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Threshold (Chance Matthews #1)

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 751 ratings · 89 reviews

Chance Matthews has suffered enough tragedies. The latest—her grandfather’s death—has left her shaken, convinced that she will always be alone. What she needs now is time—time to recover, time to determine what her future will be. What she doesn’t need is a strange girl with alabaster skin who knows things about Chance she can’t possibly know.

This girl speaks of being char...more

Paperback, 272 pages

Published November 1st 2001 by Roc Trade (first published 2001)

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Dec 04, 2011 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2010

First, I love Caitlin Kiernan, so if you are a fan of horror, well written fiction, and of fiction in general, you should do yourself a favor and pick up a novel of hers. I have read 3 of Kiernan's later novels and fell in love with them. This book has a lot to like and parts to love too, but I felt that the ending was far to weak for the suspense that built up until then. The ending was nothing like the ending's she has written in other novels. So, if you are a horror fan, start with this one,...more

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Apr 05, 2009 Allison rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hating-is-fun

I tried to stick this one out, but I finally cried "Uncle" at page 106.

The story seemed intriguing (Fossils? Goths? Beowulf? Do tell!) and the musicality of the language and the strong imagery provided enough of an incentive to bear with it, to a point.

So what broke me?

The characters, man. There's only so much self-pity you can swim in till you drown. In Chance's case, it's arguably somewhat justified, but it doesn't necessarily make for compelling reading. And Dancy wasn't so bad, but seriousl...more

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Dec 14, 2011 Angie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

I loved the two possible story lines Kiernan posits at the end of the novel. Which is to be believed?

Note to readers: this is the first in a series of three books. Part two of Chance's and Deacon's tale is told in "Low Red Moon," while part three, which picks up the new mythos discussed in the second, is the excellent "Daughter of the Hounds." (The mythology is based on Lovecraft's, but only loosely.)

These novels remind me, somehow, of "His Dark Materials," but here, the materials are indeed d...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Cleverusername rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found out about Kiernan in an unusual sort of way... through comics. I thought that the cover for "Alabaster: Wolves" was intriguing, so I picked it up. Turns out that I had just tried to jump into an entire world full of eldritch horrors, which may or may not have been a bad decision. Though I distinctly lacked knowledge of the character of Dancy Flammarion, the comic managed to draw me in and keep me involved through it's entire arc (which, by the way... hopefully there's more to come from t...more I found out about Kiernan in an unusual sort of way... through comics. I thought that the cover for "Alabaster: Wolves" was intriguing, so I picked it up. Turns out that I had just tried to jump into an entire world full of eldritch horrors, which may or may not have been a bad decision. Though I distinctly lacked knowledge of the character of Dancy Flammarion, the comic managed to draw me in and keep me involved through it's entire arc (which, by the way... hopefully there's more to come from that.) I wanted more of this character and these stories specifically... but it seems that a collection of Dancy Flammarion centered short stories (fittingly titled "Alabaster") was in a very limited print run, and copies are a couple hundred dollars. A bit out of my price range, I'm afraid... but I'll read them, someday. Why? Because further research into Dancy turned this gem up. "Threshold." The first appearance of the character, in fact. I gave this book four stars, and with a reason. Kiernan is an extraordinarily skilled writer, and her talent for creating atmospheres of shifting and uncertain menace is second to none. Written at a pace fast enough to keep even those with a short attention span enthralled, "Threshold" delivers on every promise it makes, and then some. Reading like an amalgamation of "The Stand" and "The Dunwich Horror," this book is a sight to behold once it hits its stride and comes after the reader with a vengeance. Now, make no mistake... this book is not about Dancy Flammarion. She's an important figure, sure... but not the center, and nowhere near the point. "Threshold" has a lot to say, and you're better off reading it for yourself.

That said, I'm shameless in my love for Dancy. I'll be hunting down "Alabaster," one of these days.

