The Devil's Alphabet, by Daryl Gregory
A mysterious plague hits the little town of Switchcreek, Tennessee. Many residents die, and most of the survivors are transformed into one of three new types of people: argos, who are immensely tall and grey-white; betas, who are bald and red; and charlies, who are extremely fat. There's a lot more to all three types, but it's gradually revealed throughout the book so I won't spoil it.
Pax is the preacher's teenage son when all this goes down. His best friends, Deke and Jo, turn respectively into an argo and a beta, and his father into a charlie. Pax leaves town and doesn't return until ten years later, for Jo's funeral, which is when the novel begins.
Most of the book is Pax bumbling around town, seeing how the community works, and learning its secrets. Supposedly Jo killed herself, leaving behind twin beta girls, but Pax begins to suspect that she might have been murdered. The other thing Pax finds out almost immediately is that old male charlies get blisters filled with a fluid that makes you high. Pax, who has a history of addiction, accidentally touches it and gets hooked. This plotline is exactly as gross as it sounds, and it really doesn't help with one of the big problems in the novel, which is that Pax is the least interesting person in it. (This isn't as bad as it normally is, as he's not the sole POV character. Unfortunately, the most interesting characters are Deke and Jo, and Jo is dead when the book begins.)
The fluid (called the vintage, which somehow makes it even grosser) is somewhat like ecstasy in that it specifically makes people feel bonded to and empathic with other people. Pax, who is very lonely and feels isolated and is sort of in the closet (he's bisexual and somewhat asexual, with occasional exceptions), gets as hooked on feeling close to others as he does on the high itself.
The mystery of the disease, where it came from, what the argos/betas/charlies are, and how each individual group functions are really fascinating. This is one of the rare cases where the answers are at least as interesting and satisfying as the mysteries, and the best part of the book is just learning more about what the argos and betas and charlies are like. Unfortunately, a lot of the mysteries are never solved, and that includes some very specific mysteries that I thought would be, like why all the argos seem to be infertile or why Pax is so much more susceptible to the vintage than other regular humans.
The book overall felt like it needed another draft and another hundred pages. There were some very moving aspects, the story and concept were interesting, and I did like the ending. But it didn't quite gel for me.
Isn't the cover off-putting? I hate it. It's completely unrepresentative of the tone and content of the book, too.
[image error] [image error]
comments
Pax is the preacher's teenage son when all this goes down. His best friends, Deke and Jo, turn respectively into an argo and a beta, and his father into a charlie. Pax leaves town and doesn't return until ten years later, for Jo's funeral, which is when the novel begins.
Most of the book is Pax bumbling around town, seeing how the community works, and learning its secrets. Supposedly Jo killed herself, leaving behind twin beta girls, but Pax begins to suspect that she might have been murdered. The other thing Pax finds out almost immediately is that old male charlies get blisters filled with a fluid that makes you high. Pax, who has a history of addiction, accidentally touches it and gets hooked. This plotline is exactly as gross as it sounds, and it really doesn't help with one of the big problems in the novel, which is that Pax is the least interesting person in it. (This isn't as bad as it normally is, as he's not the sole POV character. Unfortunately, the most interesting characters are Deke and Jo, and Jo is dead when the book begins.)
The fluid (called the vintage, which somehow makes it even grosser) is somewhat like ecstasy in that it specifically makes people feel bonded to and empathic with other people. Pax, who is very lonely and feels isolated and is sort of in the closet (he's bisexual and somewhat asexual, with occasional exceptions), gets as hooked on feeling close to others as he does on the high itself.
The mystery of the disease, where it came from, what the argos/betas/charlies are, and how each individual group functions are really fascinating. This is one of the rare cases where the answers are at least as interesting and satisfying as the mysteries, and the best part of the book is just learning more about what the argos and betas and charlies are like. Unfortunately, a lot of the mysteries are never solved, and that includes some very specific mysteries that I thought would be, like why all the argos seem to be infertile or why Pax is so much more susceptible to the vintage than other regular humans.
The book overall felt like it needed another draft and another hundred pages. There were some very moving aspects, the story and concept were interesting, and I did like the ending. But it didn't quite gel for me.
Isn't the cover off-putting? I hate it. It's completely unrepresentative of the tone and content of the book, too.
[image error] [image error]
comments
No comments have been added yet.
