The Children of Red Peak, by Craig DiLouie

I don't mind exposition in novels. I like longer books, and I often feel that character development and atmosphere are neglected in the current trend of novellas in the genre. I like a slow burn. I don't mind sticking with a story through thick and thin. The thing is, there had better be a payoff.

The Children of Red Peak is my first Craig DiLouie book. I was initially impressed by the professional writing style and the intriguing plot. The novel deals with children who survived a Guyana-type religious cult mass suicide tragedy. Now grown, they are psychologically adrift and are unable to have fulfilling relationships.

In addition to the mass suicides and tales of mutilation among the cult-like group, a mystery enshrouds the situation. The survivors make a trip to the secluded mountaintop in which it happened in order to find answers and come to some sort of closure.

All good. The story lags here and there, and stayed stuck in the mud when it should have flown. The characters themselves are unlikable and reading about them became tedious and frustrating. I was fine with all that. These people are still suffering from an unimaginable event that shattered their childhoods.

As I said above, build up the story, ask a lot from the reader, and the author needs to deliver a strong payoff.

I like supernatural stories and fiction grounded in reality. The Children of Red Peak is neither. Instead of a satisfying conclusion DiLouie serves up a bunch of phony baloney metaphysical gibberish. I guess I was supposed to relate to the emotional impact of it all, but instead I was merely angered. I had invested time and money only to, as far as I am concerned, be cheated with vague psychopap.

I give some credit to the book. The depiction of the cult and the discussions of exit strategies used to help those in them are credible and convincing. DiLouie's book is ambitious and it aims much higher than most horror fiction. Though I don't believe this novel is marketed as such.

Sad to say, The Children of Red Peak had a lot of potential, but it failed to deliver. Sort of like joining a cult and finding out it's all a lot of bullshit.

Written by Mark Sieber