Review 38: The Three by Sarah Lotz

I don't generally read other reviews before I write my own, partly so that I don't bias my own, and partly so that I don't realise I've completely misinterpreted something and feel like Colonel Dummkopf, Grand Leader of the Shit-For-Brains. But a few negative reviews on Goodreads caught my eye, which I found surprising. I think The Three may have suffered for being classified as horror, when in fact it isn't - and if you opened it up expecting horror, I can understand your disappointment.

To be clear, there are definitely creepy and horrific moments in here. It's not a light-hearted whimsical romp for children, like Winnie The Pooh or The Shining. But this is more about a grimly-winding tension that gets more unsettling as it goes on, precisely because it refuses to give you the answers you want.

More than that, though, it's an exploration of the destructive power of belief. A freak event occurs - four planes go down on the same day, three of which each have a single child survivor (don't worry, this isn't a spoiler; you find out in the first few pages). Lotz then takes this premise and looks at how people will exploit tragedy to their own ends, and how opposing belief systems can spring up around anything we can't immediately explain.

Like a Trebor mint, it's surprisingly powerful. Following different threads, each of which has its own logic that twists and develops, we see the lengths people are willing to go to defend their beliefs, and those who believe along with them. This is the real strength of The Three.

Another is Lotz' ability to hop between different voices like a vocal frog. The book is pieced together from various different fictional newspaper accounts, blogs, interview transcripts etc., and each of them feels inhabited by real people. People have compared her to Stephen King and it's easy to see why - she has some of his compelling depth of characters, flawed and full.

I can't say I found the book completely satisfying, but I'm not sure it's meant to be. It's the unanswered questions that drive it. Enjoy the flight, rather than focusing on the crash.

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