Book Review: Below by Laurel Hightower
Title: Below
Author: Laurel Hightower
Release date: March 29th, 2022
One thing that we’ve all come to understand, is that a new novella/novel release from Laurel Hightower is a TBR buster. It will immediately go to the top, politely apologizing to the 1300 other books you have stacked beside your bed (or in my case taking up absolutely NO SPACE whatsoever on my Kindle – suckers!) as it makes its way to the top.
From ‘Whispers in the Dark’ to ‘Crossroads,’ Hightower has delivered in spades, and that’s not even mentioning her phenomenal short fiction spread across numerous must-read anthologies.
With ‘Below’ I was incredibly excited to see how she re-imagined the Mothman mythos. When I was just in high school, an older kid gave me a beat up copy of John Keel’s ‘The Mothman Prophecies’ and something like “dude, this book will change your life.” It didn’t really, but it did make me go ‘WHAT!’ upon reading it. Just what would Hightower do with this cryptid/creature?
Side note – I typically don’t mention book covers in reviews. There’s covers I’ve loved and covers I’ve hated and within those pages there’s been stories I loved and stories I’ve hated. But, I do want to add – my son is a MASSIVE Trevor Henderson fan. I’m a fan, but he is 1000% more a fan than I, and he’s only five years old. So, seeing a Henderson cover is always a fun thing for me, and it gives me great joy to show my son them as well.
What I liked: The story starts out innocently enough. A snow storm arrives as Addy is driving through a stretch of West Virginia. She stops at a dinner after a near-collision with a van. While warming up, a trucker who was also almost involved in the collision approaches her and after some back and forth, volunteers to drive ahead of her so that she doesn’t need to worry about the roads.
It’s on this drive that something appears on a bridge ahead, the truck slides and crashes through the guardrail – all in front of Addy.
Hightower does a great job of taking us from the opening to this moment, making us feel entrenched in the snow and the reality that the roads are not so great. Now, in truth, we know going in that this book is about Mothman or a variation of this creature, so the entire opening works to cause you to hold your breath, wondering just what’s going to happen. The fact that this truck careens over the side of the road and plunges down this ravine made for an unseen jump scare of sorts.
Laurel has created both a vulnerable and traumatized character in Addy, one trying to forge her own confidence and path in the world, now that she’s divorced. As events unfold we begin to see little sparks of strength and will begin to take hold and by the ending Addy is a powerful character, one that overcomes a lot to keep battling and stay alive. This becomes even more apparent when dealing with law enforcement at one point and how they try to belittle her and mansplain to her, which she isn’t having any of their crap.
I would be remiss to not mention the creature in this. I won’t say much, as I want you to experience it for yourself but Hightower gives us some phenomenal moments that will scare the heck out of you. Descriptions of things touched in the dark and appendages appearing into view will leave you shook.
What I didn’t like: I don’t really know if I bought into what was being hauled in the truck. I don’t think we get a full explanation (if we did I missed it), but if you eliminated that aspect completely, nothing would change for the story events or progression. It was cool, yes, but I just don’t know if it worked for me.
Why you should buy this: Hightower has created a claustrophobic, psychological nightmare masquerading as a creature-feature. It makes you connect and root for Addy from page one and as the story moves along, we see the insurmountable odds stacked against her. And still she fights to survive. This showcases Laurel’s phenomenal writing ability, stunning characters and of course, she tackles a re-imagining to the highest level.
Outstanding work from one of the best out there!
5/5
