Review by Ian Keogh
El and Vee have been friends for years, living in a Pennsylvania coal town where the fires rage beneath the streets in the now abandoned mines. El is a talented writer, and from the start her narrative observations supply a sense of place as well as driving the knowledge of the town’s residents.
As a signifier to Carmen Maria Machado’s originality and individuality all you need to know is the novelty of a town named Shudder-to-Think. Machado also uses El and Vee’s comments to sustain an atmosphere. Because they have such a matter of fact approach to the strangeness of their environment, it transmits. What anywhere else would be unusual or cause for considerable concern is generally accepted, such as a local witch, deep cracks in the streets and woods, and the horrors emerging from them. Not as well known is some inhabitants also acting as a form of crevasse, and both girls are uneasy at seemingly falling asleep in the cinema as the story opens.
A reason the atmosphere is so successfully maintained is Dani’s thoughtful art accompanied by Tamra Bonvillain’s equally thoughtful colouring. The detail of an ordinary small town is most commonly supplied in darkness, although not exclusively so, which enables things to be half seen, and therefore not entirely clear, but they’re among the familiar and therefore they’re not comforting. That applies most when half a dozen skinless men come rushing from the darkness, which is drawn to terrify on a primal level.
This is a haunting story in both senses of the word, and eventually has ties to enduring ancient Greek myths, cleverly affecting the present day. That does require an entire chapter’s worth of explanations but they open into a new horror introduced with subtlety, but with no doubt as to what’s been happening. It’s the true horror living up to the town’s name and a disturbing treatment of an even more disturbing everyday occurrence in the real world. Thoughtful and smart, The Low, Low Woods will resonate with readers long after they’ve finished the story.
