The Missing

The Missing, by Sarah Langan, won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Horror Novel of 2007, but it didn't do much for me. If this was the best novel of the year, then the horror genre is suffering (although I did like the winner of Best First Novel, Heart-Shaped Box). The book is well-written, but I found it to be devoid of thrills, centering mostly on gross-out moments.

A sequel to a book I have not read (The Keeper), Langan takes the bold step of setting her book in Maine, which is Stephen King country. The town in question is an upscale community called Corpus Christi (not a name chosen idly). It seems that the neighboring town had an industrial fire that involved a lot of sulphur. An old virus, long buried, calls out to a young boy who unknowing unearths it. This virus turns people into feral creatures who, after killing and eating all the forest animals, turns to anthropophagy.

So what we have here is a book that delights in describing, in vivid detail, people eating people, or people ripping other people apart in various methods. That's all well and good, but the story itself is simply a downward spiral, with no reversals of fortune for any characters. I suspect that this may be a middle volume of a trilogy.

Langan also ventures into King country with her examination of bedroom communities and frequent mentions of pop culture. This may be the only novel that has made reference to the film Freddy Got Fingered.