the story he wants to create? Ok, maybe I didn't explicitly want that, but I got it. Scratch's concept is pretty brilliant. A shapeshifter (named Scratch) has lived in a forest in the middle of nowhere since...forever, basically. At first he didn't have a form at all, but then he tried turning himself into animals to live like them and, hey, it worked! Scratch is both a protector and a mischief maker, and we get the opportunity to hear this story from his point of view. This novel gives a whole lot of credit to animals, nature, and dreams, which I love.
Martin, the main character, is a hapless man who doesn't have a lot going on in his life apart from his house constructing/real estate career. He decides to build a collection of homes in a very small town and in the back of his head he has the idea that he will move there and get away from the city too. He interacts with very few people other than Gil, the hunter across the road who is a delight, and Alison, the woman he's hired to oversee the construction of the houses. One day, he follows a fox into the forest and he can't seem to stop himself. He gets horribly lost and ends up sleeping in the woods, only to be awoken by a bear attacking him. That's where it all begins. The animals acting strangely, the surreal dreams Martin has about the wild, and people in the town beginning to disappear. Martin is somehow connected to all of it, and of course Scratch, the local legend, has something to do with it.
This book is only very slightly creepy. It was slow going at some points, and we spend perhaps too much time in Martin's head thinking about his past (living with a neglectful single mother) and the borderline stereotypical issues that past brings up. I wouldn't have minded had the book gotten a little bit weirder than it did, but that's obviously just a personal preference. I really enjoyed the concept and the idea of the ending, but it lacked a little in execution and consequence. There was nothing bad about this book, but the plot could have packed a little more of a punch for where the characters all end up.
Full Review: Outlandish Lit
February 7, 2017
I received a free copy of this from Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Based on the premise, I should have loved this book. It's got dark forests, local legends surrounding a mysterious and deadly creature known only to locals as "Scratch" and a main character who becomes caught up in rapidly unfolding events that make him question his own sanity. Sounds great on paper, or at least in the four sentence plot summary that drew me to it. Unfortunately, it really falls apart in its execution in a number of ways.
For starters:
- POV: I'm not considering this a spoiler since you're told on the very first page... Scratch, the mysterious creature from the woods, is the omniscient 3rd person narrator following the main character Martin around for the entire book. It makes just as much sense as it sounds like it would, which is none at all. Logistics aside, (such as how Scratch would not be noticed around houses, restaurants, police stations, and all the other places Martin visits) there are incredibly frustrating moments where Scratch will just start randomly telling the reader about moments in Martin's childhood that he would have absolutely no way of knowing about. The POV just doesn't work here, and it ruins the suspense/creep factor of a mysterious creature in the woods by making him an invisible, omniscient narrator that sees and hears all.
-Action: This book is so painfully slow. The first 20 percent of the book, absolutely nothing happens except for Martin wandering around in the woods outside of his home as the author meanders into meaningless and self-indulgent prose, or memories that have no pertinence to the story being told. It's clear that Himmer intends this story to be construed as literary horror, along the lines of Poe, but it's hollow and lifeless storytelling here. It feels like this was a short story, stretched to hundreds of pages longer than it needed to be with empty inclusions such as this:
"It's a dream, of course it's a dream, and what else would it be? Dreams bring you closer to the world the rest of us live in than anything else."
That literally makes no sense at all, and it's only included to pad the page count and try and sell itself as introspective and deep, meanwhile the storytelling suffers because the more the author delves into moments like this, the slower the action. Take for example, this moment which happens many pages after the previous and is again, about yet another character's dreams that Scratch just spent pages telling the reader about:
"We could go on about Gil's bloody dreams and the war he brought home, the map of some other place and its memories he laid over this land years ago, layered among all the maps and other memories spread out by one generation after another. But this story is not his."
That is an awfully long way of telling the reader you just conned them into reading pages that have no bearing on anything that has happened, or are going to happen later. The storytelling essentially slows to a crawl and what should be an engaging and fast paced story about a monster eating people in the woods becomes a total chore to try and slog through.
Almost nothing happens, and absolutely nothing is resolved. Basically, plot happens to the characters, rather than the characters influencing plot, and it takes forever for any of those rare moments to happen. A few characters go missing, but their disappearances are never resolved. Nor do we see how their disappearance affects people that live in the town because ultimately Himmer decided none of that mattered. He wanted to tell a very specific tale and get the character of Martin from Point A to a really incredibly obvious Point B which occurs at the end of the story. It takes forever to get there, and all other plot threads in the story are abandoned in favor of drawing out that voyage.
