Some of you who are reading this may remember the ‘80s, or
at least saw a few movies that visited this decade, one known particularly for
excess. The clothes had shoulder pads, the hair stretched to the heavens thanks
to innovations like Aqua Net, and, in the words of Wall Street’s Donald Trump template Gordon Gecko, greed was good.
People were wanting what the decade promised. Many also wanted something
different from their horror. This was reflected in the horror subgenre
splatterpunk. Splatterpunk, and its writers, was also never afraid to go big. Creaking
doors, buttoned-down spirits, and quietly disturbing scares, said splatterpunk
writers, weren’t going to cut it in this decade. These stories didn’t shy away
from the violence or the viscera. Stories were a loud as a heavy metal guitar
riff and as gory as a slaughterhouse floor before the cleanup crew. Critics of the genre say that splatterpunk was
loud but also dumb, sacrificing character for cruelty. Luckily, Preston Fassel,
in his ‘80s nostalgia trip of a novel Our Lady of the Inferno, creates a love letter to the 80’s, of its culture and
its horror, while telling a solid character-driven story.
The plot of this book is enough for make Joe Lansdale, he of
mummy-fighting retirement home residents, do a double take. Ginny Kurva is the
archetypal hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold, but also one who can kick your teeth
in. What she can’t take down with her karate skills are her various demons,
including her growing dependence on alcohol. Ginny attempting to overcome these
demons, even as she plays a parental figure to her sister and the fellow
working girls she protects, is just one narrative thread in this book. The
other belongs to Nicolette Aster, a waste plant supervisor whose power suits
and reserved, efficient demeanor has made her a well-trusted employee but hides
a madness she sates by capturing victims on the street then hunt them down in
the landfill she supervises, her own personal labyrinth. Fassel makes clear who
the hero and villain are in this novel. Ginny has a lot of great asides where
she comes off as both capable and compassionate, from tender moments with her
paraplegic sister, to trying to teach her working girls German and getting them
to enjoy book club. Nicolette begins the book as a well-respected employee who
is straining to contain her homicidal impulses to the point until her succumbing
to it is pretty much a given. It takes a bit to finally get these two women together
and have their fight to the death, but the reader does get a chance to know
both very well before their paths finally intersect. Not shying away from blood
in many of the book’s scenes, Fassel really shows off his affinity for epic
brutality in the final battle, enough so that the final scene pays homage to
splatterpunk’s blood-soaked roots.
One final character in both these women’s tales is the
setting, not only the city of New York they both inhabit but the decade. Fassel
shows a real flair for including details about the decade, from Flashdance to
the space launch of Sally Ride, even incorporating it into a tender moment in
the book. The Times Square of the ‘80s was known more for its seedy underbelly
rather than its shimmering lights. The dirty, dangerous, and exciting city
Fassel depicts is one that both characters belong in. Both Ginny and Nicolette
grow tougher in the jungle of Times Square in the ‘80s, but only one will be
able to walk away from it.
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