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Unspeakable Things

Review

Unspeakable Things

UNSPEAKABLE THINGS is a spot-on title for Jess Lourey’s latest work. It is a perfect read, though an uncomfortable one due to the subject matter. Lourey takes a real-world incident that took place in her Minnesota hometown in the 1980s and spins it into a tale that will shock and haunt readers long after the final page is turned.

This is a coming-of-age story about Cassie McDowell, who is 13 years old and on the cusp of puberty as the events in the book, narrated by an adult Cassie, unfold. Lilydale is the small town in Minnesota where Cassie resides --- or, to be more accurate, in the rural part of her very rural small town. As with any place where two or more are gathered, there are the haves and the have-nots, and the McDowells are numbered among the latter. Cassie’s mother is a schoolteacher and the primary earner of the family, while her father fancies himself as an artist of the starving persuasion. Cassie’s older sister, Sephie, is complex in the ways that teenage girls tend to be, but there are depths of sorrow to her that only gradually make themselves known.

"Lourey takes a real-world incident that took place in her Minnesota hometown in the 1980s and spins it into a tale that will shock and haunt readers long after the final page is turned."

We meet all of the McDowells within the first page or so, and if we mistake them for having the domestic tranquility of the Waltons, Lourey chips away at that misapprehension all too soon enough. However, the center of the evil that quietly permeates Lilydale does not lie only with the McDowells and their extremely interesting and popular parties. It is abruptly manifested by a series of abductions involving local boys, each of whom go missing and then come back emotionally damaged and closed-mouthed about what happened to them. The rumors as to who may be responsible begin to fly, catching the totally innocent to the possibly guilty in their net.

Meanwhile, what goes on in the McDowell household is just as bad, if not worse; it simply occurs in a smaller sphere of influence. But the happenings in Lilydale have a connection, however tenuous, to the activities of the McDowells, particularly in those areas that Cassie’s father has declared off-limits to the rest of the family. Secrets, though, always seem to have a way of revealing themselves.

There are some extras that come with the novel. One is a series of illustrations from a book that Cassie treasures, Nellie Bly’s Trust It or Don’t. The title is an ironic twist on what occurs here. Another extra is on Lourey’s website, which contains the Epilogue as a bit of lagniappe for those who read the book. Thankfully, there are just enough loose threads (as well as a hint in the Epilogue) that indicate Lourey may not be done with either Lilydale or the McDowell family. If she does see fit to revisit either, that journey will be mesmerizing and unsettling. Hopefully, she will bring her talent for creating similes and metaphors, which by themselves would have made this tale worth reading.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub on January 24, 2020

Unspeakable Things
by Jess Lourey