This book has been described as a new, inventive twist on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but frankly, I didn't see that come through. It may be that my familiarity with Hyde and Jekyll are a bit limited.
This book was published originally in 2022 in Spanish. It is now coming out in an English Translation on September 1!
I've been reading a lot of weird girl books- and I was pretty happy to find this book nearly 90% populated with "weird" men. m Also I love this dramatic cover, it was perfect.
We start with war veteran Dr. Edward Pierce. He's a psychiatrist who's specializing in hypnosis, and treating well heeled war veterans with problems that lend themselves to being tucked into a Scottish manor well enough away from major city centers. Dr. Pierce is attempting to use hypnosis for treatment, while most of the others in his profession are experimenting with electro-shock and other such treatments. Indeed a sort of subplot, or concurrent plot is Pierce's relationships with his colleagues across Europe, as he attempted to establish himself as pre-eminent.
One day he admits a patient, a fellow war veteran, who had returned to his job as an Engineer, but after a subsequent traumatic experience on the job, has developed mutism and an inability to stop "swimming"
The patient is admitted and Pierce soon becomes fully committed to this unfortunate man, forsaking all other patients, and leaving them for his colleague.
Readers are given an opportunity to delve into the horror of war, and how it mangles all those it touches, and the subsequent horrors awaiting even those who came through that war unscathed. I enjoyed this book, though I did find it a bit "dense" for only about 197 pages. I was personally a bit disappointed that certain parts of the story seemed to have very abrupt switches with little explanation, but such is the situation when one has multiple unreliable narrators!
Will the be for everyone? Maybe not. But if one is looking for an atmospheric, somewhat terrifying horror novel that ties in both the supernatural and actual horror, this is one to check out. I would LOVE to have this in an audiobook format, and that might have increased my enjoyment. In addition, reading it as a buddy read with a committed buddy might have also enhanced my enjoyment! Many Many thanks for Pushkin Press for the advance E-Arc! I hope to see a lot of folks reading this for Spooky Season.
STATS
First Published 2022 English edition 9/1/26
Pages: 192
Available as an Audio Book : hopefully
Trigger Warnings: Animal cruelty, war violence, references to murder, actual murder, mental health, drug use, angry animals, hallucination.
(this is not a full list, read responsibly)
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