Even if this book had been half-as-good as it is, Hemplow would deserve some notice for his handling of the mother-son relationship and its ironic turn into a mother-son one. Despite being the driving force in her life, he is less real to Patricia on the everyday side of things than the Other-Worldly Things haunting her, except to what degree she creates Noah in her life, investing her ideal of him into her struggles and her suffering. Noah is a cipher, a lacuna, a blank spot in a book where he is arguably the second most important character.

She even takes the job central to the novel's plot to raise more money, entrapping her in its embrace.Īnd all of this suffering is highlighted by Hemplow's refusal to allow communication with Noah. She has become estranged from her husband because she feels he is not passionate about their son's defense. She is steadily losing cash and possessions just to keep up with the bribes and the legal fees. In the first portion of the book, most of the first half, the driving horror and unease is almost entirely down to Patricia- Ashes' protagonist, hired to renovate a house destroyed by fire centuries ago-and her desperate, life-wrecking desire to get her son, Noah, out of Russian prison. It also does well by characters, mostly with the pacing, establishing a sense of unease, and being very even handed with its cosmic-sprinkles. All three parts are going to be a tad disappointed.įirst off, the book is good with great moments-immediately coming to mind is a scene involving brood parasitism into which I had trouble not trying to read too much. Part of me just wanted to blink twice and have a review written. Part of me wanted to dive right in with some comment about the novel's relevant-to-current-events vibe-from international relations with Russia to e-cigs. Part of me wanted to start with a question about the Horror Zeitgeist that can fashion a ghost tale out of a genre notorious for being the-other-supernatural. The fact that I've spent the better part of a week, now, trying to figure out how to write this review says, I think, something about Ashes: Hemplow's short cosmic-horror-splashed haunted-place novel.

Ashes by Philip Hemplow