Review – Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Magical Realism
Length: 112 pages
Publisher:‎ Tordotcom
Release Date: June 20, 2017
ASIN: B01N8VPCNY
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 2/5 stars

“Walking through his own house at night, a young boy thinks he sees another person stepping through a doorway. The figure reminds him of his long-dead father, who drowned mysteriously before his family left the reservation. When he follows, it he discovers his house is bigger and deeper than he ever knew.

The house is the kind of wrong place where you can lose yourself and find things you’d rather not have. Over the course of a few nights, the boy tries to map out his house in an effort that puts his younger brother in the worst danger, and puts him in the position to save them . . . at a terrible cost.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this on ebook from NetGalley.

Thoughts: This was a novella I had been wanting to read for some time. It ended up being okay, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style or the story. The story was a bit ambiguous for me, and the writing felt disjointed.

The boy here tries to map out his house meticulously after he thinks he sees his dead father walk through a doorway. His brother is getting sicker and sicker, and he thinks it has something to go with the figure he saw. When he ends up under his house, he finds a strange cavity that he thinks is related.

I think I kind of understand what happened in this book, but I also found it somewhat confusing. I am not sure how the boy got away with some of the things he did, or if those things really happened at all.

The writing style didn’t flow well; I kept having to re-read parts of the story. I am not sure why I struggled with this so much. It was a fairly quick read, and I appreciate the odd horror-like magical realism here, but it was just not for me.

My Summary (2/5): Overall I struggled with this novella quite a bit, the writing didn’t flow well for me. In the end, I am not exactly sure what happened here, things are left ambiguous and not all that well explained. I had a lot of questions when I finished reading this. I appreciated the odd and eerie tone to the story but just didn’t find it very satisfying to read. I don’t plan to check out other stories/books by Jones.