Guillotine

There are enough stories escaping from Private Islands that makes me think that the rich do not think there are consequences for their actions. What happens on the island stays on the island. With luck, it may just be a celebrity marriage, but on the other hand it could be some of the darkest moments of illegality. Delilah S. Dawson’s latest book Guillotine deals with an exclusive island owned and run by one of the richest families in America. When student Dez Lane is invited along, she may find herself on her last ever vacation. 

Dez has scrimped and saved to get her fashion degree, but even with the qualifications, getting a job in the industry is not easy. After a chance meeting with Patrick Ruskin, she does not want to date the manchild, but does want to meet his mother, the editor of a prestigious fashion magazine. Patrick invites Dez to the family island to meet the folks, but it does not take too long until Dez feels things are off. The staff are all treated like family, but a dysfunctional family that is seeking revenge. 

Guillotine is as hard hitting a horror title as you are likely to come across and you get this impression from the initial content warning, which is full of triggers, not just for the reader, but for Dawson themselves. You get the sense that Dawson enjoyed writing this book as a form of therapy, if therapy takes the form of a darkly comic body horror title. 

The setup is a classic folk horror one. A protagonist finds themselves in a remote location surrounded by odd behaviour. Is the behaviour insidious, or just local quirks? In this case it is not a rural English village, but an exclusive mansion house on an island, White Lotus style. As the story unfolds you start to learn that this extended family has many dark secrets and that Dez is caught up in the reaping of their actions. 

Rather than have clear heroes and villains, Dawson paints all characters in shades of grey. The Ruskins are irredeemable, but what of the staff? Have they witnessed too many evils and not told anyone? If the staff seek their own power by picking off a Ruskin or too, is this truly evil or just karma? 

The one character that is seeing the events from the outside is Dez and Dawson ensures that she is also given depth. Dez is no pure Final Girl, she is real. She has real passions and real ambitions; she is even willing to do some unsavoury things to achieve her goals. Layering Dez’s character gives the book that modern and edgy feel. Puritans will point at Dez and suggest her fate is her own fault, but that is nonsense. There is an interesting moral maze playing out in the background across all the characters. Who is wrong, who is right? Are any of us perfect? 

The horror comes in the form of body horror as various characters are given what is considered their just rewards. These scenes are gruesome and palpable, the type of stuff a horror fan will love. There are no supernatural elements to this book, just ordinary people pushed too far. As Dawson warns at the beginning this book is full of triggers and loathsome people. Most of the initial crimes are spoken of and happened in the past. The new horrors happen on the page and, although gruesome, will be more palatable for readers. Guillotine is a very modern and edgy feeling horror that is horrible in places, but also surprisingly fun.