I very nearly DNF'ed this book numerous times. The only reason I finished it was because I received a free copy from the publisher. I kept waiting for a moment of payoff near the end that would make the experience of reading it worth it, but it never came. This one gets a hard-pass recommendation from me.
Based on the premise, I should have loved this book. It's got dark forests, local legends surrounding a mysterious and deadly creature known only to locals as "Scratch" and a main character who becomes caught up in rapidly unfolding events that make him question his own sanity. Sounds great on paper, or at least in the four sentence plot summary that drew me to it. Unfortunately, it really falls apart in its execution in a number of ways.
For starters:
- POV: I'm not considering this a spoiler since you're told on the very first page... Scratch, the mysterious creature from the woods, is the omniscient 3rd person narrator following the main character Martin around for the entire book. It makes just as much sense as it sounds like it would, which is none at all. Logistics aside, (such as how Scratch would not be noticed around houses, restaurants, police stations, and all the other places Martin visits) there are incredibly frustrating moments where Scratch will just start randomly telling the reader about moments in Martin's childhood that he would have absolutely no way of knowing about. The POV just doesn't work here, and it ruins the suspense/creep factor of a mysterious creature in the woods by making him an invisible, omniscient narrator that sees and hears all.
-Action: This book is so painfully slow. The first 20 percent of the book, absolutely nothing happens except for Martin wandering around in the woods outside of his home as the author meanders into meaningless and self-indulgent prose, or memories that have no pertinence to the story being told. It's clear that Himmer intends this story to be construed as literary horror, along the lines of Poe, but it's hollow and lifeless storytelling here. It feels like this was a short story, stretched to hundreds of pages longer than it needed to be with empty inclusions such as this:
"It's a dream, of course it's a dream, and what else would it be? Dreams bring you closer to the world the rest of us live in than anything else."
That literally makes no sense at all, and it's only included to pad the page count and try and sell itself as introspective and deep, meanwhile the storytelling suffers because the more the author delves into moments like this, the slower the action. Take for example, this moment which happens many pages after the previous and is again, about yet another character's dreams that Scratch just spent pages telling the reader about:
"We could go on about Gil's bloody dreams and the war he brought home, the map of some other place and its memories he laid over this land years ago, layered among all the maps and other memories spread out by one generation after another. But this story is not his."
That is an awfully long way of telling the reader you just conned them into reading pages that have no bearing on anything that has happened, or are going to happen later. The storytelling essentially slows to a crawl and what should be an engaging and fast paced story about a monster eating people in the woods becomes a total chore to try and slog through.
Almost nothing happens, and absolutely nothing is resolved. Basically, plot happens to the characters, rather than the characters influencing plot, and it takes forever for any of those rare moments to happen. A few characters go missing, but their disappearances are never resolved. Nor do we see how their disappearance affects people that live in the town because ultimately Himmer decided none of that mattered. He wanted to tell a very specific tale and get the character of Martin from Point A to a really incredibly obvious Point B which occurs at the end of the story. It takes forever to get there, and all other plot threads in the story are abandoned in favor of drawing out that voyage.
I very nearly DNF'ed this book numerous times. The only reason I finished it was because I received a free copy from the publisher. I kept waiting for a moment of payoff near the end that would make the experience of reading it worth it, but it never came. This one gets a hard-pass recommendation from me.
April 22, 2016
Adored this book--it's dark and strange, and beautifully written. Steve writes about wildness in all its lush, tactile wonder, and the myriad ways foolish mortals believe their lives are beyond nature's control.
April 11, 2019
Absolutely great! Not the usual horror/sci- fi fare and I loved it for that.
Don’t come to this book expecting lots of action. It is purposefully slow paced, expecting the reader to think deeply about nature, change and man’s purpose. It is much more of a character piece. The plot is simple and focussed.
It is extremely well written and I was drawn into the character of Martin, longing to see what would become of him. I also enjoyed the unique point of view the novel was written from and thought this was quite original.
Would definitely recommend!
Don’t come to this book expecting lots of action. It is purposefully slow paced, expecting the reader to think deeply about nature, change and man’s purpose. It is much more of a character piece. The plot is simple and focussed.
It is extremely well written and I was drawn into the character of Martin, longing to see what would become of him. I also enjoyed the unique point of view the novel was written from and thought this was quite original.
Would definitely recommend!
Read
December 11, 2016Eerie and assured, this novel kept me guessing right up until the end.
December 10, 2017
I'll just be over here, trying to shed my coyote skin. Loved this.
July 4, 2021
This was very disappointing, the first few chapters and the premise intrigued me.
