By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: Normally I get very uncomfortable when I read the second book in a series without reading the first. I often compare it to butting into the middle of a conversation and missing the opening or hearing the punchline of a joke and missing the set up.
Some authors consciously know that not everyone reads series in order so they compensate for that. Mystery authors often make their books stand alone while having occasional subplots carry over from volume to volume. Other genre authors summarize the events prior in the introduction or have the characters provide exposition for what happened before.
Even when authors provide that assistance, it can be a confusing surreal situation to read the second book first. It can be frustrating but sometimes, as in the case of In The House of Root and Rot, the second book in Sam Weiss’ The Altered Planes series, that confusion and surrealism actually works.
Will Deadmarsh (a name that is on the nose for a Horror novel but has a delightful ghoulish ring to it) is the only survivor in a family that is cursed by death according to his grandfather, Houl. Will’s mother died in childbirth. His father and twin sister got into a car collision which resulted in his immediate death and her coma and eventual death. Houl, had a stroke but is not responsive leaving Will to take care of the once cantankerous verbally abusive senior.
Atra Hart (another meaningful surname) has escaped from a psychiatric hospital with her scientist father, Tom. She was subjected to scientific experiments that Tom rescued her from while shooting her primary doctor, Dr. Glasser. As the two hide, Tom’s erratic behavior becomes negligent and borderline abusive so when Atra is put into a dangerous situation, she escapes. By chance, Atra encounters Will as he is questioning the aftermath of a sleep study in which his sister, Lex, returned from the dead and Houl disappeared. Finding their lives in danger possibly by the same people, Atra and Will go on with Lex in tow.
As I mentioned before, reading the series out of sequence adds and actually increases the confusion and surrealism that surrounds the characters and the Reader. Somehow it makes the events that much scarier when we don't know what's going on any more than the characters do.
We are given some exposition in the opening chapters. We are told that Atra was a guinea pig in a scientific experiment to explore life after death, particularly the spirit world called The Otherside. She can travel through a portal called The Altered Planes which is between life and death. She also has a piece of death inside her called Dread which appears as a sentient shadow.
We also learn over the course of the book that Will's family was also involved in the experiments hence the frequent deaths and Lex's post mortem reappearance. But the exposition is few and far between and still leaves a lot of gaps and unanswered questions.
Under normal circumstances, alternating point of view chapters, flashbacks, and back stories put Readers ten steps ahead of the protagonists. This book however puts us two steps ahead of the characters at most. Because of this, Readers are unprepared for the weirdness without any information. We are just as startled when these things happen such as when Lex returns in an emaciated corpse form and taunts and threatens her twin brother.
Her insults might have been gentle sibling ribaldry and teasing when she was alive. But now there is something savage and menacing about her words. She mentally creates confusion and suspicion within Will which leaves him emotionally isolated. It's possible that the price of Lex’s return was her soul.
Lex isn't the only sinister paranormal presence. There are creatures that appear in and out of shadows and feed off of fear and negative emotions. They pass down through family generations. Will eventually learns such a spirit is attached to the Deadmarsh Family. Dread is similar to these creatures as it too has chaotic motivations and commits violent actions. It's hard for Will and Atra to hide from spirits that are within their brain, blood, and DNA.
Will and Atra are face to face with these spirits that can't be studied or understood. Indeed, part of the reason for their appearance is out of defiance of human scientists arrogantly researching them and expecting them to be contained. If they can't be studied and can't be contained, then they can't be defeated or killed. In fact, since they are associated with death, they are more than likely death itself or representatives of the end of life. So the only options are to try to run from them or learn to live with them.
The confusion lies not only within the characters but the setting. Some of the eeriest moments occur during Will and Atra’s road trip. They stop at small towns that are unnervingly silent with no one at gas stations, convenience stores, driving on the highway. There are buildings and vehicles, but they stand empty of people inside them. It's like a movie set that is supposed to imitate familiarity but fails at it. It only adds to the tension and puts the two in even more potential danger as their worst fears multiply in the silence.
What is even more sinister and disconcerting is that Will and Atra can't find respite in the human world any more than they can in the Otherside. I have often said that sometimes humans can be more frightening and more sinister than any supernatural creature and this book shows that.
Both Will and Atra have histories of abuse, loss, neglect, abandonment and so does the whole book.This book has parents experimenting on their own children, abusive family heads keeping a tight psychological grip on the rest of the family, people falling into poverty, despair, and desperation, victims becoming physically and mentally battered to the point of death, narcissistic guardians controlling their children for their own means, people betraying others out of avarice and ignorance, children being neglected and physically or psychologically abandoned by once trusted authority figures and family members, multiple incidents of gaslighting, physical, emotional, mental, and sexual abuse.
If nothing else, In The House of Root and Rot shows us that The Otherside might be filled with terrifying spirits and visions but the Human World is filled with the anxieties of everyday living. You don't need to read Book 1 to understand that.
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