Beholder by Ryan La Sala. Push, 2023. 9781338745344
Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4
Format: ARC (publication date 10/3/23)
Genre: Horror, suspense
What did you like about the book? Since the death of his parents in a fire, Athan lives with his yiayia in a broken-down basement apartment in Harlem. She spends most of her time muttering in Greek and issuing dire warnings about mirrors and the evil eye. As the novel opens, Athan’s attending a swanky party with his mysterious benefactor Uhler (a designer) when a strange boy shoves him into a bathroom and tells him to stay there. Gruesome sounds seep through the locked door and when Athan finally emerges, he’s greeted by a mound of dead and mangled bodies. Now on the run from the police, he collides with the guy from the party, who helps him escape. Dom turns out to be an artist and Uhler’s adopted son. Convinced that the older man is evil, Dom has dedicated the last few years to following a string of unsettling deaths that trail behind Uhler and finding proof of a broader conspiracy among a cabal of malevolent art lovers. Athan turns out to have scything abilities that may be the key to unlocking a monstrous, spider-shaped evil spirit that (in conjunction with mass hysteria-enducing wallpaper) compells its victims to suicide and murder.
In his “About the author” note, La Sala describes himself as a writer of “surreal things happening to queer people”, and readers of his dark and bizarre 2022 novel The Honeys will appreciate his return to insect-infused and richly imagined horror. Much like his previous book, this story is long on atmosphere, with intense emotional arcs for its characters. The creepiness is off the charts as is the tenderness between the two young men, who cling to each other as they race through Manhattan, trying to stay one step ahead of Uhler and the spider spirit. Athan identifies as pansexual and Greek while Dom is described as gay, with rich-brown skin and dark curly hair.
Anything you didn’t like about it? The story is relayed in alternating voices, with Athan telling his story in first person while the other chapters are related by an unknown narrator using a second person style and speaking directly to Athan. “You decide to go out at night”, “You know right where to go”, “You view the world in pieces”, etc. The unnamed character feels sinister, but also deliberately confounding; readers may find this creative decision taxing. I occasionally ended up skimming these sections (which made up about a third of the text). Adding to the problem, the font for these parts was very, very small and sans serif , making them difficult to read. For me, they definitely detracted from the action, romance, and real world creepiness of the story.
To whom would you recommend this book? Despite my struggles with its structure, I appreciated this ambitious and creative novel and couldn’t put it down. Because of the graphic nature of the murders, I would pitch it to high school and adult readers who read horror for its chilling atmosphere and don’t mind cryptic plots.
Who should buy this book? High school and public libraries
Where would you shelve it? YA fiction, horror if you genre-fy.
Should we (librarians/readers) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? No
Reviewer: Susan Harari, Keefe Library, Boston Latin School, Boston, MA
Date of review: September 9, 2023
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