Synopsis
Ruined by scandal, Dennis Lange is hoping for a comeback. Selling the story of a cursed tree could make his future—if it doesn’t kill him—in this monstrous short story from New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill.
Dennis awakens something evil when he removes a decades-old jackknife from the trunk of a gnarled old sycamore. Once pinned in place—now thoughtlessly freed—the tree returns to its roots. An act of vigilante justice took place under its boughs long ago. But its taste for blood has only grown stronger…
Joe Hill’s Jackknife is part of The Shivers, a collection of haunting stories that reveal the otherworldly terrors all around us. Once you know, there’s no going back. Read or listen to each story in one unsettling sitting.
Review
Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the audio arc of this. As a fan of most of the stories in the AO short story series Forward Collection and Creature Feature Collection, I was really interested to crack into this one.
This short follows Dennis, a rather detestable man. You see, he has been watching his world crumble. First getting caught being inappropriate with a student, his wife finding out, then the prospect of losing his career for his poor choices. The story doesn’t really follow someone you can root for, not even someone you can like. But also, I don’t really feel like it’s asking you to like him. I mean, he’s not even really remorseful, saying that he is being blamed for cheating and sleeping with a student when he never even got to…so yeah, that’s the kind of man he is.
But of course, people like that always seem the victim, and Dennis is looking for a comeback. While taking a walk, he removes an old jackknife without thought from an old tree he passes, and suddenly his world begins to shift…or is it the tree that’s shifting? Danger-moving-vengeful Sycamore trees have to make for marketable stories though, right?
Personally, I found this to be an okay story. The multiple threads set up with the student, her father finding out, Dennis’ wife, and the tree, felt like something that could have built into a pretty wild folklore-esque thriller third act. But with it being a short, and so short, it’s lacking all of that buildup in tension.
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