TL;DR: "Threshold" is fast, fun, and occasionally terrifying. Mixing small town and cosmic horror, the creeping terror in this book is an ever present figure. Kiernan can write, and she can write well. I have one complaint, and only one. Kiernan has this ridiculous tendency to create word mash-ups for no reason other than texture and effect. If you can get past that, enjoying this book is easy. (less)

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Oct 03, 2012 Doug rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Threshold is dark and rich and strange, and no superficial description is going to do it justice. Its bones are a Stumbling Onto That Which Should Not Be Disturbed tale in a mode not completely un-Lovecraftian. Kiernan isn't as resolutely xenophobic as Howard P., but perhaps no less sanguine about the outcome of encounters with That Which Is Beyond Human Ken.

Kiernan renders the story of drunken Deacon, sharp-witted Chance, gothy Sadie, damaged Dancy, and unfortunate Elise in a present-tense stre...more

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Dec 19, 2011 Kate rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Threshold is a difficult novel to summarize. I'm not sure Caitlin Kiernan even knew what kind of book she was writing. Chance has had a lot of people die in her life, and the book opens with her grandfather's funeral. Her ex-boyfriend, Deacon, is a drunk and his girlfriend, Sadie, is an immature goth girl. Dancy is a stranger who believes that there are monsters in the world that need to be stopped, and she comes to town looking for Chance because of visions she has had with Chance in them. She...more Threshold is a difficult novel to summarize. I'm not sure Caitlin Kiernan even knew what kind of book she was writing. Chance has had a lot of people die in her life, and the book opens with her grandfather's funeral. Her ex-boyfriend, Deacon, is a drunk and his girlfriend, Sadie, is an immature goth girl. Dancy is a stranger who believes that there are monsters in the world that need to be stopped, and she comes to town looking for Chance because of visions she has had with Chance in them. She first convinces Deacon and Sadie that she's telling the truth, and together they try to convince Chance that she needs to help Dancy do whatever it is she needs to do. You are never really sure what Dancy had in store for them, or what exactly the monsters are--what they look like, what their powers are. The plot of the novel, as far as I can tell, is based solely around Chance believing in the existence of monsters.

While the characters are well-done, the plot is slow and confusing. For the entire book, the characters know little to nothing about the mysteries that surround and taunt them--and neither does the reader.

Kiernan has a stream-of-consciousness sort of style that takes some getting used to. This helps the mood of the story, but does not help the reader to understand it. Some of the made-up compound words she creates (e.g., "skinnytall," "countrydark") are just as confusing as her sentence structure. For example, when she uses colors like "orangered" it looks more like some weird verb "oranger" than what it is--"orange-red." Her style is interesting in terms of the creepy mood she is able to convey with it, but it's far from perfect.

To add to the confusion of her prose, the plot itself is difficult to discern. Reality, dreams, vision, and time-jumps blend into one another and the combination of theses factors makes reading the novel unnecessarily difficult.

This story is very "airy" and a little messy. If you expect a concrete pay-off for getting through such a scattered story, you will be disappointed. The messy, open ending will leave you hanging. While the ending was interesting and not inherently bad, it did give the impression of the whole novel being confused and nonsensical. It gave me flashbacks to Lost. You expect the ending to tell you what the point is of the entire exercise, only to be told flatly that there is no point. You can't even be sure how much of it was real. Normally with endings like this, the writer ends up making the ending about the characters reaching their peak of growth; however, in Threshold, the painfully slow growth of Kiernan's characters is basically reversed. There's no real pay-off, and no real "spook factor" either because you won't even know how you got to that ending or what it means. I was very disappointed.(less)

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Jul 30, 2011 Isidore rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Here we have a novel which, stripped of the soap operatic soul-searchings of the principals and a vast amount of trivial slice-of-life homely detail, would likely have made an effective short story or novelette. One has to wait such a very long time for eerie things to happen (and why is anyone reading this stuff, except to be scared or filled with wonder?) that when these moments finally arrive one is out of sorts and impatient with the whole business.

