Adam Nevill is unpredictable. Unpredictable but never
boring. He plays ball in all horror subgenres, and he plays it hard, merciless
and oh so delightfully f***ed up. And his prose is so stylish he makes the
likes of James Herbert look positively infantile.
I’ve read Under a Watchful Eye twice (so far), simply because
the horror in it is in places of such an uncanny, eerie dreamlike quality that
stays with you less in what you saw but more how it made you feel, the way you
wake from a nightmare, shaken and scattered by it all day but only able to
remember snippets - probably just the tip of the iceberg wreaking havoc in your
subconscious now. Which makes the book utterly re-readable, leaving you to
discover new bits each time you touch base with it again.
You wouldn’t think a picturesque Devon seaside town would
give you the heebie-jeebies as much as a dilapidated house rented out by a psycho live-in landlord in a poor part of Birmingham. But fear not – when successful
writer Seb spots an oddly floating figure staring at him from a distance, one
that looks unpleasantly familiar to someone he had escaped decades ago, the
sunny beachfront soon turns into a creepy negative like the intro from Tales
from the Darkside.
The figure keeps popping up in his path, out of thin air and
coming closer and closer, just to disappear again, making Seb question his
sanity. Until it appears in his drive, the disturbing figure of his uni
housemate Ewan, a man so filthy and unkempt, Nevill’s description practically
makes you gag, with no redeeming features whatsoever. He’s far from a hobo with
a heart of gold – he displays delusions of grandeur and psychopathic traits
and plants himself into Seb’s classy house like a human tick. You might wonder
why Seb just doesn’t chuck him out – but once you’re exposed to the threat and
mind-twisting manipulation he endures, you feel as trapped as him.
And not just
that. With Ewan, things appear in the
house. Things from another Arthur-Machenesque plane that followed him there and
start stalking Seb, as well. Things so unspeakably horrible, images Nevill
plants into your head like demonic seeds that will sickeningly blossom before
your inner eye just as you turn off the lights. Lost creatures, barely human, in
a nightmarish fog. Condemned spirits and souls lost in a hellish dimension
after dabbling in a cult practicing astral projection. A cult that soon starts
stalking Seb, as well. And Seb’s life begins to crumble as he desperately tries
to find out what Ewan has let loose on him, that he needs to get involved with
that cult in order to find a way to free himself of the demonic forces in his
life, just to get entangled deeper and deeper, with no hope of any human forces
to rescue him.
By the way, those who read Nevill’s privately published
short story collection “Some will not sleep” (another absolutely unmissable, by
the way) will recognise the characters from an equally fascinating and
gag-inducing short story called “Yellow Teeth” – to me, one of the most
disturbing one in the lot, and that’s a walk in the park compared to UWE - ;
its title featuring as the name of a novel Seb produces in UWE after his
harrowing experiences with Ewan and his ghastly entourage.
I swallowed this book in two sittings, leaving my eyes dry
and my flesh creeping. The imagery is as haunting as scenes from recent
paranormal films: put visions of Silent Hill together with the various Furthers
and Upside Downs, flavoured with the spirit of Arthur Machen and Aleister
Crowley, you’re getting there. Nevill induces that cosmic horror in you that he’s
become famous for. That sense of spiralling out of control, with no reprieve
and escape. Seb’s terror will infect your own bones and not let go. Word of
advice: plan in a few recovery periods with Disney films to get through this
experience with your sanity intact.
Highly recommended, easily the best horror of this year.
