California Gothic

► She stands at the door of the little house in the San Fernando Valley, shadows sweep over the hot, dusty mountains and slide under the acacias and palm trees. The sunlight plays on her hair, the wind billows her sheer dress, AND SHE BEGINS TO CHANGE HER SHAPE.... ◄ Dan and his wife, Evie, had buried the past--a past in which Dan was a poet and his lover was a radical member of a cult the FBI later hunted down and destroyed. Now Dan’s son reads Shock Zone magazine and dreams of making a horror film. ► “WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?” ◄ Now, long since dead and buried, Jude stands at the door: his lover, his inspiration, his past.... ► “WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?” ◄ She has come back for his family and his soul. And the hot wind blows down the mountainside. And the flames begin to lick at the California sky... ► California Gothic embraces popular culture while satirizing it, blending the character-driven mainstream novel with mystery, suspense and horror. The result is a psychological study of a depth seldom found in genre fiction, overlaid with a radical reinvention of the Gothic tale — including zombies. Etchison carries it off with an uncanny precision of language that is as clear as a mirage on the bright desert air. A stunning tour de force. ◄ Kent Allard ► The prevailing tone is not darkness, but a relentless light of the sun, of life, of unwelcome truth. As John Betjeman put it, this is the day that is worse than night. A taut, delicate, breathtaking performance... California Gothic glows with literate vision. Underlying this articulate, luminous novel is an angry challenge to received wisdom, not only about the horror genre but about the way we live. ◄ Joel Lane