The ending is interesting, but before one g...more

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Feb 15, 2010 Juushika rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: status-owned

When Chance and her friends break into a mountainside tunnel, they never expect to set into action a chain of events that lead to the appearance of Dancy, a young girl who claims to see monsters, or the discovery of impossibly old fossils, which may prove her right. Kiernan writes Lovecraftian horror of the finest sort, but her lyrical prose and carefully balanced novel are entirely her own. Threshold's narrative voice may not suit all readers, but for those with a love of lyricism and an apprec...more When Chance and her friends break into a mountainside tunnel, they never expect to set into action a chain of events that lead to the appearance of Dancy, a young girl who claims to see monsters, or the discovery of impossibly old fossils, which may prove her right. Kiernan writes Lovecraftian horror of the finest sort, but her lyrical prose and carefully balanced novel are entirely her own. Threshold's narrative voice may not suit all readers, but for those with a love of lyricism and an appreciation for fear of the unknown, this book is a must read. I highly recommend it.

Kiernan is a child of Lovecraft in the purest sense, but unlike much of Lovecraft's writing and Kiernan's own short fiction, with Threshold she does more than show a glimpse of the terrible unknownshe explores the concept in depth and at length. Couching the story in paleontology which gives the fantastical horror a ring of authenticity that makes it all the more frightening, Kiernan explores the horror of the endless malignance which lies on the edge of comprehension, and she does so with aplomb. Her monsters are original and often surprisingly visceral, but there is always something beyond themnever so far away that the reader feels teased, but far enough that the reader can only glimpse its infinite vastness and darkness. It's a brand of horror that relies on the reader's imagination to intrigue and frighten, and Kiernan executes it with perfection. Fans of Lovecraft will be perfectly at home in this novel.

But, regardless of her predecessors, Kiernan remains unique. This book stands apart by expanding its concept through an entire novel; Kiernan's writing stands apart by the other aspects which compliment its horror: lyrical prose, flawed and finely nuanced characters, and a plot which balances character development, atmosphere, and action to end in a simply brilliant final chapter. These aspects may not appeal to readers in search of a transparent narrative or consistently likable characters, but they make for a complex and finely-layered story and they add that special something, a blend of inspiration and skill, which turns a strong novel into something truly remarkable. Threshold was my introduction to Kiernan, and upon this reread it remains my favorite of her oeuvre. It's a good place to begin reading her work and a wonderful book in its own right: intelligent, thoughtful, atmospheric, terrifying, altogether skillful, and greater than the sum of its parts, this is a book to remember. I highly recommend it.(less)

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Apr 09, 2009 Sam rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked up this book because it had a lukewarm endorsement by Neil Gaiman on the cover and it looked interesting. While a fairly mediocre horror story, the writing tends to be beyond annoying. I think someone must have told this author she had an interesting writing style in college and she went with it. It's the type of writing that irks me with its pretentiousness. Throughout the book, often up to six times on a page, Kiernan combines words such as 'icycold' and 'blackiced' and 'wetdark' and...more

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Nov 12, 2011 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

I can't decide if I liked this book or if I hated it. On one hand the narrator has a lyrical almost musical voice that leads the reader in a creepy little dance long before any of the monsters rear their heads. That on top of the interesting concept of monsters older than time set into the fossil record and, even deeper concepts of belief and faith and distortion of them into many things, makes the story compelling and pushes the reader forward. The problem lies in the authors odd way of phrasin...more

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Jan 21, 2011 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Those Looking for Literary Horror Novels

Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by: The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Shelves: contemporary, fantasy, horror, literary-fiction, science-fiction, ultimate-reading-list, fiction, novels

This made for a phantasmagorical journey that bent genres with both science fiction and fantasy elements. I read this because it was on a horror genre rec list, and though that fits and the novel at times is suspenseful and scary, I don't think that quite describes the book.

