Anyone who has lived in or around West Virginia and who also loves cryptids has heard of the Mothman. Featured in The Mothman Prophecies and the star of a specific festival in the town of Point Pleasant, the Mothman is an interesting bit of folklore that blends aspects of Bigfoot, aliens, and general weirdness. He also features heavily in the novella Below by Laurel Hightower. Hightower, a Kentucky native, mines the Mothman legend for some scares, but the emotion behind it comes from a deeper place.
The book focuses on a young woman named Addy, who is traveling through the mountains of West Virginia during a snowstorm. Recently divorced, she’s all too aware of her nettling ex-husband’s voice in her head, one that tells her she’s not equipped to drive in this kind of weather. At a truck stop, she meets a trucker named Madds who offers to escort her in his truck. Unfortunately, his help isn’t enough to prevent them from getting into an accident, and so begins a night of weirdness and terror that has Addy getting lost in a cave as something pursues her, something with wings and glowing red eyes.
This book being a novella, Hightower doesn’t waste any time getting right to the action. She sets up the scene, introduces the readers to the characters, and then immediately throws them into danger. Fans of movies like The Descent will appreciate the claustrophobic horror Hightower employs, but there’s also a deeper vein of terror she mines through the characterization of Abby. Her married life has been totally dominated by her condescending ex-husband, and she is plagued with self-doubt about her ability to survive. That is what she’s most at war with as she struggles to once again see the sky, and this also sets up an ending that will leave readers, especially ones who’ve encountered toxic relationships or have been made to feel “less than,” a lot to think about.
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