Customer Reviews

Cage of Night

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Just discharged from the Army, Spence, the narrator of Cage of Night (newly available from PS Publishing), attends a high school party at the urging of his younger brother, Josh. At first, Spence regrets his decision to attend; he gets involved in a brawl, and afterwards, spends most of his time sitting on a stump, morosely observing the actions of the other partygoers. Then, he sees a young woman who will profoundly affect his life--beauty queen Cindy Brasher, who arrives at the party in the company of her hulking boyfriend, David Myles. For Spence, it is love at first sight.

After speaking briefly at the party, the two grow close. Unalarmed by the fact that Cindy spent time in a mental institution, Spence also reacts calmly to her assertions that she is in communication with an alien who lives in a well in the woods on the outskirts of town (holy "Colour Out of Space," Batman!). The alien, who supposely was stranded there during a meteor shower close to a century before, communicates with Cindy telepathically, telling her to do "things." Infatuated, Spence lets Cindy drag him to the well to listen to the alien firsthand, but hears nothing.

Spence is lucky, because others apparently DO hear, and are influenced by, the entity in the well. David Myles, jealous of Spence and Cindy, suddenly snaps and shoots a local girl in cold blood. Myles is gunned down by Mike Garrett, a policeman, who takes up with Cindy immediately thereafter. Ostensibly at the bidding of the alien, the two embark on a crime spree, resulting in a murder for which Spence is blamed. Spence, convinced the Cindy is a pawn in some deadly game he doesn't fully understand, strives to clear his name and rescue Cindy before Garrett can complete the frame-up. His final confrontation with Garrett has tragic and unexpected consequences.

On the surface, Gorman's style is deceptively simple--clean, tight prose in service of a relatively straightforward tale of suspense. But that simple style actually conceals a lot of complexity, as Gorman subtly muddies the fictional waters, creating a great deal of ambiguity. Readers can not be sure of the underlying cause of the distrubing events which occur. Is it Cindy, mentally unstable, but able to twist men around her little finger? Some kind of rare, shared psychotic disorder? The Lovecraftian "alien" who inhabits the well? One can't be sure. One thing you can be sure of however, is that Cage of Night is quintessential Gorman: a suspenseful, gripping tale, told without a wasted word.

This is another one of my faves from Gorman. This book is suspenseful and creepy. The characters are likeable and very real. This book combines the elements of suspense, and the supernatural perfectly. Imagine a well shrouded in mystery. An old well that is said to be inhabited by a being from another world which is talking to those who will listen.