For one, the style is much more literary than you usually see in genre writing. It reminds me of a less extreme and more grammatical Cormac McCarthy: there are long, complex sentences and the present tense and frequent use o...more

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Sep 23, 2009 Seizure Romero rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-dark

On one of my "Oooh! Shiny!" days at the library* I found In the Garden of Poisonous Flowers and decided to check it out (literally and figuratively. My review is here). Not too long after, I stumbled on Alabaster (a collection of Dancy Flammarion stories. I do believe I've mentioned elsewhere how truly badass is the King County Library System. Respect). So with Threshold I've finally started at the beginning. I apparently like the idea of an albino monster-killer (hence my admiration for Michael ...more

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Jun 28, 2011 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 09, 2010 Brian Steele rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dark-fantasy

I think it really says something when a book is either loved or despised. That said, I'm really on the fence with one. There was a brilliant concept here with wonderfully vivid characters, but Kiernan's writing is just, well... bizarre. A short story in present-tense is one thing, but a whole novel? And her need to cram two unassociated words together to create "new" adjectives or adverbs gets stale quickly. And the ending is, um... not the ending one wishes for after a novel. A short story, per...more

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Mar 10, 2013 David added it

What Lovecraft would look like if he sprouted the fungi Stephen King and Clive Barker from his eyes and mushroomed a different gender.

I'm still trying to track down and read all the contemporary 'Lovecraftian' lit, the Mythos minus Cthulhu genre: Threshold has to be without a doubt one of the best I've read. The setting is both familiar and alien, and the old ones genuinely seem old, as old as the planet within which they live.

The only let down is the ending, but I'm no letting the last few page...more

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Jun 15, 2012 Robin Edman rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have to take away a star for lack of story, but the mood in this piece is amazing, and it's accomplished by some of the most innovative language use out there. If you took China Mieville (without his gigantor encyclopedic knowledge of almost everything) and Marie Claire Blais (without the bitterness) and a little touch of James Joyce (without the incomprehensibility), stirred them up together and sampled it, then you would have a fair notion of what the writing in this book is like.

Don't judge...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Tyler Nelson rated it 1 of 5 stars

One of my friends lent me a book, thinking I may like it because it seemed somewhat sciency, even though was was unable to bring herself to finish it. That book was Threshold by Caitlin Kiernan. Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of the book myself.

The book follows Chance, Dancy, Deacon, and Sadie through a period of loss, monsters, and mystery. To me, the book read as a trip in and out of reality. Usually, I really enjoy books that question, explore, and/or test the bounds of reality, but I didn't f...more

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Jun 20, 2007 Rachel rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: no one

Shelves: abandoned

THis book was so depressing, I didn't make it past the second chapter

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May 28, 2011 Lindsey added it · review of another edition

Shelves: gave-up-on-it

it has the feel of a christian horror story, although i do not at all mean it is christian fiction. it merely has a very contrived "good versus evil" feel to it. also, the narrative is distracting to me - she uses compound words excessively like :birdnervous and velvetysoft - all smashed together like that and on every page. it's making me nuts. i can't read an entire book of angsty postteen weirdvernacular bullcrap.

ha

but now i don't know what book i'm going to find to take it's place in my book...more

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Jan 02, 2010 Therese rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, fiction, horror

Caitlin R. Kiernan is one of my favourite authors, and the first time I read "Threshold" it scared the crap out of me. "Threshold" is disturbing not because it is incredibly gory, loud, or controversial, but because it is a truly sinister and intelligent horror novel. Kiernan’s concept of time and what might be hiding in it is terrifying. She is an amazing writer who subtly invokes a sense of dread and uneasiness that is absent from a lot of recent horror. And, to top it off, she creates believa...more

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Oct 14, 2009 Psuke rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"There are no answers, no explanations here," a paraphrase of what one character says to another in this book. And there aren't. There are quite a number of broken people, most of whom die...except by then end it might not have happened at all.

Kiernan also has an almost annoying habit of running to words together into one, but in an infrequent manner. An affectation of poetry that occasional I ripped over while reading. Since this is the first book of hers I read, I don't know if this is the onl...more

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Oct 11, 2012 Brian rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cthulhu, horror

I'll go ahead and say it--this book was awful.

