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Book Review : Adam Aresty - Recovery (2013)


Order RECOVERY here

I was angry from the pain. And when you're in pain all the time, you change as a person. My father used to say that people never change, but he was wrong. Chemicals make you totally different, but I wanted to be that different. If the act of sitting in a chair for longer than five minutes gave you shooting, white-hot lightning pain all up and down your back and legs... and then standing cranked that pain dial all the way up to MAX, then you'd seek out a way to put an end to it too. 

Writing a quality work of fiction is all about making the right choices : What are you going to talk about? What point of view are you going to use? What sequence of events are you going to priviledge in order to illustrate your ideas? A lot of 'industry people' will tell you that originality is paramount, but quite frankly I'm starting to doubt that. That line of thought leads to too many werewolves in flying saucers and undead P.Is chasing space cadets novels. As long as you remain interesting within a finite number of page, everyone will love it. RECOVERY by Adam Aresty, is ridiculously short for a standalone feature and is a little problematic. But it's interesting. Even its issues are. So it's worth the hour of your time it's going to take you to read.

A man decides to check himself into rehab after developing a drug habit that is slowly turning him into another man and therefore disintegrating his family. He's not a bad man, he's just been struggling to be himself since an unfortunate accident put him in terrible pain. The rehab center is a cold and alienating place, but it seems safe and remote enough to keep him far from possible sources of temptation. But when you're always shifting through layers of reality, it's difficult to understand and process what you're seeing and feeling. The center might be not the safest place for him, after all. Shit, it's difficult to summarize such a short novella without spoiling anything.

''Do you know what dissociative disorder is? Do you ever feel outside of yourself? Or...not yourself?''

''I know what what is. I don't think I got it. But I do the drugs to feel different, if that's what you're asking.''

Kareem nods, writes that down. 

''Have you ever gone against your values and/or morals?''

I stare blankly at him. I don't know what to say to that.

Oddly enough, RECOVERY is the tale of two halves, like an unevenly coached basketball game. The first half depicts a seducing, extremely self-aware man who courageously decides to face his inner demons in a Lovecraftian hospital. RECOVERY isn't a Lovecraftian book per se, but Adam Aresty writes like how it would feel to stumble into Beyond the Wall of Sleep. There is a tremendous scene in RECOVERY where the narrator is awakened by his psychotic roommate trying to murder him. It's both funny and disquieting and it's as Lovecraftian as it gets for a seemingly realistic setting. I guess I could settle on saying that RECOVERY is a gothic horror novella.

The second part of RECOVERY is a mix of supernatural and psychological horror. I like the idea, it's been done before but Adam Aresty articulates it well. The issue is that way too much is happening in too litttle time. It breaks the wonderful mood the first half has set and rushes the novella into an anticipated ending. It's like Adam Aresty told himself; ''Shit, I gotta end this,'' and raced to the first logical closure point. RECOVERY is a good novella, it feels fresh and Adam Aresty has a strong voice. It would've benefited from a better paced approach though. If it would've followed up on the subtle and creepy mood it set up in its first half, it had the potential to become a cult classic.

Movie Review : Filth (2013)

Book Review : Kira Peikoff - No Time to Die (2014)