Benothinged

You do not have to delve onto the fiction shelves to find horror, you can just watch the news. Wars breaking out, people starving. Closer to home there are murders and violence. Most of us are cocooned from these horrors, living in bubbles of our own creation, but some horrors we cannot escape; grief, illness. One that many of us will experience if we live to an old age, old enough to see those around us die, is loneliness. If abject loneliness was not enough Alvar Theo suggests in Benothinged that there are beings that feast on the forgotten, the sidelined, the lonely. 

Mask sleeps in their dead grandmother’s bed next to the memory of their dead dog. They had little to begin with, but now that their last known relative and beloved pet are gone, there is no one. Perhaps they can build an unlikely friendship with the pensioner next door. She seems a little absent minded, but kind enough. Who cares that she never drinks any of the tea you make her, is obsessed with names, and that the other elderly neighbours are disappearing. 

It is horror season, and I have read several this year and there seems to be a slight trend with leaning into mental wellness. Horror has always played tricks with the mind, are the characters seeing something, or is it all in their head? Modern horror delves deeper into this and has characters like Mask who have real and diagnosable mental illness, as well as potentially having to deal with demons that suck the life out of the lonely. 

Along with the trend of horror dealing better with mental health, I also found several of the books dull because the subject matter does not automatically lend itself to escapism. Understandably, the characters are not in a happy place, but it does not make for a thrilling read. There is no such issue in Benothinged, as the thing that makes it stand out from the others is that Mask is a character who is incredibly engaging. 

Mask is front and centre of the story and is as complex as you would want any character. There could have been a tendency to make the character insular, and whilst this is part of the makeup, there is also hope there and dark humour. For a book about depression and a monster that feeds on the lost, the book has some comedic moments. Even when faced with their greatest fears, Mask confronts them with a wry wit. 

The character of Mask really makes the book, but I was also impressed by Theo’s recreation of modern Britain. The book feels like Kitchen Sink Horror, reality mixed with the unreal. The creation of The Nothing is also excellent. This is no mute spirit, but at times an annoyingly chatter one. Its only goal is to persuade its latest victim to give up and allow The Nothing to ingest them. The relationship between Mask and The Nothing has elements of an Odd Couple, if the consequences were not so dire. 

Theo has impressively managed to take some dark subject matter and make an enjoyable horror novel. Depression, societal pressures, gender, suicide, old age, loneliness are all touched upon by a beast that wants to kill, but the book remains readable due to the well-developed central character of Mask. Even in their darkest moments the reader wants to know what will happen to Mask. Benothinged is a modern horror story that is one of the best for this Halloween season.