Stars: 3 out of 5
I read the Something is Killing the Children comic books, and I was fascinated by the violent and gory world James Tynion IV created. It’s brutal and unforgiving, and our main character, Erica Slaughter, has to be just as brutal and unflinching. The comic books are truly the story of a monster hunting other monsters.
I was intrigued to see how a full-length novel would tackle this world and the character of Erica herself. And the answer is… eh, it’s fine, I guess.
Don’t get me wrong, all the ingredients of a good Something is Killing the Children are there – a small town down on its luck, with the typical small-town mentality and cliquishness. Everyone has skeletons in their closet. And yes, something is killing the children. And Erica is there to discover what it is, which child is causing it, and stop it once and for all.
The problem is that all of this has a lot less impact than the comics did. Yes, the ingredients are there, but the story itself feels half-baked. Like maybe the proportions were wrong, so the result looks like it should, but doesn’t quite taste right.
A lot of the plot points are a bit on the nose – the only rational and “good” family in town are people of color, and they are ostracized for it. The zealot priest with an almost cult-like following who turns out to be a sh!t human being in the end. His most devoted follower suddenly comes to Jesus and sees the error of her ways (not to mention how much of a scumbag the guy is) after worshiping the ground he walked on for most of the book. I mean, she literally turned from believing everything he said and deferring to him to actively opposing him in less than a chapter. As I said, a little bit too on the nose.
My biggest disappointment, though, is how Erica is portrayed in this book. In the comic books, she can be impulsive and brash, and she tends to run headfirst into danger, but she isn’t stupid. She has a pretty good head on her shoulders and good observation and deduction skills.
Here, she jumps to conclusions immediately after getting into town and seems to dismiss anything that would go against her initial theory. She literally can’t see the stuff that is staring her in the face. Seriously, I guessed who was summoning the monster almost from the first chapter she was introduced in, so why did the experienced monster hunter not pick up on all the clues faster?
Erica simply didn’t feel like the character from the comics. She felt more like a mimic wearing Erica Slaughter’s skin – she looked the part, but you couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease the more you read about her.
All in all, it was an okay story, but I would highly recommend starting with the comic books if you are unfamiliar with this universe.
PS: My thanks to NetGalley for my free copy.