Synopsis:
Four ambitious climbers hike into the Kentucky wilderness. Seven months later, three mangled bodies are discovered. Were their deaths simple accidents or the result of something more sinister?
This is going to be Dylan’s big break. Her friend Clay, a geology student, has discovered an untouched cliff face in the Kentucky wilderness, and she is going to be the first person to climb it. Together with Clay, his research assistant Sylvia, and Dylan’s boyfriend Luke, she is going to document her achievement on Instagram and finally cement her place as the next rising star in rock climbing.
Seven months later, three bodies are discovered in the trees just off the highway. All are in various states of decay: one body a stark, white skeleton; the second emptied of its organs; and the third a mutilated corpse with the tongue, eyes, ears, and fingers removed.
Were the climbers murdered? Did they succumb to cannibalism? Or are their impossible bodies the work of an even more sinister force? Is Dylan still alive, and does she hold the answers?
Review:
Unlike The Lemonheads I never lied about not being the outdoor type, and This Wretched Valley is a perfect explanation as to why.
Without delving too far into a theory that could take up an entire PhD thesis, a trend I have noticed in recent years in horror is an influx in wilderness and survival horror. Don’t get me wrong, the story of a group of teenagers wandering too far away from the trodden path and finding much more than they bargained for is as old as the genre itself, but in a time period where the importance of remaining indoors vs outdoors has been entirely scrutinised, it does not surprise me that an urge to explore and reclaim the outdoors has led to some fresh and gnarly cautionary tales. This Wretched Valley fits straight into that category.
If rock-climbing in the wilderness sounds like a trip that is simply destined to go wrong, then you would be correct, and author Jenny Kiefer makes no qualms about this fact. The story opens with the discovery of three dead bodies found in different stages of decomposition, but undoubtedly all from the rock-climbing expedition. We are never left wondering ‘if’ something bad is going to happen to the group, in this scenario I think that is pretty obvious, but what Kiefer intelligently does is leave us searching for the ‘what’ and ‘when’.
Dread is crucial to the plot as it slowly builds up to its bloody finale. Kiefer uses well tested tropes such as a dog who knows something is wrong, and a reliance on technology that will inevitably fail the group. Everyone always has a way of rationalising what is happening, and at times I wished that the book would trust the reader a bit more. We are hit over the head with tropes like these, used to let us know that something is not right with the valley and the group should turn around, now. Of course, they do not.
Where I can forgive the constant reminders that something is wrong in the Kentucky wilderness is the nature of exactly that, what is wrong. It takes a while for the valley to truly reveal itself and its secrets, but from the very beginning it is characterised by disorientation and doubling. The valley feels like an endless loop that you are trapped within, replaying and repeating the same terrain over and over again. For me this was a very realistic way of creating doubt in the characters heads and preventing them from leaving. Overall, it felt like the group were reasonably logical with their decisions during the trip, and Kiefer uses this doubling and disorientation to this effect. The group are unfortunate prey caught in a mousetrap.
The highlight of the book for me, and what pulled me towards reading the book in the first place, was the rock-climbing. As I say, generally speaking I think we all kind of know what to expect from a horror book involving rock-climbing in the wilderness, and yet it is not actually something I have seen done before! Kiefer does a great job with the rock-climbing scenes, they were just as intense and exhilarating as I hoped they would be.
What I did not expect from the book however was just how bloody and violent it becomes. Maybe this is naïve on my part, considering the state in which the bodies are found in the first chapter, but I was genuinely shocked by the stark brutality of some of the action. I felt that this very much suited the story being told. The evil within This Wretched Valley is nondescript and undetermined; the valley itself feels hateful, but for no reason other than its own needs and pleasure. In a book built on man trying to once again assert its authority on the wilderness around them, This Wretched Valley is a story of re-establishing power dynamics, and of nature biting back.
God bless the great indoors
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