Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: Distortion
AUTHOR: Lee Thomas
PUBLISHER: Lethe Press
LENGTH: 280 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2018
BLURB:
Mick Harris is disillusioned and disconnected from the world. Having come out after his glory days as the songwriter/bass player for metal act, Palace, he’s all but given up on his dream of having a meaningful relationship, of leading a ”normal” life. When a stranger calls to inform him that an old flame has died, leaving Mick’s daughter alone in a hostile small Southern town, he sees an opportunity to build a meaningful connection with the girl. Of course, she is resistant to meeting her father. In fact, she hates him for having been absent her entire life, but the people close to her are dying horribly.
REVIEW:
Though this book isn’t a wholly coherent mystery, it certainly takes you on one wild ride. Abandon all of your expectations going in, because it will be much darker, much scarier, and much weirder than the blurb leads us to believe.
Mick Harris is leading a pretty normal, albeit solitary, post-rock-god life. Unlike some less fortunate band members, he escaped the hair metal lifestyle relatively unscathed, though the demons of his past continue to haunt him. When he gets word that the mother of his estranged daughter, Isley, has passed, he decides to do the right thing and go down to the backwoods Southern town of Celebration, Alabama to make amends. But Celebration has its own demons, and before Mick can make good with Isley, he has to get past whatever weirdness the town throws his way.
The tone and scope of this book changes so often that the plot-twist whiplash had me reeling between chapters. In one moment, it’s a sad lament of a man past his prime; in another moment, it’s a paranormal tale of trapped souls and ancient curses. It mixes the stifling setting of a Southern Gothic with the contemporary bitterness of family drama. Many of these elements made for some excellent storytelling, but when combined, they turned into something far less palatable.
The strongest parts of the book are the non-horror elements, which is surprising, since it seems like Thomas is primarily a horror genre writer. The horror isn’t bad—in fact, some of it downright chilled me, making it hard to read this book past midnight as a snowstorm raged outside. But Mick’s journey into unfamiliar territory to try his hand at being a father is just much more compelling than a small-town curse that really doesn’t have anything to do with him in the end.
Though Mick is a gay main character, there isn’t much in the way of romance here, so don’t go in expecting much more than a subplot flirtation with a sweet local handyman. I didn’t mind the lack of romance, though—I think it’s important to have more genre fiction besides romance with gay protagonists. Mick is a good main character, and though his sexuality is an important aspect of his life, it’s only a small detail in the grand scheme.
The lack of cohesion at the end is what prevents me from really recommending this book. Thomas seems like a savvy author, so the fraying plot threads and silly red herrings are frustrating within what seemed, at first, to be a pretty complex mystery. But I’m definitely interested in reading more of Thomas’ works to get a better feeling for his type of storytelling.
RATING: 
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