Review: Breathe In, Bleed Out, by Brian McAuley

Rating: ⛏️⛏️⛏️⛏️⛏️

Initial Reaction:

Well, I guess I really do like slashers.

One Sentence Summary:

Haunted by the death of her fiancé, Hannah goes on a spiritual retreat with four of her 'best' friends; and all goes well until a ghostly miner starts picking them off one by one.

Tell Me More:

I actually want to start my review of this book by talking about the Author's Note at the end. In "Scream With Me," Brian McAuley takes a moment to describe his lifelong obsession with slashers; his reverence towards Scream as the apotheosis of the genre; and even briefly overviews the genre's evolution, working backwards from Scream. He talks about Jason Voorhees, Michael Meyers, and Freddy Kreuger; and even touches on the prevalence of slashers in Italian cinema of the 70s.

What struck me about this overview, however, was the time McAuley spent talking about the genre's origins in print; and specifically his attention to Agatha Christie. I've been a Christie fan since I was in college, and her novel And Then There Were None (which McAuley mentions as a beginning of the slasher genre) has been a favorite of mine since I first read it all those years ago. It had never occurred to me to connect my horror books to my mystery books; though in hindsight the connection seems SUPER obvious. Mysteries involve murder; slashers involve murder (and murder, murder, murder!).

This brings me to the grand epiphany this book led me to: I really do like slashers; which is an odd thing to say after I said "Slashers give me the ick" in yesterday's review (multiple times, in fact).

For the longest time I've avoided slasher movies, primarily because of the "people hurting people" aspect of it. Creature features never gave me this problem. Jaws? Alien? Never bothered me. They're even among my favorite movies! But there was something about the fact that slasher villains were people, not creatures that made my stomach clench. I think it was the idea that slashers could be real-- serial killers are a thing, y'know-- and that potential for fiction to bleed over into reality was just too unsettling to me to reckon with.

That being said, I've tried to overcome this ick. Last year I watched Nightmare on Elm Street as part of a Halloween movie marathon, and loved it. I think the fact that it was such a fantastical slasher helped. Serial killers may be real, but Freddy's dream-powers certainly aren't. Maybe this year I'll work myself up to Friday the 13th, or perhaps Halloween. Maybe even And Then There Were None.

Anyway, enough about me-- let's talk about this book!

The real review starts now.

In case you couldn't tell by the cover, this book is INCREDIBLY pulpy. It almost felt like reading a cartoon and I was HERE FOR IT.

The characters felt like they were playing roles, which was helpful when it came time for the killing. The sex-obsessed frat boy; the overachieving, fragile white girl; the sensitive musician-- these weren't people, they were characters; and while such constructed personas might be a hindrance in a genre like literary realism, in this book they worked perfectly.  It provided a nice level of disconnect when the slasher's knife (or in this case, his pick-axe) came down. I'd almost go so far as to describe this as a cozy slasher.

The plot clipped along at a reasonable pace (I guess? I don't know slashers that well-- I only just discovered I like them!); and there were just enough red herrings sprinkled in to keep me guessing without slowing down the narrative. I didn't see the slasher's identity coming at all; and having read more than my fair share of mystery novels, it's quite a feat to pull that one over on me! Also, for all it's over-the-top, cartoony, pulpiness-- the book still had heart. I felt for Hannah and genuinely wanted her to heal.

Breathe In, Bleed Out is getting ⛏️⛏️⛏️⛏️⛏️ / 5 for being such a fun read. I'd be more than willing to read or listen to it again; and the fact that it brought a smile to my face several times while reading was more than enough to get that fifth pick-axe. I'm interested in reading more by McAuley-- though from what I can see on Libby it doesn't look like I'll get the chance to read more of his work anytime soon. 😭