POV is from the monster-in-the-woods which I thought would give the book an unhinged or cruel edge, or maybe a it was going to be a mythological retelling of a an ancient cryptid...no, the antagonist's perspective sucked most of the tension out of the story, and actually came off as overly preachy about environmentalism (and I'm an environmentalist, so, like, I agree).
And the beginning of the story had a man going deeper and deeper into a mysterious woods, and I expected it to keeping going, for the tension to build in some way (creepier, darker, weirder, something). But it was just a lot ordinary backstory of an ordinary man in a, frankly, ordinary woods.
POV is from the monster-in-the-woods which I thought would give the book an unhinged or cruel edge, or maybe a it was going to be a mythological retelling of a an ancient cryptid...no, the antagonist's perspective sucked most of the tension out of the story, and actually came off as overly preachy about environmentalism (and I'm an environmentalist, so, like, I agree).
And the beginning of the story had a man going deeper and deeper into a mysterious woods, and I expected it to keeping going, for the tension to build in some way (creepier, darker, weirder, something). But it was just a lot ordinary backstory of an ordinary man in a, frankly, ordinary woods.
May 29, 2017
Has a few decent one-liners, and the imagery is pretty amazing, the story started out strong with great characters and then the ending just kind of got derailed and trite. Still worth the read though.
October 15, 2017
Very good. If you like New England and the Woods and Mythology/Fantasy... this is for you.
Want to read
May 24, 2016* e-Arc provided by publisher via Edelweiss *
April 30, 2017
I don't know how to rate this. I had an incredibly difficult time getting through this although it's, like, only 200 pages. The plot and concept of the story were intriguing: Martin oversees the construction project of a couple of houses at the edge of a forest. In those woods, shapeshifters live. One in particular: SCRATCH. The people in town talk about him like one would recount the legend of the Boogeyman or Krampus. Or Bloody Mary. He is feared even though half of the people only grudgingly believe he exists and others just think it's hearsay and ignore it as good as they can. SO THAT SOUNDED AWESOME.
FIVE THINGS ABOUT "SCRATCH"
1.) It's slow. SO VERY SLOOOOWW. It dragged like honey, pages kept sticking together like glue. I can't seem to get through it. It takes AGES.
2.) Sometimes. Often. Many times. Occasionally it felt like I was reading a script.
3.) SCRATCH and Martins chapters/points of views mash quite often. They would intertwine and you would only know when they went their seperate ways again. It was confusing AS HELL.
4.) It has moments of glory. Moments where the words meant more to me than they had before. Those rare sentences that really resonated with me. Quotes that made me understand why some people really adored the short stories of the same author. That made me see some talent.
"Dreams are true stories told in the only moments you're willing to listen."
"Everything is devoured as soon as it's born."
"(...) all those borrowed shapes and borrowed stories (...)"
"ANOTHER LIFE TO OVERWRITE YOURS, TO FILL THE SPACE YOU'VE MADE FOR YOURSELF"
5.) Those kind of moments made it even harder to keep going when that rush of GLORY went away. SIGH.
This was hard. And put me in a reading slump. I had no desire left to keep going. Thanks to Scratch and Wie wir lieben: Vom Ende der Monogamie. This month has been hard for my book shelf and my heart. I need good books now to get other this.
FIVE THINGS ABOUT "SCRATCH"
1.) It's slow. SO VERY SLOOOOWW. It dragged like honey, pages kept sticking together like glue. I can't seem to get through it. It takes AGES.
2.) Sometimes. Often. Many times. Occasionally it felt like I was reading a script.
3.) SCRATCH and Martins chapters/points of views mash quite often. They would intertwine and you would only know when they went their seperate ways again. It was confusing AS HELL.
4.) It has moments of glory. Moments where the words meant more to me than they had before. Those rare sentences that really resonated with me. Quotes that made me understand why some people really adored the short stories of the same author. That made me see some talent.
"Dreams are true stories told in the only moments you're willing to listen."
"Everything is devoured as soon as it's born."
"(...) all those borrowed shapes and borrowed stories (...)"
"ANOTHER LIFE TO OVERWRITE YOURS, TO FILL THE SPACE YOU'VE MADE FOR YOURSELF"
5.) Those kind of moments made it even harder to keep going when that rush of GLORY went away. SIGH.
This was hard. And put me in a reading slump. I had no desire left to keep going. Thanks to Scratch and Wie wir lieben: Vom Ende der Monogamie. This month has been hard for my book shelf and my heart. I need good books now to get other this.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews