So, still on a horror fiction kick and wanted to stay international (this time Canadian) after reading the wonderful I Am Behind You by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Sweden). Perhaps it was because Lindqvist's book was fresh in my mind that The God in the Shed by J-F. Dubeau disappointed so: to the point that I unfortunately did not finish reading it. Alas, not to speak entirely ill of the work - very soon I will describe my putting the book down unfinished (kind of bizarre for me), a book that I purchased, nevertheless - the representation of the titular god was intriguing. Indeed the characters interacting with the god had some goose bump moments which are the sensations I love in literature (esp. horror lit.).
But, from the start, things were not to my taste. A town plagued by a serial killer for decades - the result of a man trying to keep the god at bay which would have prevented more bloodshed - was too fantastic. Tied to this is the beleaguered yet loved police chief who worked so hard to crack each murder/disappearance even though he was aware of the supernatural underpinnings of the towns societal structure. I just wasn't buying/could not maintain my sensation of disbelief.
What finished it off and which was another source of distaste from the start was the employing of children to take part in the narrative, high school kids and younger, the death and desecration of a kindergarten-aged kid an early lynch pin of the story. This book has some gory scenes which is fine if it works as it did in Lindqvist's I Am Behind You. The Swede included dismemberment, vicious hate crimes, and live humans getting melted by acid in his book and it all worked, the stomach-churning placated by well-wrought prose.
The discussion between the middle-school aged characters as they walked out to the shed finished me off - unnecessary prattle that should have been culled. A novel is of course an accomplishment and I salute Dubeau and wish him further success. As someone who is over the age of 40 I find the need to maximize my time, to get the most out of each moment and this book, though I made an effort, didn't make the cut.
