Not the usual kind of procrastination

28. Dead Lake – Darcy Coates

Sam is an artist, not a survivalist, not someone possessing the skills to outwit a stalker in the forest, not inherently possessed of the knowledge she might need to survive being stalked by killer while she’s trying to paint something – anything – good enough for her upcoming exhibition. Besides it making sense for someone who primarily wants to be a painter to not be super great at preparing for wilderness living in a cabin with no electricity, I enjoyed the tension that wasn’t contained in the part where she’s getting stalked by the living and haunted by the recently deceased. When you have an art deadline, it can very much become impossible to make anything worthwhile to your own standards, so her countdown of “I have this many days to paint” was super relatable for me as it tends to be how I spend most vacation time from work. And considering how short this book is, it could have been left in the dust…like in so many other horror stories where maybe the only art thing would be turpentine on fire or stabbing a paint brush through a killer’s eyeball.

Otherwise, it is very satisfying to see loose ends tied up in a shortster as well. Dead Lake, generally, is a very easy read about a haunt and a killer and an artist stuck in between them with a deadline and the ability to keep a fire going.

As a frequent subject of my paintings, Ozma saw me battling my “I have a show! I have to get this done and scanned!” deadlines several times with the very same paint brushes in the background of this photo.