Book Reviews: Bad Things by Tamara Thorne
When Ricky Piper was small, his twin brother Robin was taken by the greenjacks, amoral nature spirits that only certain people (such as Ricky) can see. Robin’s body still existed, but his mind became alien–and dangerous. Now it is decades later, and Rick Piper has his own children. Financial and family considerations make it a good idea to move back from Las Vegas to Santo Verde, the ancestral estate. Robin’s long dead, and maybe the greenjacks never existed. Surely the bad things are gone?
As widowed Rick moves back to California with his self-absorbed teen daughter Shelly and kindergartener Cody, it becomes obvious that he’s suppressed many of the memories of his traumatic childhood. His abusive aunt still lives in the family home, though she’s been separated into her own suite of rooms with her awful poodles (most of which have been stuffed.) The housekeeper and gardener live in a separate cottage, and avoid being in the main house at night. And no one’s looked in the secret passages for years, not since Rick’s parents were murdered by an unknown intruder.
Turns out the greenjacks are still real, even if only Rick and the family cat can see them. As Rick’s suppressed memories surface and assorted spooky things happen in the present day, readers will catch on to what’s really going on long before our protagonist. There’s a lot of seemingly obvious clues, but since Rick isn’t telling people large parts of the backstory, most other people don’t catch on either.
Quite a bit of the early flashbacks are more mildly gross than scary. Things pick up as Rick gets older.
Bonus diversity points for 1994 in that Rick’s sassy minority best friend is Dakota, a gay female impersonator. But it’s still a sassy minority best friend role. The love interest is heterosexual and cisgendered. Also an optometrist, which allows some semi-scientific talk about vision.
Robin was born without legs, which leads into some use of his “otherness” for spooky effect, but the author tries hard not to fall completely into ableism. (Not all the characters are as polite.) Content notes: child abuse, emotional abuse, rape, incest.
Despite the generic-sounding title (I expect a lot of people to find this review looking for other books and movies), this book has its own distinctive identity by the end and some genuinely funny bits.
Recommended for people who can deal with a bit of dated material in their horror.
