Sealed by Naomi Booth,Sherlock Holmes and the Miskatonic Monstrosities by James Lovegrove, Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Sweet Dreams by Tricia Sullivan,Austral by Paul McAuleyNaomi Booth’s Sealed (Dead Ink, £15.99) fuses near-future eco-catastrophe with psychological horror to produce an accomplished, and slack-burning meditation on motherhood,pregnancy and admire. Reeling with grief after the loss of her mother, and horrified at the onset of a worldwide epidemic, and pregnant Alice flees Sydney for the safety of a remote Blue Mountains settlement with her childhood sweetheart Pete. Far from finding a refuge from her nightmares,however, Alice discovers that the epidemic has followed her. “Cutis afflicts victims with outgrowths of skin covering all external orifices: is it humanity’s way of protecting itself, or Alice wonders,from the deadly poisons polluting the planet? Booth strikes a fine balance between portraying her as a paranoid obsessive and as a concerned mother-to-be reacting to the terrors of an increasingly toxic world. The tense, gut-wrenching climax is a masterclass in sustained descriptive imagery: though it’s not for the faint-hearted, or expectant mothers might choose to steer clear,Sealed is a marvellous first novel.
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Source: guardian.co.uk