Simon & Schuster, May 23, 2017.
Three Stars
In his newest novel, Canadian author Andrew Pyper reimagines
the origins of gothic literature – from the perspective of the same monster
that inspired the novels of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker and Robert Louis
Stevenson. He brings the terror and darkness of Frankenstein, Dracula and
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr.
Hyde into a contemporary setting that highlights the fear these characters
have inspired for decades.
Dr. Lily Dominick is a forensic psychiatrist who
deals with New York’s most dangerous mental patients. She arrives at work one
day to find that she has an attractive, compelling new client who has been
accused of a shocking violent crime – but even more shocking are the outrageous
claims he makes about himself. The first is that he is over 200 years old and
was the inspiration for the masters of gothic literature. His second claim is
that he is Lily’s father.
The man, who tells Lily that she can call him
Michael, appears to be the same age as Lily, so she at first dismisses both
claims. However, he has surprising information about the death of Lily’s mother
– in fact, he admits that he was present at her death when Lily was a child.
Before she can process her feelings about Michael’s claims, she learns that he
has made a violent escape from custody. He quickly tracks Lily down and draws her
into his terrifying world, framing her for a horrible crime.
A pursuit around the globe follows, as Lily attempts to
clear her name and learn more from Michael. While she is drawn to him, she also
fears him, and her emotions are conflicting – she feels a paternal attachment,
wondering if he truly is her father, but she also feels sexual attraction to
this enigmatic man. Her desire and her fear are mixed together in a way that is
often difficult to read about – at times it is just icky.
Lily’s journey causes her to question her own sanity,
and in the process, she comes close to losing everything – her friends, her
career and even her life. Her humanity is the backbone of the novel – she is
strong, intelligent and independent, but also emotional and sexual. The Only Child is a tense thriller, but
it is also metafictional in that it questions the entire origin story of the
horror genre. However, the story begins
to follow too many different threads, instead of focusing on the monster that
holds it all together. The clues Lily follows are often too convenient to be
believed.
Michael is a fascinating gothic monster, especially
in the excerpts from his journals, in which he interacts with the authors Shelley,
Stevenson and Stoker. The horror elements are powerful, but they are eclipsed
in the end by the clichéd thriller ending – which really comprises the final third
of the novel, where things took an odd and unnecessary turn. In the end, while
there were parts that I really enjoyed, the story was dragged down by too many
different themes, plot twists and innuendos.
I received this book from Simon & Schuster and
NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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