Something happened.
A cursory glimpse at something like Kickstarter will reveal the two dominating themes that almost guarantee a successful project – anything zombie related or anything rooted in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. The great tentacled one is ubiquitous – pasting his noodles onto board and video games, knitted toys, short films and more. Often this is nothing more than a simple skinning, a mask to cover a flimsy concept that will suddenly sprout gibbering monsters and slippery forms. But there are authors who are taking some of the roots of his fiction and running with them in their own books, dreaming of unsettling realities and the destructive pull of the unknown. Opening with a Lovecraft quote, Stephen King’s latest novel Revival is one such novel.
Like many King leaping-off points, Jamie Morton is a six-year-old in a small town in Maine when he comes into contact with someone who will leave ripples in his life for the next fifty years. Charlie Jacobs and his charming family move into the town, and he becomes the pastor of the local church. He’s an eccentric but kind man, seemingly springing to life when he talks about electricity – managing to bring it into sermons, life-lessons and more. But this isn’t just a hobby, as he demonstrates when Jamie’s brother loses his voice, presenting an device that almost magically enables him to speak again. When tragedy hits the Reverend, an interest in the power of electricity soon becomes an obsession as he abruptly leaves the church and disappears out of Jamie’s life. Jamie grows up and discovers the twin powers of music and drugs, until another run-in at a carnival with Charlie fifteen years later. By this point Jamie has been trapped in a spiral of addiction, and Charlie once again brings out his secret experiments and manages to stop his cravings. Fast forward another fifteen years, and the novel turns into a mystery of sorts as Jamie becomes convinced that Charlie is actually doing harm to all of his patients under a new miracle-healing guise. Jamie and other “healed” punters have been suffering some worrying side effects, such as horrific visions of other worlds, madness and strange compulsions. Jamie wants to put an end to Charlie’s work, but he will find himself pulled closer and closer to the man.
The buzz about Revival was that it was one of the scariest books King has ever written – I will disagree with this. It has some very effective creepy moments, and a great sense of snowballing dread – but when you are up against novels like The Shining, chances are you are going to fall short. But I won’t disagree with anyone who says that it is one of his best. It’s slow-burning but entirely gripping, with well drawn characters and memorable scenes. This feels something like a memoir, spanning five decades and following Jamie as he grows up, suffers through addiction and repeatedly comes into contact with the enigmatic Charlie Jacobs. The first half is almost like the slightly world-weary autobiography of a washed up musician, slowly laying the path that will lead him to the bottom and the need for Charlie’s miracle cure. There’s nothing in fiction like seeing a person change over the years to truly put you inside their head. While King often features adults reminiscing about the past (IT, Dreamcatcher and The Body all spring to mind here) this is the first time we truly grow up with someone, rather than leaping between two distinct points. There aren’t many writers who can write about childhood in such a pleasing and nostalgic way and yet also portray the brunt of expectations and the fear of aging so succinctly.
Also pleasing for me was the absence of the “power of good.” Too often of late King has relied on supernatural kindness and a benevolent higher power to save the day and balance things. I feel like the use of this is probably another reference to the twelve steps, but it’s one allusion that I personally am less interested in. It’s a bleak story in the best kind of way, and while some may be a little perplexed by the ending, it was all laid out there on that first page. So be prepared.