Speculative Fiction Junkie

Bill Hussey

Bill Hussey's debut novel, Through A Glass, Darkly, blew me away when I read it last year (review here). At the time, I credited it with singlehandedly rekindling my interest in the horror genre and it went on to be #2 on my Best of 2008 list. Unsurprisingly, therefore, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Hussey's second effort, The Absence. To be honest, though, there was a part of me that wondered if The Absence could even come close to the quality of Through A Glass, Darkly. It's not that I doubted Mr. Hussey's talents in particular. It's just that there are plenty of writers who can write one great novel but can't manage to write a second. In any event, I need not have worried: The Absence is a masterpiece, every bit as worthy of the praise being heaped upon it from all quarters.

The Absence centers around an old millhouse in the Fens of England and a father and his two sons rendered dysfunctional by the sudden death of the boys' mother and the father's wife in a car accident. When the father inherits an old millhouse in the Fens from a distant relative he views a trip to fix it up as an opportunity to reconnect with what remains of his family. Unknown to them, however, is a history of dark events that took place in the house and the fact that the family's connection to the the millhouse is greater than is at first apparent.

The Absence succeeds for many of the same reasons that Through A Glass, Darkly did. As was the case with the latter, The Absence is extremely well written in every possible way that a book can be. The prose is fantastic, the various elements of the book are perfectly balanced, and the like.

But while these things contribute to any book's quality, the thing that really elevates Mr. Hussey's work into the upper echelons of horror is that he understands the primordial origin of humanity's fears better than any writer I've ever encountered. While his books exploit the fear of bodily harm to which many horror writers limit themselves, Mr. Hussey immediately races beyond this limited notion of what makes us afraid to exploit the things that mankind has feared ever since he crawled out of the mud, to the things that led him to see vengeful gods and devils all around him. That may sound a bit abstract but those of you who know what I'm talking about will likely never be able to derive too much satisfaction from traditional gorebore horror again (hey, did I just make that term up?).

While I loved The Absence, that doesn't mean that I didn't have a few personal quibbles. While there were some of the fantastic elements that were found in Through A Glass, Darkly I thought there were less in The Absence, which I found regrettable because Mr. Hussey does such a good job with this sort of thing. Secondly, a few times I found the portrayal of a family member's personal struggles to be almost too much to bear. These are really minor things though that do not in any way detract from what is a fantastic book.

Rating: 10/10

The True First

The Absence was first published as a trade paperback in April of 2009 by the Bloody Books imprint of Beautiful Books in London. Inexcusably, there is no U.S. publication of this book in the works at the moment and there is still no hardcover edition available. For more information about Mr. Hussey, check out his new website http://horrorreanimated.com.

[This review was based on a review copy]