I'd had Kiernan's stories recommended to me before, since I'm a huge Lovecraft fan. Daughter Of Hounds was the one most frequently mentioned, but at the time I was living in Japan and didn't have easy access to an English library or an English bookstore that was likely to have any of her books, but through the services of Bookmooch I managed to get a copy of Threshold.

It's about Chance and Deacon's relationship. Or maybe it's about monsters? If the m...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Evilynn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, horror

I don't know exactly why I never seem to gel with Kiernan's writing. It should be right up my alley, gothic, sort of psychological horror, but I just can't seem to connect with it, somehow. I liked Threshold more than The Red Tree, part of it gave me the willies, but the end felt a little meh. Some people seem to get really annoyed with the compound words Kiernan makes up in this book, but they mostly didn't bother me, perhaps because my native language contains a lot of them, in fact, some of t...more

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Aug 19, 2012 harlequin {Stephanie} rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gorgeous-covers, dark-urban-fantasy

Don't let the three star rating fool you I really enjoyed this. It has a very gritty atmosphere with not a single happy character in sight. It fit my mood yesterday.

Some things did bug me. I want to underline the end about five times. Feels unfinished or maybe just open to interpretation.

(view spoiler)...more

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Oct 19, 2011 chucklesthescot rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mythology, depressing-as-hell, worst-ever-books, urbanfantasy

Chance is grieving after the death of her grandfather and is disturbed by the arrival of a strange girl who seems to know too much about her life. She claims to be an angel and wants Chance to help her destroy something evil.

*Yawn* This was not a good book in my opinion. There was nothing to like about Chance. In the prologue she and her friends are drug taking, for the rest of what I read she was drunk most of the time, and she was forgiving her boyfriend and best friend who were sleeping toget...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Jennifer Jensen (Literally Jen) marked it as dnf · review of another edition

This is the first and last Caitlin R. Kiernan book I will ever read. I made it to page 57, and couldn't go any further. I wanted to give it a fair chance, but after having started this book several weeks ago and not getting past page 30 because it wasn't holding my attention very well, that was my first sign that I should probably just give up.

I picked it up again today because I finished up some other books I'd been reading, and figured maybe I could finally get into this story now that I had n...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2013

Read out of order, after "Low Red Moon". Because I am an idiot and picked up the wrong book from the shelf first. It probably says something about how well these books do stand alone, since I didn't realise that "Low Red Moon" was a sequel until after I finished it. Still, you should probably read this one first.

I actually think this is a stronger book than "Low Red Moon". So much of Kiernan's gorgeous language (though I did get a little tired of her habit/trick of stringing two words together t...more

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Oct 17, 2010 Grace rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: addictions, fiction, for-fun, palaeontology, paranormal

Threshold has an interesting premise that makes the geologist in me tingle with excitement. In the bowls of the earth where there are underground rivers and caves, things dwell. To describe these things is to know them, and to know them brings insanity and death.

Chance is a budding palaeontologist who is following in the footsteps of her grandparents. Her grandparents, specifically her grandmother, had a secret that she took with her when she killed herself. Chance is the rational, fact based o...more

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Jul 30, 2010 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantasy, horror

I kept trying to put this down so I could get some errands done, but I just couldn't. It's like if Lovecraft and Carroll sat down to write a paleontological nightmare, urban fantasy style, with a generous dash of Beowulf thrown in.

It was a bit of a slower read than is normal for me with novels, but it's worth the effort to let yourself go and immerse yourself in the world. The use of language -- new compound words, unusual syntax, most scenes written in the present tense -- took some getting use...more

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Sep 22, 2009 Jeff Chappell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those who want thinking persons' horror (with elements of dark fantasy and sci fi

Shelves: fiction

Kiernan is one of my favorite authors; this is the third or fourth time I've read this one, and it stands up to the test of time for me. Having re-read one of her more recent works that involved some of the same characters that we meet in Threshold for the first time, I decided it was time to go back and visit their younger selves; it is like visiting old friends.

Having said that, I will say that if you are new to Kiernan, you may want to read one of her later books (she has a new one out, whic...more

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Threshold (Chance Matthews #1)

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