Eric Meisinger gets a late-night phone call from his cousin, Bernard, and catches up on family affairs, including the latter’s heated divorce. But Bernard’s chief concern is Agnes, his 88-year-old mother, with whom he lives. Agnes had a frighteningly violent episode earlier that evening and has another one midway through the phone call. So, Eric heads to his aunt Agnes’ house, only to be greeted with a horrifying sight-his crazed aunt, perched in a cramped space atop a cabinet and uttering what the cousins initially deem “gibberish.” (“It’s some kind of language. I recall! hearing it somewhere, but I just can’t recall where.”) After she commits an especially vulgar, unnerving act, Eric and Bernard, convinced she’s possessed, call in the professionals. A rabbi (Agnes was raised in a Jewish household) and then a Haitian priest stop by, but can either clergyman successfully exorcise whatever has hold of the elderly woman? In the meantime, Agnes grows worse, and she may even pose a threat to Eric and Bernard. The author builds a solid foundation for the cousins, filling in their family’s background and detailing, for example, how Bernard’s German father, Albert, had to undergo an interrogation of sorts from Agnes’ family to get their approval for him to marry Agnes. Religion plays a crucial part in this short narrative, and it’s fascinating to see the differences in how the rabbi and the Haitian priest handle a case of possession. On the horror front, the book has several eerie turns, though genre fans will have seen some of this before (mostly in the classic 1973 movie The Exorcis . Although the much-anticipated exorcism scene is a bit anticlimactic, the novella’s closing moments are quietly sublime. Wilson’s charcoal-like illustrations cover full pages in elegant black, aptly portraying such disconcerting images as Agnes mindlessly standing at an open fridge or the remnants of her destructive behavior. A truly disturbing story of exorcism, even if it relies on some familiar horror tropes.
Books
Rue Rosco 13 by Eddie Russell
Product details
- ASIN : B0CJM3ZLN3
- Publisher : GrumpyCatPress (September 21, 2023)
- Publication date : September 21, 2023
- Language : English
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