A Better World

A person brings a piece of themselves with them when they read a book. Your background, beliefs and current situation can all inform the story. There are books where it does not really matter who you are, but some books will hit home harder for those who feel a connection. A Better World by Sarah Langan is a dystopian future novel that draws on classic folk horror, but it is also about family. What would you do for your family, how much of your soul are you willing to sell to keep them safe? Depending on your own view on families, your opinions of the Farmer-Bowen family may differ vastly to the next reader. 

The world is dying, climate change has run rife, and humankind is hanging on, but things are not pleasant. Plymouth Valley is different, this is a model town built by the major corporation BetterWorld under a vast dome, safe from the outside with its own food source and underground network. The Farmer-Bowen's have been given the rare opportunity to move to the town, but is the artificial grass greener on the inside? The strange customs and closed minds of the locals are strange, the odd things that live in the tunnels are plain wrong. 

Placing a folk horror story into a dystopian future is a great idea and one that Langan tackles beautifully in Better. The issue with any folk horror is why someone has moved there and why they do not just leave as soon as things start to get a little strange. In this case the Farmer-Bowen family have a hard choice. Do they stick to living in Plymouth Valley with its odd locals and customs, or risk going back outside? The four members of the family all have a different opinion. 

The creeping horror of the book is more background as the family dynamic in the book is so powerful. It feels realistic with a long-term couple drifting apart, with two teenagers ready to go out on their own. The story is told from the perspective of the mother, Linda, and she must balance protecting her family from the outside, the inside and even from themselves. 

There is a fun pot boiler for any reader. The tension grows as Linda reveals more about the real Plymouth Valley. Never one to be pigeonholed, the closed nature of the town where you are forced to conform to get ahead, never sits easily with Linda. Even if everything were perfect, she is the type of person who would chafe against it. Things are far from perfect, not only are the politics of the town messed up, but there is something sinister afoot with the festivities and there is an investigation into the miracle product that BetterWorld built its reputation on; a product that could be more kill than cure. 

What will draw certain readers over others is the family dynamic and how that plays into the story. Where do you sit on the scale of looking the other way? If it keeps your family safe, would you allow strangers to suffer? At times Linda and her children are almost selfish in their missing their old home, but as the story unfolds you begin to understand where they are coming from. I felt for a long time that the family should suck up the bad for the relative safety of Plymouth Valley, but even I would not look the other way towards the end of the book. Sniffy neighbours are one thing, folk horror is another.  

Langdon has written a story about a family that happens to be set in a failed near future and has folk horror elements. The book is at its best when the family is interacting and coming to terms with moving to the ‘perfect’ town. The moral quandary of what you would do to save your family is an interesting one. The township itself and the people drew me in less, they came across as odd immediately and unreal. Some of the interactions that Linda has with them are so off putting that the book was surreal in places. The family saga grounds the story in something real and it is this element that I would recommend the book on.