Scowler
by Daniel Kraus
Delacorte, 2013
304 Pages
Young Adult
I love books about genius and puzzle solving. C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, Solar Pons… The Saw movies, Hannibal Lecter… any story about a master chess game on a real life scale. Marvin Burke is, like Lecter or Jigsaw, a planner; sharp-witted and capable of savagery of the highest caliber.
What would you do if you were the nineteen year-old who called him your father, and he had done terrible things to your mother and threatened even worse things for you, and then he showed up at your door one morning, freshly escaped from jail, with a loaded shotgun? Imagine your little sister and mom are downstairs. But he’s got the drop on you and there are no neighbors for miles.
“He’s scared,” Jo Beth said. “You’re being extremely aggressive.”
“Aggressive?” Marvin’s face was not easy to read beneath the beard and glasses and blood and grime, but the muscles appeared to rigidify into a pattern of disbelief.
“Jo– There’s going to be shooting. It’s going to be very aggressive.”
This is the most terrifying book I think I’ve read. It’s not a “fun read”– it’s an experience, for sure. A cathartic trip through Hell, this is the most visceral sort of horror. You won’t ever be able to forget this story. When I reached the second part, I broke out in a cold sweat and found my hands shaking. Jason, Michael, and Freddy have nothing on Marvin Burke. I question the Young Adult classification, it’s more of an ‘R’, but then, YA books always deal with the tough stuff, the challenges in life that have to be overcome in order to become a fully realized adult.
To add to the thrill and intensity, the first half of the book has chapters that count down the time until impact. Tick-tock. A little old man comes to the door. Hitchcock said, “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” Tick-tock. The old man drops a portentous bomb, then leaves –quickly, when he realizes who’s house he accidentally arrived at.
Impact? Talk about deus ex machina: meteors hit, one, the local prison, releasing the terror upon the Burke family, and two, the farm. Marvin’s farm. That knocks out the phones, too. Methane is released from the celestial object and gives everyone headaches, making it impossible to think clearly.
How will Ry and his mom and sister escape this madman? This isn’t a chess game, but the tension of waiting for that one moment when you might make a try for that gun, when he might be distracted… Is it worth the risk? Remember what he did to the man who delivered the car parts?
We get one hell of a ride inside the mind of a sociopath. A violent one who’s been waiting a long time to get his hands on the treacherous, disloyal son who betrayed him.
“He told me it was you who would get the worst of it.”
“I wasn’t a coward. I was a kid.”
“Awful things he told me he would do to you. I did not want to say it in front of the females.”
You always think about the worst case scenario. Scowler spells it out. As horrible as this story is, as cruel as the characters are, it is a reflection of the dark side of real life. Just as Kraus’ book Rotters explored poverty and ostracism, this book casts light on what abusive people are capable of, what we choose to turn a blind eye to because it’s just too damn ugly to countenance for even an instant.
What sets this book apart besides the stunningly effective terror? Ry. His character finds strength in three of his toys (the only ones left after a horrifying nighttime pursuit through the woods by a crazed father,) representing a Caregiver, (Mr. Furrington,) a Steadfast Supporter, (a Bend-Ems Jesus,) and the Animal Inside, the part of Marvin that Ry has in himself. The Scowler. These “Unnameable Three” offer a direct line into Ry’s subconscious, where he can find the clarity and solutions he needs, and where they can sometimes take on a life of their own.
Then, Just to throw another wrench into the works, when his sister’s escape goes awry, Ry starts to look and act just like his father.
The ending degrades into extreme surrealism, even more so than Rotters did. Kraus would never give us the stereotyped revenge or coming-of-age resolution that we would expect. The characters, the intensity, the grand scale, yes. But happy endings, that’s not his style. Kraus goes even further into blood and madness. Read this book. If you have the guts. Then hang on tight.
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