Tabula Rasa

Tabula Rasa

Search / Site Map

Contacts

Australian Horror

Australian Horror Films

Recommended Viewing

Australian Monsters

 

Links

INTERVIEWS

The 2005 Spec. Fic Snapshot

 

KJ Bishop

Jack Dann

Will Elliott

Richard Harland

Robert Hood

Martin Murphy & Ian Iveson

Christian Read

Cameron Rogers

The Spierig Brothers

Peter Weir

Kim Wilkins

ARTICLES

Finding Carnacki the Ghost Finder

Pilots into the Unknown

OUR BOOKS

Prismatic

Agog! 1

Agog! 2

Daikaiju!

Epiphanies of Blood

Immaterial

Passing Strange

Southern Blood

INFORMATION

The Boys

The Roly Poly Man

Wake in Fright

REVIEWS

809 Jacob Street, by Marty Young

After The Bloodwood Staff, by Laura E. Goodin

The Art of Effective Dreaming, by Gillian Polack

Bad Blood, by Gary Kemble

Black City, by Christian Read

The Black Crusade, by Richard Harland

The Body Horror Book, by C. J. Fitzpatrick

Clowns at Midnight, by Terry Dowling

Dead City, by Christian D. Read

Dead Europe, by Christos Tsiolkas

Devouring Dark, by Alan Baxter

The Dreaming, by Queenie Chan

Fragments of a Broken Land: Valarl Undead, by Robert Hood

Full Moon Rising, by Keri Arthur

Gothic Hospital, by Gary Crew

The Grief Hole, by Kaaron Warren

Grimoire, by Kim Wilkins

Hollow House, by Greg Chapman

My Sister Rosa, by Justine Larbalestier

Path of Night, by Dirk Flinthart

The Last Days, by Andrew Masterson

Lotus Blue, by Cat Sparks

Love Cries, by Peter Blazey, etc (ed)

Netherkind, by Greg Chapman

Nil-Pray, by Christian Read

The Opposite of Life, by Narrelle M. Harris

The Road, by Catherine Jinks

Perfections, by Kirstyn McDermott

Sabriel, by Garth Nix

Salvage, by Jason Nahrung

The Scarlet Rider, by Lucy Sussex

Skin Deep, by Gary Kemble

Snake City, by Christian D. Read

The Tax Inspector, by Peter Carey

Tide of Stone, by Kaaron Warren

The Time of the Ghosts, by Gillian Polack

Vampire Cities, by D'Ettut

While I Live, by John Marsden

The Year of the Fruitcake, by Gillian Polack
 

2003 EyeScream Film Festival

2004 EyeScream Film Festival

2005 EyeScream Film Festival

2007 A Night of Horror Film Festival
 

Shadowmuse

Under the Blue Moon, 2008
 

Alison's Birthday

The Boys

Carmilla Hyde

Cassandra

Daybreakers

Dangerous Game

Dark Age

Dead End Drive-In

Gabriel

The Last Wave

Lost Things

The Long Weekend

Razorback

Summer of Secrets

Visitors

Wake in Fright
 

Hearts in Atlantis

OTHER HORROR PAGES

Modern Day

The Dark Ages: A History of Horror

On the Page

On the Screen

Reviews
 

Australian Comics
 

Tabula Rasa

The Road

by Catherine Jinks. Allen & Unwin, 2004

Reviewed by Kyla Ward, 2004

"Do you think we're like those people? The ones who disappear and never turn up again? Missing persons?" Her questions became shriller, more panic-stricken. "Like the Bermuda Triangle? Like Picnic at Hanging Rock? Like those bodies they find, after years and years, and no one knows what happened, and everyone thinks someone killed them?" She began to wring her hands, her gaze turned inwards. "It's something like that, I just know it! Oh my God! Oh my God!"

The Road, by Catherine JinksCatherine Jink's latest novel is a welcome sight indeed. A horror story for adults, set in Australia by an Australian author, released by a major publisher as an attractive trade paperback. You won't find it in the "horror" section though, assuming your local bookshop has such a thing; you will find it in with the regular fiction releases, to which the cover is appropriate. But make no mistake, this is full-blown, supernatural horror.

The story begins with Grace Stone and her young son Nathan, urban aborigines who have retreated to her great uncle's property, which lies off the Silver City Highway somewhere between Coombah and Broken Hill. You might glimpse the letter box as you drive past in your truck at 87 K.P.H. Or in your family saloon, the whining of the kids as constant and monotonous as the humming of the tyres on the asphalt. But of course you keep going. And going. And going...

After the initial shock of the Grace episode, the dramatis personae increases steadily, as unrelated people in separate vehicles realise that something is very, very wrong. It makes for a fascinating set of characters, all with different reasons for being out on this stretch of road at this particular time. All are created deftly, with just the right amount of detail to bring them to life, and brought together inevitably and (un)naturally. The author switches viewpoints frequently, providing variety within the repetition which is essential to her plan. And no one character is right all the time, or has all the clues. Apart from anything else, this is a neat exploration of how groups form and collapse under escalating stress.

The author's plan, of course, is to get the reader on the edge of her seat and keep her there. For most of the distance, there I was. Every time the action seemed about to break down (always a danger with cars), a new arrival, a character's decision, or some wonderfully grotesque apparition carried me along. From the reader's perspective, which is privy to all viewpoints, the suspense just kept building and building. What some of the characters didn't know, particularly about the other characters, was almost unbearable at times.

The supernatural manifestations were also excellent. Growing out of the general detail, with strategic use made yet again of changing viewpoints, they have all the impact of the crow that at one point manages to completely disable a land rover. This is not quiet horror!

However, when the plot quite literally made a sharp turn, I have to confess I was thrown. The narrative was certainly resolved, but I was left with questions, a feeling of unfulfilled promise and unplumbed depths. Perhaps this is inevitable for an interloper in this land. In the final reckoning, none of the characters had really done more than scratch the surface -- even that particular one whose insanity seemed to contain flashes of insight. And none of them, not even Grace, were aware of the Aboriginal myth presented to the reader as a framing story, which clearly informs events.

Presenting an intensely hostile landscape and invoking that peculiarly Australian penchant for driving vast distances, The Road runs somewhere to the left of Hanging Rock (as observed by "Georgie", above) and The Cars That Ate Paris might be lurking just over the horizon. However, with its consistently excellent writing and original use of both setting and imagery, this book is happily independent. I have no doubt it will satisfy those who pick it out of the general fiction section, as well as intriguing those who understand my references to classic Australian horror.

 

©2020 Go to top